CA/SA Profile thread.

[japes]

Species: (South American) Hypselecara temporalis "Chocolate Cichlid"

Size: 10-12" for both Sexes, Males can be slightly larger.

Temperament: Generally peaceful unless spawning. Definitely to be considered a gentle giant, however they will not hesistate to back themselves if threatened. They're certainly not a small fish and they can use their body size to their advantage, however their mouths, although large, aren't developed for dealing damage.

Tank size: 4'x18" footprint minimum in my opinion. Could get away in a largish volume 4'x15" footprint tank however they are messy eaters and will put strain on the bioload of your tank.

Diet: A typical varied diet supplemented with vegetable matter. Very keen feeders and will take all pellets, and most vegetables including Peas, Romaine Lettuce, Zucchini, Cucumber, Pumpkin. Chocolate's absolutely love insects, their natural source of nutrition and will constantly watch the water surface waiting for bugs to land. If you run lights at night time on an open tank be prepared for water splashes as small insects will land on the water and will be taken. As keepers of Chocolates will know, this is why they generally 'cruise' around on a 45 degree upwards angle while swimming, as they're scanning the surface.

Sexing: Males have extended dorsal, anal and pelvic fins like most CA/SA Species. Nearing adulthood, the Males will also develop a somewhat prominent Nuchal hump, though it's not what you're typically used to with most CA/SA Predators.

Water parameters: Like most South Americans, Soft water, though like most fish in the hobby they are fine in most well kept water. Ideally a pH of around 6-7 with very low general hardness, however will do fine in neutral water up to around 8pH.

7" Male

Male at 6"

Adult Female (Hosted at Cichlidae.com)

 

[artemis1]

Species: Texas cichlid, Herichthys cyanoguttatus Often confused with Herichthys carpintis, the Pearl scale cichlid. Pearl scale's have smaller spots with light green coloration, while true texas cichlids have larger spots often with bluish coloration. They also grow to a slightly smaller size than true texas cichlids.

Size: 10-12''

Tank Size: 60-75 gallons

Diet: Varied diet best, with a staple of cichlid pellets or similar food stuff.

Distribution: The only cichlid to have a range in Texas. Inhabits the Rio grande river in texas, and south into Mexico

Sexing: Females smaller. Males have extensions of fins. Difficult to sex when young.

Water Parameters: pH, Neutral (7.5), temp, 75-79 F. Tolerates most water conditions, however avoid extremes.

Photo credit to TheFishGuy and Monsterfishrescue

 

[Lizardking]

Species: (central american) Cryptoheros Sajica "t-bar cichlid"

Size: 4-5" for males 2" for females

Tank size: 25g minimum for a pair.

Diet:: I feed mine with bloodworms and artemia

Sexing: Females are a lot smaller with a touch of yellow in their fins. Males have more red in their fins and they will develop a nuchal hump.

Personal experience: If you want to combine cichlids and plants this is the fish for you. They never touches the plants but the males will do a lot of digging so I recommend to add some sort of cave for them in the tank.
They are perfect for a community tank and they are very peaceful except when in breeding mode ( like all cichlids).
A very hardy fish that can tolerate most water conditions.
Also they have the bluest eyes I have ever seen in any fish.
1.male
2.female (pics taken with flash)

 

[Passionate 4 pikes]

Species: Apistogramma bitaeniata (south american)

Size: 3 inches

Tank setup: planted with driftwood and rocks. provide plenty of shelter. a clean tank is a must and sand is recommended also.

Diet: small cichlid sticks, worms, artemia, and mosquito larvae.

Temperment: slightly aggressive to most fish between the 1-2 inch mark but normally rather peaceful.

Water perameters: ph 5-6 soft water is a must.

General comments: A very pretty apisto with long flowing fins this fish has a perilous attitude and is not recommended for timid fish.

pic one and two mature male

 

[oscarsftw]

Species: (South American) Astronotus ocellatus also known as Oscar Cichlid.

Family: Cichlidae

Size: 12 inches up to 18 inches, adults weigh up to 2+ LBS.

Temperament: Oscars are not belligerent. But are not recommend for community tank unless a long with other aggressive Cichlids that can defend themselves and can not fit in the Oscars mouth...Oscars are predatory. The Oscar Cichlid often does not do well with aquarium decor.

Tank size: 50 is bare minimum but 55 is recommend for a single Oscar only.

Diet: Varied diet. Insects such as crickets, blood worms, night crawlers, earth worms. Fish, krill, crayfish, clams, muscles, and tropical fish pellets. Oscars are not picky eaters. They even like to eat gold fish flakes. Do not feed live feeder gold fish, they are high in fat and unless quarantined or self raised they carry diseases they also are not as nutritious as one might think.

Sexing: Sexually Monomorphic. Oscars are difficult to sex, unless pair off.

Water parameters: Oscars prefer a warm tank temperature of 72F-82F. 7.2pH to 7.8pH. Like most Cichlids Oscars are nitrate sensitive and most would say they prefer to keep their tanks under 25 ppm. Oscars adapt easy and are not hard to keep.

photo credited to http://www.aqua-fish.net

 

[oscarsftw]

Species: Texas cichlid, Herichthys cyanoguttatus Often confused with Herichthys carpintis, the Pearl scale cichlid. Pearl scale's have smaller spots with light green coloration, while true texas cichlids have larger spots often with bluish coloration. They also grow to a slightly smaller size than true texas cichlids.

Size: 10-12''

Tank Size: 60-75 gallons

Diet: Varied diet best, with a staple of cichlid pellets or similar food stuff.

