Big boys, tank v wild
- Thread starter dan518
- Start date
I have seen a few wild Mayaheros uropthalmus males in Mexico that easily hit 20", they have giant territories maybe 1,000 gallons square each, and are seldom seen, because they are hidden deep in caves in cenotes where 100% of the water in that cave seems to well up and change every second, and they kill any cichlid that comes close, except receptive females.
Once they make that size, the amount and type of predators diminish significantly.
Other smaller individual have scars that appear to be mainly from bird attacks, very few make it to adulthood.
Here in Panama we have feral Peacock bass, yet these only reach about half the size of those in the Amazon.
The water in Lake Gatun where they are feral unlike the Amazon, is high in conductivity, and pH often reaches 9. I believe this may be the limiting factor for their size, while Umbi's (evolved to live in harder mineral rich waters) in other parts of southern Panamanian high flow rivers can be massive.
This may also be the cause in aquariums, much of the US has hard, mineral rich water, and aquarists seldom come close to the kind of massive water changes many cichlids experience in nature.
The Amazon river discharges 11 million cubic feet of water per second into the Atlantic,
the Chagres river here in Panama average discharge is 3000 cubic feet of water per second, but during the rainy season can be as high as 31.000 cubic feet per second.
I don't believe anyones water change schedule ever comes even remotely close.
duanes
is the man!
Interesting thread Dan.
I wonder how much of a role exercise has to pay with fish like dovii and umbie.
Exercise plays a role in healthy growth, most often with fish like dovii, they can't even reach full speed in a tank. In the wild the fish would be able to exercise and achieve better growth.
Despite diet and water requirements, little stimulation and lack of exercise could inhibit growth. Just a theory.
It's a good point, there's quite a few authors that think cichlids would only hold a territory during spawning, so how far they roam out of this is unknown.
Do they have dovii or umbee’s in zoo’s or public aquariums in the US ?
I only ask this because in the UK I’ve never seen them but they do have a lot of the Amazonian fish such as cichla, Arowana, rays etc, that are massive and reach they’re full adult sizes.
Prob due to the massive water volumes these aquariums can have combined with stable water perameters, food.
I only ask this because in the UK I’ve never seen them but they do have a lot of the Amazonian fish such as cichla, Arowana, rays etc, that are massive and reach they’re full adult sizes.
Prob due to the massive water volumes these aquariums can have combined with stable water perameters, food.
