Congo coptodon

Care at a glance

Overview

This is a river tilapia for a spacious African biotope tank, kept as a single fish or a pair. It reaches around 25 centimeters and swims through the middle water, browsing plant matter and small foods, so its diet should lean toward greens, vegetable pellet, and spirulina with some frozen food mixed in, or it will graze any soft plants you add. It is fairly peaceful for its size but needs room, so choose sturdy tankmates such as other Congo cichlids or synodontis catfish and keep the group uncrowded. Give it a robust tank of at least 400 liters with open water, wood, and rock.

In the wild

Coptodon congica lives in the channels and quieter pools of the middle Congo River. The water is warm and soft to neutral, so keep the pH between 6 and 7.5 and the temperature on the warm side, around 25 to 30 C. It is not a fussy fish about decor, but it appreciates room to swim, a sand or fine gravel floor, and some driftwood and rock to break up the space and offer flat surfaces where a pair might spawn.

Good to know

Coptodon congica is a Congo tilapia in the family Cichlidae, reaching about 25 centimeters, and was long known as Tilapia congica. Unlike the many African cichlids that brood young in the mouth, it is a substrate spawner: a pair lays eggs on a cleaned surface and both parents guard the eggs and fry. It is not often bred in aquariums, and reliable spawning is considered difficult.

Did you know

Many people picture tilapias as mouthbrooders, carrying their young inside the mouth. Coptodon never adopted that habit. A pair guards its eggs out in the open on a stone or cleaned surface, closer to the way New World cichlids raise a brood.

Common questions

Related species

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• 

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