Aristochromis Christyi

Aristochromis Christyi

For many years I have been keeping and breeding Malawi Cichlids, my favourite one being the Aristochromis Christyi or commonly known as the "Malawi Hawk or Aristocratic Hap".

I was first introduced to these most aristocratic looking fish around 2004 while I was updating my website. I saw various pictures of the males in breeding colours and just had to have some. At that time they were available from a small selection of aquatic retailers and so I purchased myself a group of nine young around an inch in length. I had already re-homed my current Mbuna stock and set up my 7ft tank to suit my new group as Mbuna are the favorite food of Aristochromis Christyi.

These predatory Malawi Haps are nothing like what I was expecting, they grow very fast and shoal together in a group, the males and females are identical in every way when young. One thing I have learnt about Aristochromis Christyi is that they are a very timid fish, they are easily startled even to the point of jumping out of the tank so if you want to keep these stunning Haps then I would advice not to suddenly turn out any lights and always make sure the top of the tank has good fitting condensation trays and a solid lid as they will jump, more on that later.

My group of nine were growing fast and still living in a shoal together. Around seven months later I noticed a couple of the smaller of the group developing a lovely blue colouring on their flanks and as time went by one of the smaller ones at about 4-5 inches in length suddenly burst into colour, bright blue head, flanks and red fins, he was stunning. The other smaller one of the group that were starting to show some blue still showed blue but it never developed any further. As for the larger of the group they all stayed the same silver colour as they were when they were young.

Before I knew it I noticed two of the larger Aristochromis Christyi holding eggs. I can only conclude from my own experience that the females were the larger of the group and the smaller were males. By this time the dominant male was in full colour and making friends with all the females. Even though he was the dominant male there was never any fighting amongst the group, they all seemed to know their place and live well together.

I now had set up breeding tanks for the expecting females and moved them out. The rest of the group were all growing well so I decided to thin them out and just keep two males and the two holding females. Once the females had released I placed them back in the main tank and left all their fry together, this is when I first noticed them jumping. I would go in to the room and find them on the floor around the fry tanks. I carefully picked them up and placed them back in the tank but had no idea what was going on.

One night I turned off the lights on the tank then the room lights and just stood and waited. Then it began, lots of splashing and tapping, I realised that they were startled that bad by the lights going off that they jumped with shock. Luckily I saved the majority of them (around 30 young) and from that night on made sure that the top of the tank was very well secured and left a small night light on which seemed to work.

Then a few weeks later tragedy struck and I lost my dominant male, he had somehow damaged his body and I just could not heal him, I was heart broken. The second male tried to colour up and impress the two females but they showed no interest in him at all and never bred again, it seems that Aristochromis Christyi are hard to pair up once they loose their mate. At this point with the loss of my breeding male and a change in circumstances I closed down my tanks and re-homed my fish.

Years later in 2012 I decided that I wanted to go back to keeping Aristochromis Christyi and so my such began. I found a group of seven young that had been imported as there was non available anywhere in the UK when I began my search. My group grew very well but unfortunately they all turned out to be females and so I re-homed all but one in 2014. It is now 2015 and I still have that female, she is around 7-8 inches and seems very healthy. As she has been on her own for quite some time I have spent the last few months trying to find her a mate.

While she has been on her own I have tried her on different foods as she seemed to loose her appetite. Although she only seems to want to eat every couple of days she is healthy and not at all thin. She likes raw tiger prawns and Hikari Carnivore Food Sticks. I also offer her de-frosted lance fish but she shows no interest in that at all even when holding it in the tank with large tweezers and making it wiggle. It is well known that these fish are predatory hunters which might explain why she does not need feeding every day or that might just be down to the fact that she is lonely.

So it seems that Aristochromis Christyi are not aggressive at all, infact they are quite timid. They do prefer the company of other large haps especially their own kind and definately do better in a group. I am growing on four young in the hope of one day pairing her up with a mate however I have just heard that a large male might be available just her size so fingers crossed my old girl will not have to wait much longer.

2016 Update: I have now managed to purchase two male Aristochromis after searching for many months. Hopefully my females will take a fancy to them soon and provide me with some young. I now have my original female, the two males which are around 6-7 inches and one of the young group of four which is a female so I now have two pairs so fingers crossed. Updates can be found on my website at,  www.malawicichlids.co.uk