rm
Passport
- Family
- African Cichlids
- Grows to
- 7.5 cm (3")
- Lives
- 8–10 years
- Temperament
- Aggressive
- Care
- Intermediate
- Swims
- Mid-water
- Keep
- In a group of 12 or more
- Water
- 24–28 °C (75–82 °F)
Tanzania
Care requirements
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On record for Demasoni Cichlid: adult size, lifespan, minimum tank, temperature, ph, hardness, minimum group, diet, care level, swim level, tank length.
A figure that is not on record is left out rather than guessed. One marked Suggested comes from keeping knowledge rather than a page.
- Minimum tank 200 L / 52.8 US gal
- pH 7.6–8.8
- Hardness 10–25 dGH
- Diet herbivore
- Tank length 120 cm minimum
Keeping notes
The fiercest of the three, and it takes a dozen or more to spread the fighting; four is a mob with one victim. Crowd the tank, stack rock to the surface, run a big filter and change water weekly, and keep it with mbuna only.
Care notes written from general aquarium knowledge, not from the cited sources.
About
Demasoni are small, stunning and genuinely difficult. Vertical black and electric blue bars run the length of a fish that stays modest in size, and it is one of the most striking patterns in fresh water.
The problem is what they do to each other. Demasoni are ferociously aggressive toward their own kind — far more so than toward other species — and a small group will reduce itself to one survivor with total reliability.
The counterintuitive solution is numbers. Keepers who succeed with them run large groups, so that aggression spreads across many fish and no individual can be singled out and pursued for long. No minimum group size is recorded for this species in the data behind this page; what is clear is that small groups are where it goes wrong.
Tank setup
Keep a large group or don't keep them at all. This is the whole species in one sentence, and buying three or four is the standard mistake.
Give them hard, alkaline, mineral-rich water. They're Lake Malawi mbuna and soft acidic water is unsuitable in the long term.
Build a rock maze. Piles of stone full of caves, passages and dead ends break up sightlines and give a harassed fish somewhere to disappear, which is the physical half of managing their aggression.
Rest rockwork on the base glass. They dig, and a stack sitting on sand will eventually collapse.
Don't mix them with similar-looking barred mbuna. Demasoni will attack anything they mistake for a rival.
Feeding
Demasoni graze algae from rock in the wild and are essentially herbivorous.
Feed a vegetable-based cichlid pellet or spirulina flake as the staple, and treat protein as an occasional extra.
Feed small amounts more often. A well-fed fish is a marginally calmer one, and spreading feeding out reduces the flashpoints.
Avoid: protein-rich foods like bloodworm as the everyday staple — they suit a grazing gut badly. In this species there is a second cost to illness of any kind: a fish that weakens is immediately targeted by the others.
Filtration and flow
Filter heavily. A large group in one tank is a serious bioload and there's no way around it.
Change water generously and often. It will not settle what ails a sick fish, but a clean tank is one less thing working against it.
With plants
Demasoni will graze and uproot almost anything. They're herbivores that dig.
Anubias and java fern tied firmly to rock are the only reliable options, and even those get grazed.
A rock and sand layout is the honest answer and it suits both the fish and the look of a Malawi tank.
Health
They're hardy fish kept badly by most people, and nearly every problem is social rather than medical.
Bloat is the one to watch: a fish off its food, hanging in a corner, passing white stringy waste and swelling. The cause is not settled — infection and husbandry are both implicated — so read it as a reason to look properly rather than as an answer.
Check for a fish with damaged fins hiding permanently. In this species that fish will not recover on its own — it needs either removing or a much larger group around it to dilute the attention.
Breeding
They're mouthbrooders and they breed readily, which adds another pressure to an already tense tank.
The female takes the eggs into her mouth, collects milt from the male to fertilise them, and holds the brood for around three weeks without eating. She'll be hollow-flanked and throat-swollen while carrying.
Move a holding female to her own tank if you want the fry, and for her sake as much as theirs — a carrying female in a demasoni group is weak, unable to feed, and a target. Released fry are large enough for crushed flake straight away.
Tank mates
Avoid82
- Agassiz's Dwarf Cichlid Demasoni Cichlid is not safe with Agassiz's Dwarf Cichlid: african cichlids and sth american cichlids - dwarf are a bad pairing.
- Amano Shrimp Demasoni Cichlid is not safe with Amano Shrimp: african cichlids and shrimp and yabbies are a bad pairing.
- Angelfish Demasoni Cichlid is not safe with Angelfish: african cichlids and angelfish are a bad pairing.
- Assassin Snail Demasoni Cichlid is not safe with Assassin Snail: african cichlids and snails are a bad pairing.
- Bala Shark Demasoni Cichlid is not safe with Bala Shark: african cichlids and sharks are a bad pairing.
Only with care24
- Convict Cichlid Convict Cichlid is noticeably larger than Demasoni Cichlid and may bully it or outcompete it at feeding time.
- Jewel Cichlid Jewel Cichlid is noticeably larger than Demasoni Cichlid and may bully it or outcompete it at feeding time.
- Kribensis Demasoni Cichlid is aggressive and Kribensis is peaceful.
- Least Killifish Demasoni Cichlid is aggressive and Least Killifish is peaceful.
- Panda Garra Demasoni Cichlid is aggressive and Panda Garra is peaceful.
No conflict recorded1
1 species is not covered at all, so they could not be judged either way.