Cyphotilapia is a cichlid genus found only in Lake Tanganyika. It is highly sought after fish for cichlid keepers. This is primarily due to large size of 10-12 inches for males, the colors of blue, purple and/or white with black bars or stripes, the calm demeanor and nuchal protrusion or hump. Cyphotilapia is no longer a monotypic genus. Today what we used to know as the Kigoma morph or seven striper is consid ered the only member of Cyphotilapia frontosa. What hap pened to all the other fronts? Fronts was a name of affection given to these beautiful cichlids. While the name fronts will probably stick around for a time, the only easy identifying characteristic is seven stripes. The scientists found other morphologic characteristics and seven stripes is not the defining morphologic characteristic that leaves Cyphotilapia from Kigoma as fronts and the remaining fronts as just misnamed fish. My knowledge is second hand, according to scientific description there is a difference in scale count between Cyphotilapia frontosa and Cyphotilapia gibberosa.
     Cyphotilapia gibberosa is the new species name given to Cyphotilapia with high bodies and more numerous scales to cover the high body compared to Cyphotilapia frontosa. Blue fronts (misnomer) is the name most cichlid keepers use when referring to Cyphotilapia gibberosa. This Cyphotilapia with blue on head, dorsal, anal and caudal fins, as well as space between black bars that is white in Cyphotilapia frontosa or Cyphotilapia sp. "North" is considered by many to be the most beautiful Cyphotilapia. Also when Cyphotilapia gibberosa can also be identified by the high price charged for these fish. The price is high for two reasons, supply and demand. Cyphotilapia gibberosa are found along the coast of Zambia and Congo. The supply is low for those found on Congo coast. War has lead to Lake Tanganyika fish collectors avoiding the Congo coastline for many years. When a collector is after Cyphotilapia gibbersoa, a boat may need to anchor and wait three days to decompress the collected Cyphotilapia. Cyphotilapia gibberosa often live at depths of greater than 70 feet. An exception is Cyphotilapia gibberosa from Mpimbwe Zambia. At Mpimbwe, the fish do not live so deep. Captured fish at deeps of 70 feet that are rushed to the surface die of gas embolism within blood stream. The fish must undergo decompression or escape of gas from blood stream. This process requires three days. For those collectors that do venture along the Congo shore, captured Cyphotilapia are sold for hundreds of dollars each. This brings us to demand. It seems cichlid keepers prefer blue and black fish vs white and black fish. This pushes up demand. The other factor pushing up demand is "morism". Morism is the trait of wanting more of every thing. When confined to cichlids, it amounts to wanting to keep more cichlids but it also includes wanting to keep what no one else keeps and what no one else can get.
     There is a third species of Cyphotilapia. It is Cyphotilapia sp. "North". These Cyphotilapia have bodies that are intermediate and thus an intermediate scale count between Cyphotilapia frontosa and Cyphotilapia gibberosa. There are probably many other morphologic characteristics but for now my information is second hand. Aquarists mostly easily identify Cyphotilapia sp. "North" as Cyphotilapia with white bars offsetting the black bars where as Cyphotilapia gibberosa have blue bars offsetting the black bars. Another identifier for cichlid keepers is the bar that crosses the eye. This bar in Cyphotilapia sp. "North" is just that a bar. However, in Cyphotilapia gibberosa the black area on face resembles a mask more than a bar. This black mask has lead some to refer to C. gibberosa as five bar frontosa (misnomer). Cyphotilapia sp. "North" are found along coast of Burundi primarily. These fish have been in the hobby for many years, are plentiful and relatively low priced.
