The African Princefish is a very popular fish among aquarists. If you don’t know much about this fish, please consult us through this article
What is the African Prince Fish?
Buttikoferi Cichlid, also known as Buttikoferi Cichlid, lives in the river systems of West Africa. The distinctive feature of this fish is the black and white stripes running from the back to the belly of the fish. When young, they live quite peacefully, but as adults, the African Princefish has a strong territorial behavior.
They are native to Lake Malawi, between the islands of Charo and Mbowe. First known to aquarists in Burundi in the 1980s, and exported to other countries. They are sometimes confused with those of Lake Tanganyika.
Characteristics of the African prince fish
The T. buttikoferi unicorn has 8 vertical stripes on a gray base, with another stripe crossing the eyes. The throat of this species is also black. I have seen photos of some individuals with blue or purple stripes similar to later color variants of Cyphotilapia frontosa. Female unicorns have rounder fins and are slightly smaller than male unicorns. Adult males also have humpback whales.
The species was described by Hubrecht in 1881 and is native to West Africa, more precisely from Guinea-Bissau (the Geba and Corubal rivers) to Liberia (the Saint John river). Compared to T. joka, unicorn buttikoferi is larger; in fact, the fish I saw at the Monaco Aquarium were around 65cm. Don’t be surprised if they have a very long lifespan as I recently read that a large one person unicorn lived to be over 14 years old.
What do African prince fish eat?
Buttikoferi Cichlid fish food should include both meat and plants. such as sea shrimp, earthworms, nematodes. Or some kinds of self-mixed food when mashed meat, vegetables and necessary micronutrients, to be frozen, eaten gradually. They can also eat almost any dry food available in the market.
How to Breed African Prince Fish
An ideal aquarium for African Prince fish with a capacity of 70 gallons or more, with plenty of gravel to create its own territory, aquatic plants must be strong to grow in the tank. This fish is also very aggressive towards individuals smaller than it, so you should choose fish of similar size when putting them in the same tank.
Currently, the African Prince Fish – Unicorn has been successfully bred in captivity on farms. They dig holes in the sand to form a place to lay their eggs and become very aggressive during spawning.
African prince fish price
The current African Prince fish averages 150k-200k / 1 pair depending on size. For small size African Prince fish about 60-80K/1 fish
