Amphilophus xiloaenisis questions
- Thread starter darthodo
- Start date
bigguapote;2133088; said:Xilos are the smallest sized species of the Nicaraguan Amphilophus complex.
They are endemic to Lake Xiloa, a crator lake in Nicaragua.
They max out around 7" in the wild. I've raised some wild adults to about 8.5" size under aquarium conditions, but that's as large as I've seen them.
The barred form of xiloaensis is far more common in the wild. There is a photo of a wild adult barred male below with large nuchal hump.
The xanthic or colored race that I am working with is indeed an uncommon sight in their native Lake Xiloa.
The collector discovered a breeding pair of xanthic individuals in 80"+ of water. He collected a small number of the fry. Larger individuals do not survive the decompression from these depths to the surface. From prior experience, he's found that the fry do quite well with the decomp though.
It was these very fry that I imported and distributed as well as setting aside some as breeders. The F1 juveniles that I am offering now are from a gorgeous pair of white adults that have a little yellow/orange on fins and around eyes.
This species is very interactive with fish and people on the other side of it's glass walls!
Just to clarify, pretty sure you meant 80 feet of water, not 80 inches, correct? I don't think they'd have much of a problem decompressing from a bit over 7' of water.
jeff i know we talked about this..... but looking at your barred xiloaensis i think i might have these or amarillo, i caught my current fish in water from 1' to about 6', are xiloaensis just found at great depths? if so then i know i have amarillo....any more pics of barred amp's?
I definitely wouldn't keep xilo's in anything less than a 75 gallon. My avatar is my ~10" male xiloaensis. I got 4 of these at 2" from Jeff Rapps back in Feb of '08. Two of them grew very quickly into big, beefy males and the other 2 stayed much smaller making me believe they were females.
These guys did fust fine together in a 125 gallon but when I tried moving one pair to a 75 the male wouldn't let up on the female. He didn't do any damage to her but she wound up being burned by the heater because the only place she could get to where she could get away from the male was up against a clay pot and the heater was right beside it. Total oversight on my part.
She survived though and healed up but she did die a few months later. I wound up trading away the other big male and kept the 2 in my avatar. The smaller one unfortately died when I moved to a new apartment in July.
I then got new new 4" females from Rapps a few months ago. Still no signs of breeding but the new ones all get along well enough in my 125 with a carpintis 'escondido', a black belt and a male saggitae. Oh and before anyone jumps in to say I need a bigger tank for these guys, I don't expect to keep them all together in this tank permanently. The black belt at least will most likely end up being rehomed at some point. It's only about 4" right now. The carpintis is about 5-6" and the sagittae is about 8".
These guys did fust fine together in a 125 gallon but when I tried moving one pair to a 75 the male wouldn't let up on the female. He didn't do any damage to her but she wound up being burned by the heater because the only place she could get to where she could get away from the male was up against a clay pot and the heater was right beside it. Total oversight on my part.
She survived though and healed up but she did die a few months later. I wound up trading away the other big male and kept the 2 in my avatar. The smaller one unfortately died when I moved to a new apartment in July.
I then got new new 4" females from Rapps a few months ago. Still no signs of breeding but the new ones all get along well enough in my 125 with a carpintis 'escondido', a black belt and a male saggitae. Oh and before anyone jumps in to say I need a bigger tank for these guys, I don't expect to keep them all together in this tank permanently. The black belt at least will most likely end up being rehomed at some point. It's only about 4" right now. The carpintis is about 5-6" and the sagittae is about 8".
This is proving to be an interesting topic.
I have a Petsmart "Midas" that I got when he was 3/4" over 14 months ago. I know he is male but he is has not grown very large only to about 8.5". With my water change routine and power feeding I was expecting at least 2" more on this fish. (He is in a 120g 60" x 18" footprint with 2 Cascade 1500 canisters and temp at 80.8 deg. / 3 35-45% water changes are done weekly / Feed Omega One/NLS and earth worms)
Interestingly the tag at the store said they only got about 8". A true Midas, esp. a male should easily exceed this and that was what I expected.
So I have wondered at times if my guy was maybe not really a "Midas" but something else. From the pictures shown, I would have called that fish a Midas. So how do you really know, unless you get your fish from a trusted breeder. Could my "Midas" be a Xilo? He is a typical orange and white looking "Midas" in all respects, well preportioned but just smaller than expected.
I have a Petsmart "Midas" that I got when he was 3/4" over 14 months ago. I know he is male but he is has not grown very large only to about 8.5". With my water change routine and power feeding I was expecting at least 2" more on this fish. (He is in a 120g 60" x 18" footprint with 2 Cascade 1500 canisters and temp at 80.8 deg. / 3 35-45% water changes are done weekly / Feed Omega One/NLS and earth worms)
Interestingly the tag at the store said they only got about 8". A true Midas, esp. a male should easily exceed this and that was what I expected.
So I have wondered at times if my guy was maybe not really a "Midas" but something else. From the pictures shown, I would have called that fish a Midas. So how do you really know, unless you get your fish from a trusted breeder. Could my "Midas" be a Xilo? He is a typical orange and white looking "Midas" in all respects, well preportioned but just smaller than expected.
DMD123;4681008; said:
I think you hit on it - from Petsmart, it could be anything and you'll never know what.
Well I stopped by the Petsmart I got my Midas from and was talking with one of the employees who has been around for a while and we got to talking about my fish only being 8.5" at 14 months. Her response was that is about right. Say what? She said the variety that is breed for them only get 6-8" typically. This smells of a runt mix for sure, NOT a true Midas.
Here are a couple pics from today. I was doing a big water change and rearranging the tank anyway so figured I would pull him out and put him next to a ruler.
I got him in Feb of 09 from Jeff Rapps at about 2". In the other pics I posted he had a much larger nuchal hump (I'm sure you guys could have figured that out for yourselves. LOL). His hump when down when I got rid of his 'brother'. It's been about the size it is now since then.
I got him in Feb of 09 from Jeff Rapps at about 2". In the other pics I posted he had a much larger nuchal hump (I'm sure you guys could have figured that out for yourselves. LOL). His hump when down when I got rid of his 'brother'. It's been about the size it is now since then.
Man I really wish I could have gotten the fish in the second pic down that Jeff posted. LOL I love the pattern on that one. 
