P. socolofi

Pseudotropheus socolofi

Common Name: Eduardi, Eduard's Mbuna, Pindanni, Powder Blue Cichlid

Synonyms: Pseudotropheus pindanni, Pseudotropheus eduardi, Aseudotropheus socolofi

Family: Cichlidae

Meaning of Name: Pseudo = false, Tropheus is a genus from Lake Tanganyika. Socolof refers to Florida fish-farmer Ross Socolof

Habitat: Lake Malawi along the Mozambique shore from Tumbi Point to Cóbuè. It was introduced to Thumbi Island and Otter Islands for collecting convenience but these spots never took hold and those populations are presumed to no longer be there.

Description: The fish is basically a bright powder blue fish with a black submarginal band in the dorsal, with black also in the caudal, pelvic and anal fins. There is no difference in the males and the females colouration. They do have egg spots including the females. I do find that the males are brighter coloured though. Some females almost appear grey. However the populations of socolofi at Cóbuè and Mbweca do not have the black in the dorsal fins.

Size: In the lake is 7 cm or 3 inches and tank raised specimens can reach 16 cm or 6.3 inches basically doubling the size. It should be kept at 77-82F

Food: In the wild it picks the algae from the biocover on the rocks. In the aquarium this fish will eat everything offered to it.

These fish were originally owned by my parents. They were raised in a 33g tank along with some Pseudotropheus acei and Melanochromis johanni. Five fry eventually turned into 1 female and four males. However since this was such a small tank three of the males got killed in this tank over a period of three months. The female did carry to term several times in this tank. We even had a single solitary survivor who lived in a pile of small rocks. He is currently in one of my fry tanks. My father wanted some less aggressive fish so I sold most of his fish at auctions and kept the socolofi pair myself. I put them into my 200g tank. This tank has a pH of 8 and a temperature of about 78F. There is a sand substrate and lots of broken pieces of pottery, pots, and shells in this tank as decoration. There are no plants as there is no light above the tank. It gets room light and light from a nearby window. It was actually odd to see such a dominant fish actually go down a few pegs in the tank. He eventually found a niche in the tank somewhere near the top of the dominance structure. Within a week of being in the tank; the female was already holding. Eighteen days later I stripped 15 fry from her and placed them in a 20g tank with some S. fryeri fry that are a few weeks older. I also added more fryeri fry that were done a week later. I did not lose any of the fry which are growing very well and showing their blue colours already.