Cool Acara breeding behavior

[dogofwar]

I have a reverse trio (2M/1F) of Cichlasoma dimerus from a little pond in Uruguay called "Arroyo Chelsea" in a divided 30g (2'x2'x1'). One male is on one side and a bonded pair is on the other.

These look like the dimerus from Bella Union except that they are a darker base color (almost black when breeding) with bronze instead of metallic green on their scales.

The pair - or maybe both males and the female - spawned a few days ago. I siphoned about 1/2 of the couple of hundred babies to grow out in a separate tank. The rest I left with the parents.

Here's where it gets interesting: The pair are, of course, guarding a swarm of the remaining fry. The bachelor male on the other side of the divider is as well.

It's been awhile since I've grown any of these out. They seem to be doing well on golden pearls. They start small and take a couple of months to reach 3/4".

Oddly enough, my pair of Cichlasoma from Zanja Honda (south of Bella Union, Uruguay) also has a bunch of fry. The female about came out of the tank when I was feeding them earlier tonight. I call these golden acaras because they're sparkly gold. I'm going to let the parents try to raise the hoard of babies.

I never get tired of watching cichlid parents guard their offspring!

Matt

 

[Andrewtfw]

Very cool, Matt. Acaras are great cichlids.

 

[dogofwar]

The best

Very cool, Matt. Acaras are great cichlids.

 

[jonclark96]

Congrats on the spawns.

 

[chriscoli]

Matt, I'm having trouble getting my dimerus fry past a week or two old. when you separate out a batch, are you raising them as you usually do in a bowl with water from the parent's tank or are you doing something different?

I've tried:
- putting some in a mature 15 gallon with some wood/plants/mattenfilter by themselves
- keeping them in a hang-on breeder box
- keeping them in a clean 10 gallon with methylene blue

I've also tried microworms and golden pearls once they absorb their yolk sac....they appear to be eating.

so far, they all drop dead after about a week or two.

 

[dogofwar]

Not to jinx myself...but I've bred and raised dimerus several times with the parents and also "artificially"

This time I siphoned the "Arroyo Chelsea" fry into the 1/2g container until they were free swimming for a couple of days and had eaten a couple of times. Then dumped them into a 15g with a very slow sponge. The "Zanja Honda" are with their parents.

The key is getting them over the first couple weeks hump with enough food. They have large spawns, so I feed a bunch of golden pearls (I fill a red solo cup with some tank water and mix in some golden pearls and pour it in). They're definitely eating. Just need to feed them a couple or three times per day. Might add some Rephashy as well to allow them to graze.

Good luck!

Matt

Matt, I'm having trouble getting my dimerus fry past a week or two old. when you separate out a batch, are you raising them as you usually do in a bowl with water from the parent's tank or are you doing something different?

I've tried:
- putting some in a mature 15 gallon with some wood/plants/mattenfilter by themselves
- keeping them in a hang-on breeder box
- keeping them in a clean 10 gallon with methylene blue

I've also tried microworms and golden pearls once they absorb their yolk sac....they appear to be eating.

so far, they all drop dead after about a week or two.

 

[dogofwar]

Thanks Jon - I've bred both before but haven't yet raised fry from the "Zanja Honda" (I think I lost the last batch of fry when I was away during the last trip to Uruguay).

The fish that "Zanja Honda" is most similar is the fish that was called "Aequidens awani" back in the day, although Zanja Honda is more elongated (but both gold).

Matt

Congrats on the spawns.