Sadly, the last remaining Julidochromis regani Burundi passed away a few days ago. I am guessing it was about seven years old. Thus, the three Julidochromis marksmithi now have the whole 75g tank to themselves.
For a while, I had three adult J. regani and three J. marksmithi Kipili in the 75g tank. Over time, all three regani died of old age.
I wouldn’t normally keep multiple julie species together, much less in a tank this size. However, not long after getting five marksmithi, I had them in a 20g long and lost two, which I think was due to aggression. Since I was afraid to continue keeping them in the 20g but didn’t really have anywhere else to put them, I moved them to the 75g.
Because regani and marksmithi are very different in size, I wasn’t worried much about them sharing the tank. In fact, they paid little attention to each other. However, I was unsure if the marksmithi would spawn with the much larger regani, despite numerous caves and shelter options.
I have had them now for about 18 months, but they haven’t spawned. Is that because of the regani? Maybe. I have spawned numerous species of julies, so expected no problem spawning the marksmithi.
It will be interesting to see what happens now. I haven’t vented them, but I suspect I have two females and a male, based on their sizes. I’ll update here if they spawn.