Diagramma cichlid

Care at a glance

Overview

This is a large, pushy algae grazer, best thought of as a heavyweight cousin of the tropheus cichlids, and in most tanks it is kept as a single dominant fish rather than a group. It ranges through the middle and lower water over rock, nibbling almost constantly. It is aggressive and territorial, so choose companions carefully: only robust, fast Tanganyikans that can take the pressure, and expect it to rule the tank. Feed a vegetable-based diet, spirulina flake and pellets and blanched greens, and go easy on protein, since like other aufwuchs grazers it is prone to bloat on rich, meaty food. Give it a tank of at least 300 liters built up with plenty of rock.

In the wild

Simochromis diagramma grazes the rocky, turbulent shallows of Lake Tanganyika, usually in the top few meters where wave action keeps the algae mats growing. Give it a sunlit tank with heavy rockwork it can rasp algae from, and hard, alkaline water like the lake: around 24 to 27 C at a pH from 7.5 to 9. Bright light encourages the algae film these fish are built to eat.

Good to know

A cichlid of the family Cichlidae, this snub-nosed grazer reaches about 19.5 centimeters and, like its tropheus relatives, feeds by rasping the algae film, or aufwuchs, off rocks. As a maternal mouthbrooder, the female holds a small clutch of large eggs in her mouth and releases well-developed fry. Given a settled dominant female, breeding is a moderate undertaking rather than a hard one.

Did you know

It makes its living in the surf zone, grazing algae-covered rocks right where the waves break hardest, a herbivore working in the lake's roughest, most turbulent water.

Common questions

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