Aphilophus red isletus

[Alexxxxsv14]

Never really looked into the amphilophus species but I really liked the red isletas, there red face and nuchal hump really catches my interest. So my questions are what are there attitudes like and how are they with other cichlids. I want to setup a tank for my nephew at my sisters house. Is the red head only from certain lakes? If so what lake is it, I remember seeing some at rapps website might have to order me a few

 

[Gourami Swami]

THe red islatas behaves similarly to other large amphilophus species, meaning they can be very aggressive, especially towards anything that even slightly resembles them. I wouldn't put a male with other cichlids in anything smaller like a 125. In a 6' tank you could add some other cichlids, but I wouldnt put anything that gets over say 8" or resembles the isletas. Not sure about the lakes question, im pretty sure they all get the reddish tint to them.

 

[dan518]

I think they come from a marsh area of Lake Nicaragua were no other amphilophus citrinellus come from, not sure if they have been classified as a different sp or not,

 

[ragin_cajun]

You'll need to keep several, grow them out, to get one that gets red and has a hump. Not all will. You'll want a male, and a kinda dominant one if you want a nice hump. They color up nicer if you have a breeding pair, too. They start spawning, they get vivid.

How do they act? Pretty nasty. Especially when they're big. If they breed, they won't tolerate other similar size fish in the tank with them unless the tank is really big.

They come from a specific place in a specific lake in Nicaragua. Search this site for posts from big guapote--that's jeff rapps, and he posted a long post describing where the exporters he deals with collected them, and his work with academics on the study of these fish.

 

[Alexxxxsv14]

Thanks for the info guys. I will try to get a hold of a 180 on craigslist and possibly grow out several of them