Altolamprologus Compressiceps are definately one of my most favorite speicies of Tanganyikan introduced into the hobby. This speicies consisting of several differant color varieties has a very interesting and quite unique body shape. The differant color varieties consisting of the orange, yellow, redfin, and probably the most popular the gold face. Found throughout the rocky coastal waters of Lake Tanganyika. They seem to adapt to life in the aquaria quite well. They seem to take to frozen brine shrimp and eventually to a good quality flake food as well.

I chose the red fin variety to attemp to spawn first. I purchased them as wild caught adults. Normally I like to grow my breeders up from fry. But it takes so long for these fish to grow and reach sexual maturity. I had the oppurtunity to obtain 2 males and 4 females. I placed them in a 50 gallon breeder aquarium. With them I made a couple large rock formations. No gravel, 2 large bubble up filters and a heater. Then I placed 3 breeding caves made of a clay pot type material. I also placed in 3-4 shells. I set the water temp. at 80 degrees. The Ph was about 8 ppm. My males reaching an average size of approximately 4 inches and the females 2.5-3 inches. With this considerable differance in size the female finds a shell or a cave she can fit into. Yet with an opening small enough to keep the male out away from the fry. With average sized spawns of 60 - 90 babys. The breeding seemed to happen quite quickly. It wasn't quite that simple to keep the fry alive for the first couple of weeks.

I would not suggest these as a fish for beginners. First of all they are very expensive. Also wild caught adults can be a little tricky to get eating at first. If you have an interest in Tanganyikans then it is only a matter of time before these are a must have.