     In general Cyphotilapia are peaceful aquarium residents; however, those from Mpimbwe are said to be quite aggressive. It may be that most of these are wild caught (F0) or first generation (Fl) fish and with succeeding generations, they will become peaceful aquarium residents. Ad Konings presentation to Minnesota Aquarium Society, June 2000, revealed that Cyphotilapia are piscivores. Their diet is mainly Cyprichromis. But how do lethargic Cyphotilapia catch and ingest the quick darting Cyprichromis? It is thought Cyphotilapia remain "awake" longer than other cichlids. African cichlids become inert, as if they are "sleeping" during darkness. It is during "sleep" that Cyprichromis are consumed. Ad further described the breeding activity of Cyphotilapia as a male depositing milt, then a female laying an egg within the milt. The female swims backwards picking the egg up in her mouth, she then repeats the process. This is sharp contrast to other African mouth brooding cichlids, which deposit an egg then fertilize it with milt either as the egg lays in the breeding area or after the female picks the egg up. In nature, Cyphotilapia live in loose schools where each fish behaves as an individual rather than a school member.
     My colony of Cyphotilapia had ancestors from Burundi shoreline. Cyphotilapia eyes are black, thus the eye is afforded some camouflage lying hidden within a black bar or mask. Often as I study my Cyphotilapia, I am surprised to find they are observing me. Their black bars lie on a field of white bearing a bluish tinge. The blue deepens in the dorsal, caudal, anal and pectoral fins when the mood strikes the Burundi Cyphotilapia. Courting fish are sure to deepen and intensify blues and/or purples. The most striking feature is the nuchal hump seen on the forehead of males and large females. It is this anatomical feature, which gave Cyphotilapia their species name "frontosa" when the fish were a monotypic genus. It is not hard to imagine that large Cyphotilapia are "frowning" when looking at their mouth. Combining a forehead hump and a frown would result in an ugly fish but this fish are not ugly. I started with six juveniles 1-2 inches long. Inexperience resulted in a Neolamprologus christyi male dispatching two of the six. Another was lost at some point. Three fish grew to breeding size. Normally, Cyphotilapia sp. "North" or at least mine were quite lethargic. Eventually the middle-sized fish lost some scales, likely due to larger fish mild attacks. The smallest fish spent most of the time hiding in the rocks. They did not care for flake food but ate marine pellets with gusto. After a fishing trip I came home with night crawlers that I froze. I chopped the worms and fed them to the fronts occasionally for the next few months. I left town for three weeks and instructed that all fish were to receive only spirulina flake for this time. Upon return home, we found four free-swimming frontosa fry amongst the rocks. Also in this 75 gallon tank were breeding Neolamprologus cylindricus. The fry were removed from the tank. Once crawlers become available again, I fed live ones to my Cyphotilapia, which they relished. Weeks later, the female was holding eggs in her mouth again. This time I stripped the fry after two weeks. There were twenty plus fry with yolk sacs attached. The third time the female was holding eggs; it was closer to three weeks before I stripped the fry. There were only eight fry with no egg sacs. The last time she spawned, fry were stripped after two weeks resulting in 25 fish with yolk sacs attached. It is known that as females incubate the fry they will swallow eggs and or fry. Stripping these fish will increase the number of fry and that is an option. My female will chase after food in tank but to date have not seen her attempt to suck in food as the remaining colony dines. The fish have spawned alone as a single pair, with other fish in the tank and with larger juveniles added back to parents tank. They have spawned in 55 and 75 gallon tanks with gravel and with bare bottom. However, there are always rock formations for the female to hide amongst. The male will move as much gravel to the front of the tank as possible. I am not sure if he is attempting to create a breeding pit or likes privacy. It was my privilege to watch the fish spawn. The male lays down milt in a space between two rocks with an overhanging rock and then backs out. The male is backing up as the milt is laid down. The female laid eggs within the milt and then backed up to pick up the eggs to begin mouth brooding. The process is repeated numerous times. To my knowledge no other cichlid mouth brooder uses this backward motion to find and pick up eggs. This colony is quite shy and would dash to hide outs long after they should have come to accept me as their keeper. Eventually they did and there is no longer mad dashing about tank unless a visitor comes by. It seems the addition of large juveniles to the tank, resulted in calming the male. He no longer chases the female into hiding. He always allows the juveniles to eat first, which he never did when kept with his mate alone. It would be interesting to know if the parents recognize the juveniles as their offspring.