The BIG Lips Experiment
- Thread starter Cyberman
- Start date
Cool idea. You don't think maybe starting with a juvenile labiatus would work better? I would think by that size the fish's lips are already grown how they will, no?
I tried this a while, using Rapashy gel foods.
I would cook the food and the pour it onto and over lava rock, so as it cooled it actually formed around and into the crevices, then dropped the food covered lava rock into the tank for the cichlids to rasp on, but didn't do it long enough to get conclusive results, because I moved.
I would cook the food and the pour it onto and over lava rock, so as it cooled it actually formed around and into the crevices, then dropped the food covered lava rock into the tank for the cichlids to rasp on, but didn't do it long enough to get conclusive results, because I moved.
Large lips is partly genetic and partly environmental
You typically won't see those large rubbery lips in captive bred fish.
I've posted the following a few times over the years whenever someone attempts this. In the wild, those thick lips serve as gaskets, and are used to extract prey from the cracks and crevices in the rock piles where they feed. You'll see the same thing with some of the fish found in the Rift Lakes, such as Placidochromis milomo. IMO using gel food, lava rock, etc will not net the same results in captivity. It has also been speculated (by Konings and another author that slips my mind at the moment) that in the wild those large lips carry numerous scent sensory pores, which are utilized to seek out prey in the cracks and crevices of the rocks. Again, a characteristic that is most likely lost on domestic fish.
In the wild, the feeding behaviour of the fish will determine some of the physical characteristics of the fish, such as body shape, head shape, jaw size, lip size, and even size of the eyes. Again, this isn't going to be duplicated by simply putting some lava rock in ones tank.
I've posted the following a few times over the years whenever someone attempts this. In the wild, those thick lips serve as gaskets, and are used to extract prey from the cracks and crevices in the rock piles where they feed. You'll see the same thing with some of the fish found in the Rift Lakes, such as Placidochromis milomo. IMO using gel food, lava rock, etc will not net the same results in captivity. It has also been speculated (by Konings and another author that slips my mind at the moment) that in the wild those large lips carry numerous scent sensory pores, which are utilized to seek out prey in the cracks and crevices of the rocks. Again, a characteristic that is most likely lost on domestic fish.
In the wild, the feeding behaviour of the fish will determine some of the physical characteristics of the fish, such as body shape, head shape, jaw size, lip size, and even size of the eyes. Again, this isn't going to be duplicated by simply putting some lava rock in ones tank.
And not to be a total Debbie Downer, there is at least one paper on this subject that proves under similar conditions as found in the wild, if a thick lipped species such as A. labiatus are fed in this manner from an early age, (mechanical stress on lips) it can stimulate some lip growth.
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/558b/da595934e971c9f7ef5dc67794615af6fc38.pdf
But I'm rather certain that won't result in anything like this.
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/558b/da595934e971c9f7ef5dc67794615af6fc38.pdf
But I'm rather certain that won't result in anything like this.
