FAMULA
                                                                                                          AGRESSION
                                                                                                    A WOLF IN SHEEP’S
                                                                                                          CLOTHING
                                                                                            Frank Schulterbrandt  10/18/2009

 

       Who said that Famula was a good beginners fish for someone who wanted to start working with petrochromis. Sorry it was me…
Well Famula for the most part are a good beginners petro to start off with, but some of the Famula are “Wolves  In Sheep’s Clothing”.
Don’t be fooled, Famula can be just as deadly as other petrochromis variants.  I have WC Famula Texas Tembwe in my 240 gallon tank,
Pond Raised  Kaiser Famula in a 55 gallon tank (now moved to a larger tank) and Nyanza-Lac (orange Fin Silver Streak) juvies in a 40 gallon breeder tank.

       My first look at petrochromis aggression was watching my Texas Tembwe Famula in lip locks , doing all kinds of flips and
other crazy things. I thought I was watching WWF wrestling. I had to tap on the glass to break up this love match. They were at it
in another 20 minutes. Again I tapped  on the glass to break up this love match.

      My second look was at the pond raised Kaiser Famula where I found one dead male 2 days after placing them in their tank.
Since then there have been no additional casualties. As a matter of fact I have seen two females holding. So these guys at least for now
are not a real problem. I do not advocate the use of tanks less than 5 feet for housing petrochromis. In this case I reluctantly dumped them
into a 55 gallon tank.  I did not want to mix up Famula types by adding the 12 Famula Kaiser in the 240 gallon tank where the Texas Tembwe
were. I have since moved the Famula Kaiser to a larger tank.

     My third look at Famula aggression was watching a magical disappearing act. I placed 11 tank raised Nyanza-Lac (Orange Fin Silver Streak)
Famula juvies in a 40 gallon breeder tank. I thought this 40 gallon breeder tank was going to be a grow out tank, wrong. On the 3rd day there
were 10 juvies left. On the 6 day 8 juvies were left and on the 7th day there were 7 juvies.  So I did not act fast enough in fixing this problem.
These guys were killing each other and they were only 1.75 to 2.0 inches, killers at birth ??? . I did not know what to do in this situation.
Where would I put these guys? This is like a problem I had when I had a whole spawn of Lepidiolamprologus Nkambae. When the Nkambae
got to be 2 inches long they started killing each other.

 

   Ok so there were 5 babies in the 55 gallon tank when I took out the 11 PR Famula Kaiser. I put the Famula Kaiser in a 150 gallon tank which already had 13 WC Red Dorsal Rainbows (Macro) and a pair of WC Rainbow Kasumbe. To my surprise the alpha Famula Kaiser staked out his territory in a matter of 15 minutes. He was taking on Some of the smaller Red Dorsal Rainbows (WOW) ….  He would only relinquish his territory when the 6.0 +  inch Rainbows chased him out of the area. These guys are some tough customers. I wonder can they hold an area to breed with these Red Dorsal Rainbows in the tank ? Only time will tell. Well after 2 weeks that alpha Kaiser male has chased all away from his turf and there
are at least two females holding. I witnessed the Famula Kaiser spawning for the first time. The Famula Kaiser chases all away he now controls
that end of the tank. The alpha Famula is only 1/4 the size of the largest Red Dorsal Rainbow. It is amazing how fearless he is in chasing the
the Red Dorsals away.

 
    With all this being said, Famula are still the second best petro that you can have as a beginner besides having Trewavasae.
Good luck, and with all petros you always have to keep a lookout for conflicts that lead to the wounded fish.