The habitat of a blue dolphin - an aquarium fish from the family of cichlids - is a shallow African sandy lake of Malawi. In Europe, a blue dolphin was brought in the middle of the last century. Named this fish because of the external similarity of her head and mouth with a real dolphin.
Appearance of a blue dolphin
The body of the cichlid blue dolphin is high, elongated and oblate at the sides. The fish has a large head, thick lips and large eyes. Ventrals and pectoral fins are short, and dorsal - long. An adult male has a large fatty growth on his forehead.
Coloring of young individuals is different from adults. At youth it is silvery-blue, with dark strips on the sides. Adult blue dolphins have a beautiful velvety-blue color. During the spawning period in the male, the forehead turns yellow, and on the sides appear dark-blue bands. In fry the anal fin has a yellow-orange color, but after a few months this color disappears. In the aquarium, the blue dolphin can survive long enough - up to 15 years.
The conditions of the blue dolphin
The blue dolphin is a peace-loving fish and even a little shy. It is kept most often in the middle and lower layers of the aquarium. Since the blue dolphin is a territorial aquarium fish, the optimal variant is its content in the species aquarium, in which the ratio of 1 male to 2 females or 2 males to 3 females is observed.
Containing a blue dolphin is not difficult even for an inexperienced aquarist. The reservoir for these fish should be 150 liters or more. Decorate it can be a variety of shelters: driftwood, grottoes, stone structures. Plants in the aquarium must have hard leaves and good roots, since otherwise the dolphins will plant the plants out of the ground. You can plant aquarium plants in pots. Primer is better covered with sand or pebble. In the aquarium should be enough free space for swimming fish.
The temperature of the aquarium water for keeping the blue dolphin should be within 24-28 ° C. The optimum water hardness is 5-20 °, and the pH is between 7.2 and 8.5. The aquarium must be provided with good filtration and aeration. Water in the tank should be changed once a week for 40% of the total volume of the aquarium.
Cichlid blue dolphin unpretentious in feeding: can eat and live food (daphnia, artemia, bloodworm), and vegetable (spirulina) and various substitutes.
Breeding of the blue dolphin
Approximately one and a half years the blue dolphin reaches sexual maturity. Spawning in these fish is paired. To do this, it is best to have a special spawning.
During spawning the female becomes very shy, sometimes can frighten off her offspring from fright. Male, on the contrary, is very aggressive at this time. The female lays eggs in a pit, which the male pulls out in advance, although it can spawn and clean a flat stone. Females fertilized with male caviar are carried in the mouth for three weeks. At this time, she is very thin, because she does not eat anything.
About seven days after the fry hatch, they can already swim on their own
Blue dolphin - compatibility with other fish
Although blue dolphins and peace-loving fish, but it is best to keep them in a separate aquarium, as they, like all cichlids, can eat small-sized fish. However, if you want to settle them in a common reservoir, they get along well with other Malawians, fronts, barbs and African catfishes, for example, with veile synodontis.