Taxonomy & naming
Haplochromis sp. "Blue Fire Fin" is a hobby label for an undescribed Lake Victoria cichlid. The atlas files Lake Victoria haplochromines under Haplochromis in the broad sense, so this page uses that genus. The form has no formal description, so it has no valid name, authority or year.
Morphology
Sue Ewald (GCCA, 2005) gives males a size of about 4 in and females about 3 in. In males the dorsal fin is yellow, shading to orange toward the end; the tail is orange, the pelvic fins are black, and the anal fin is yellow to orange with yellow egg spots. The body is red below the dorsal fin down to the lateral line, yellow and black through the middle, and yellow to green on the lower third. Females are similar in pattern but less strongly coloured.
Habitat
Sue Ewald (GCCA, 2005) states in general terms that the fish comes from Lake Victoria, where she describes the climate as sub-tropical, with temperatures in the mid 20s °C to about 81 °F and a water pH of about 7.4. These are her general statements about the lake, not measurements from a collection site. No collection locality is recorded.
Feeding
Sue Ewald (GCCA, 2005) fed mostly flake food, with occasional pellets or home-made frozen beef heart. The fry started on crushed flake.
Mating
Sue Ewald (GCCA, 2005) did not see the spawning itself, but could tell when a female was holding eggs. After spawning the female kept the eggs in her mouth and avoided the other fish where she could.
Breeding
Sue Ewald (GCCA, 2005) started with six fish about 0.5 in long from a club mini-auction. Females lost broods to other fish or ate the fry. For the successful spawn she let the female hold naturally, waited about two weeks and stripped roughly 12 free-swimming fry, each about 0.5 in and shaped like the parents without the colour. She raised them in a breeding net in a separate tank and found they grew slowly. She reports that males take a long time to mature, and that females seemed to eat a couple of broods before holding eggs well.
In the aquarium
Sue Ewald (GCCA, 2005) kept the group in a 20 US gal (20 gallon high) tank with a bare bottom, no plants, an Azoo sponge filter and about 13 hours of fluorescent light a day. The water was 13 dKH, pH 8.0 and 76–78 °F, with 30 to 40% water changes every second or third week. She calls it one of her hardest Victorian haplochromines to breed, after H. nyererei, and recommends it to keepers who like Victorians. Pairs and trios in other tanks cost her females; a group in a covered tank with many caves or tubes for retreat worked well. The fish won first place in the Victorian class of the club bowl show in September 2005.
Conservation
An undescribed form has no IUCN category, and none is claimed here. Population and range data for it are not documented in the atlas's sources.