The Red Jewel of Turkana

There are many lakes in Africa. If you've been around freshwater aquariums and Local Fish Stores enough, you've heard of at least two of them, Lake Malawi, and Lake Tanganyika because of the seemingly endless variety of gorgeous, aquarium suitable fish that come from them. What you may not have heard of is that two days drive from anywhere, on the border of Kenya and Ethiopia, there is another rift lake called Turkana, named for a local tribe. This amazing place is the world's largest alkaline lake, the world's largest permanent desert lake, and it has an active volcano at its center. Its remote location, harsh environment, and hostile wildlife has traditionally meant few fish get collected for export there, even though it is very rich in aquatic life.

While the fish was first cataloged for western science in 1933, as a result of the factors above, the Turkana Red Jewel Cichlid (Rubricatochromis exsul) is a relative newbie to aquariums in North America; among the red jewel cichlids, it is perhaps the rarest. Yes, there is more than one species of Red Jewel Cichlid, and there has been some confusion over the years in describing them for science. Turkanas were once assumed to be one of the other species of Red Jewel before being classified on their own, and even after this their nomenclature has undergone a few changes, as a result of this if you are looking for this fish, sometimes you'll see it listed as Rubricatochromis exsul (current and correct), and sometimes as Hemichromus exsul (still relevant because regulation doesn't always keep up with science), and even less frequently Pelmatochromis exsul, which was its original description. Perhaps because of their infrequently seen nature, they have only one common name.

When you first see Turkana Red Jewel Cichlids in your Local Fish Store, you may think their tank has been mis-labeled. They will be small, probably in a group, and while beautiful, with a pale blueish body, and dark fins adorned with iridescent blue jewels, it's very likely that there won't be a single red colored fish in the bunch. That is because these fish undergo an absolutely stunning change of color when they pair off and come into breeding condition, going from a very attractive fish to a mind-blowing one. Among all the African Cichlids, these are some of the most docile, right up until this pairing happens, at which point, other fish should be watched carefully to make sure they are not in danger from the territorial attacks, in big enough tanks, this will be less of an issue.

One way to help mitigate this aggression is to have a larger aquarium and lots of cover in the form of rocks, driftwood, clay pots, or even plants. Turkana Jewels don't get bigger than three to three and half inches, and as a result of their diminutive stature, a small group of Turkana Jewels will be just fine in a 40-gallon aquarium until they pair off, and at this point the pair would also be just fine, but the other fish will need to be removed. If you had a larger tank, that was four feet long or bigger, and was full of driftwood, plants and other cover, you might be able to keep more than one pair. The more cover you have, the more likely this will be to succeed. Keep in mind that these fish will want to do some home renovation and some digging will happen. Even though they will not eat or nip at plants, they will dig them up, so keep this in mind when choosing greenery; our suggestion would be to stick to floating plants and plants that don't need to be rooted in the substrate like Java Moss / Fern, and Anubias etc.

The water in Lake Turkana is very alkaline, with a pH north of 8 most of the time and up to 9.2! The lake is fed by three rivers, but does not have an outlet, so its depth and size are completely determined by how much water comes in and then how much evaporation occurs. On a dry hot year, when the lake's volume drops precipitously, the water chemistry can change a surprising degree versus wet years. Now, all the Rubricatochromis exsul you are likely to see are aquacultured, and so this original water chemistry is not as vital as it would be for wild caught specimens. We still suggest keeping these fish in water that has a pH between 7.0 and 8.0 and they'll do best and be the most active in temperatures between 75- and 80-degrees Fahrenheit.

Feeding Turkana Red Jewel Cichlids is always easy, and as aquacultured specimens, this holds even more true. The fish we're offering are totally conditioned to eating pellets, and we give them a mix of the Nutramar Freshwater Complete and the Nutramar Algae and Color Boost pellets. This diet is well rounded and perfectly fine long term, but you could also supplement with a mix of thawed meaty foods, which they greedily take. Things like spirulina loaded brine, garlic brine and mysis from Gamma Foods are great choices. Feeding a variety of foods helps bring fish into spawning condition and will enhance their best colors.

If you are interested in keeping a pair (or more) of these fish, the best way is to buy five or six juvenile ones (or more) and add them to a display together. Attempting to pair adult fish usually does not work, and the less dominant of the two fish will suffer. If you somehow buck all the odds and end up with a group of all the same sex fish, the upside is that they will likely co-exist with each other long term! The differences between the sexes of Rubricatochromis exsul are few, consisting of fine differences in dorsal fin shape and the patterns on their anal fin. Neither of these differences manifest until the fish are mature and thus separating them by sex is challenging.

In regard to other tankmates, The Turkana Red Jewel Cichlids are surprisingly peaceful fish when they aren't breeding and rearing babies. They can be kept with a variety of more peaceful fish, larger tetras can work, Danios, Catfish (armored and otherwise), even some of the more peaceful cichlids will cohabit. Keep in mind that any or all of these fish could be a target if your Turkanas do start to breed, but a four-foot tank or longer should give them enough space to claim. While these Cichlids aren't that big, they will definitely eat fish small enough to fit in their mouths.

When you've paired two of them off, and want them to reproduce, just give them a place to spawn like a clay pot or a smooth flat rock and they should get to it on their own. The male will give the spawning site a vigorous scrubbing and the female will lay long lines of eggs (hundreds of them) on it for him to fertilize. They will both tend the eggs and defend the nest and the eggs will hatch three(ish) days later. Babies should be swimming around in a day or so after hatching and can be fed brine shrimp nauplii, powdered food, microworms etc. These Cichlids are good parents and will continue to look after the littles for a few weeks, though the wee babies could be removed at any time once you have them eating.

Turkana Red Jewel Cichlids are gorgeous, hardy, fun to watch, easy to reproduce and are the smallest and most easy going of all the “Red Cichlids” and there is no catch. If you have a big enough tank (and really 55 – 75 gallons is not crazy) you can even keep them in a community setting! If you get a pair, you can watch one of the coolest color transformations in all of aquarium keeping! If you haven't headed out the door to hit your LFS already and are still reading this, tell them Aquatropic sent you when you get there.