Deep inside of even the straightest democrat seems to live a small royalist. How can it be explained otherways that extraordinary beautiful species of ornamental fish so often get royal popular names? The first Neolamprologus with a lunate tail fin with long filaments was imported around 1958. It very soon was called the "Princess of Burundi".

 

The Princess is a very recommendable aquarium fish. The species stays small (maximum length around 10 cm), is comparably peaceful, does not destroy plants and displays a fantastic type of broodcare. The parents (both are involved) defend mainly the territory. If young fish survive they stay for quite a long time inside their parents´ territory. These youngster help to take care for their younger siblings. It is a fascinating look to observe such a school of fish of different ages.

 

There was some confusion about the correct scientific name of the species. In fact, three closely related species were known at the time from Lake Tanganyika: Neolamprologus savoryi, N. brichardi, and N. pulcher. They are so closely related that they were described only as subspecies of N. savoryi initially. Today we know that there does a good number of additional, similar species exists. The Princesses with a high degree of yellow colour belong to the species Neolaprologus pulcher. They can be quite easy told apart from the in all other respects extremely similar species N. brichardi by a broad yellow stripe under the eye. The high degree of yellow colour led to the additional popular name "daffodil" for that species.

 

Currently we have very nice German bred Neolamprologus pulcher in stock. In the wild, this species is restricted to a comparatively small area in the extreme south of Lake Tanganyika. The type locality is Kasanga on the southeastern coast, the place belongs to Tanzania.

 

For our customers: the fish have code 555303 on our stock list. Please note that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade

 

Text & photos: Frank Schäfer