Kenyi Cichlid (Maylandia lombardoi) Breeding Guide

Breeding the Kenyi Maylandia lombardoi: reverse dichromatism sexing (yellow males, blue females), harem setup, mouthbrooding and rearing the free-swimming fry.

Overview

Maylandia lombardoi, the Kenyi, is a highly aggressive mbuna from Lake Malawi and, like most mbuna, a maternal mouthbrooder. It is notable for its reverse sexual dichromatism, in which the dominant males are yellow and the females retain the juvenile blue pattern.

Sexing

Sexing is based on this reverse colour pattern: dominant mature males turn bright yellow with faint brown bars and egg spots on the anal fin, while females and juvenile males are pale white-blue with several blue-black vertical bands extending into the dorsal fin. Subdominant males may keep the female blue colour, so colour alone is not absolute.

Conditioning

Bring the females into condition with good feeding while holding the water stable and alkaline at a pH of about 8.0-8.5 and a temperature near 25-27 degrees Celsius (77-80 degrees Fahrenheit).

Breeding Setup

A tank of around 120 by 38 cm (a 48 by 15 inch aquarium) is an adequate size. Keep a single male with several females in a harem and furnish the tank with areas of open sand and flat rock surfaces to act as spawning sites.

Spawning Behavior & Trigger

The male can be quite aggressive in his pursuits, which is the reason for the single-male harem. The female lays her eggs and takes them into her mouth, where they are fertilised by the male's anal-fin egg spots. While mouthbrooding, a female may defend a small territory and even assume the yellow colouration of males.

Egg & Fry Care

The female carries the eggs for around three weeks before releasing the free-swimming fry. The fry will accept newly hatched brine shrimp or microworm immediately after they become free-swimming.

Common Challenges

If a holding female is overly stressed she may spit out the brood prematurely or eat the eggs, so she should be left undisturbed. The species' strong aggression makes adequate tank size and a proper harem essential, and only one male per species should be kept to manage fighting. Because subdominant males adopt the female blue colour, an aquarist building a harem can be misled into pairing two males, so confirming sex by the yellow dominant colour and the presence of anal-fin egg spots is important before committing a group to breeding.