Distribution: The only cichlid to have a range in Texas. Inhabits the Rio grande river in texas, and south into Mexico

Sexing: Females smaller. Males have extensions of fins. Difficult to sex when young.

Water Parameters: pH, Neutral (7.5), temp, 75-79 F. Tolerates most water conditions, however avoid extremes.

Photo credit to TheFishGuy and Monsterfishrescue

Does that look like this juvenile one when it's small?

 

[RedDevilDon2005]

Species- Amphilophus (Cichlasoma) labiatus (Red Devil)

Family- Cichlidae

Location- Central America

Size- 12" to 15" (personally seen a male at 18")

Tank Size/Set up- A single Devil 75 Gal. For a Pair 90 or better. Water Temp should be around 70-79 degrees F. For Breeding, 75-82 Degrees F. PH should be 6.0 to 8.0.

Temperamant- Highly aggresize. When put with smaller fish, visual barriers are a must.

Sexing- Mature males will develop the infamous hump and are usually bulkier, although females can also develop the hump. The only true way to sex a Devil is to vent them.

Diet- High protein; nightcrawlers, ghost shrimp, market shrimp. also cichlid sticks high in protein. lettuce, carrots and cucumbers are also found to be good for the Devil.

Other Info- Devils will color morph as they age.


My Devil./female

 

[Passionate 4 pikes]

Species Crenicichla lucius
Size up to 7 inches.
Tank setup. 75 gallon tank minnimum likes plants and some shelters though they are not as neccsessary as for the regani. good filtration is recommended. keep with some active fish to big to eat but not big enough to bother the pike. other boisterous cichlids are good but they may be picked on.
Temperement an aggressize cichlid that must not be kept with fragile fish.
Diet live fish and shrimp, dead fish filets and worms.
Pic one 1 1/2 inch juvi

pic two 3 inch male

 

[mbunafishkeeper]

Cichlasoma Grammodes

Synonyms:
nandopsis grammodes

Common names:
mini-dovii
sieve cichlid
grammodes

Family:
cichlidae

Distribution:
central america (mexico to guatemala)

Ecosystem:
mainly found in streams/rivers moderate to fast flowing. sometimes found in lakes.

Temperment:
very aggressive and territorial (hence nickname mini-dovii) can be kept with other moderatley aggressive cichlids in large tanks (150G+). minimum tank size is 55G IMO for either a single fish or pair, if a pair you will need a divider handy and cut a slit in the divider in which the female can fit through but the male cant, this should prevent any major damage to the female from the male.

Diet:
carnivore (Grammodes are avid piscivores in nature meaning a large portion of their natural diet is live fish) - this not meaning to feed the live feeders as a staple! feed them the normal cichlid pellets in which you feed your other cichlids.

Ph:
7.0-8.0

Temperature:
72-81F (22-27C)

Hardness:
10-30 dH

Potential size:
male: 12" (30cm)
female: 7-8" (17-20cm)

Water region:
mid-bottom

Gender:
males: distinctive red spotts all over body, when matured nuchal hump development.
females: no red spotts below lateral line, if any atall.

Breeding:
if you have a bunch of 4+ a pair should form when they reach maturity between 4-6". when a pair has formed and the pair are ready to breed, they will clean off a surface (either a rock, plant pot, bogwood, cave, or just the glass) then the female will lay on the rock and then the male will fertalise after. it may take them a few attempts to get this right.

note: when breeding they become extremely aggressive, any tank mates will likely have to be removed but keep a close eye on the pair because they may become aggressive to each other in which case the male may need to be removed or put on the other side of a divider. before breeding the male will likely bully the female into breeding so keep a close eye because it wont take much for your male to kill the female or vise-versa.

Comments:
The grammodes has been often referred to as a miniature version of Parachromis dovii and should be treated as such. By miniature this means the grammodes will only grow to a modest 12" instead of 24"+ plus of the real P. Dovii. This species is one of the "Grammodes complex" which also includes C. beani and C. istlanum. These 3 species are currently classified as exCichlasoma until further study and classification can be done.

below are pictures of male and female N. grammodes

PICTURES TAKEN BY BALTON777

Male N.Grammodes

Female N.Grammodes

 

[mbunafishkeeper]

Cichlasoma Festae

Synonyms:
amphilophus festae
nandopsis festae
heros festae
herichthys festae

Common names:
Red terror
harlequin cichlid

Family:
cichlidae

Distribution:
south Amerca (primarily ecudaor and colombia)

Ecosystem:
river

Temperment:
very aggressive

Diet:
Omnivore A wide variety of meaty foods mixed with some spirulina or veggie based foods would be best with a staple of cichlid pellets in which you feed your other cichlids.

Ph:
7.0-7.8

Temperature:
75-82F (24-28C)

Hardness:
5-15 dH

Potential size:
male: 16" (41cm)
female: 12" (30cm)

Water region:
mid to bottom

Gender:
front end of the dorsal and pelvic fins will turn black on females, this will happen at about 3"+ IME they will also loose nearly all blue spangling they may have had before and there vertical bars will become more predominant and gaining a deep orange/red colour. males will likely loose vertical bars although they can come back when stressed or breeding/fighting the males will keep all blue spangling they had as a juvie and also may gain more, males are a deeper yellow/gold base colour when matured.

Breeding:
It is best to purchase several juveniles and let them grow up and pair off on their own. Once a pair is formed, all other fish will need to be removed from the tank. Red Terrors are able to breed when they are 3.5-4"IME. Once mature and ready to spawn, the pair will select a spawning location and clean a flat surface. Once the eggs are laid and have been fertilized, the female will stay very close to the nest while the male will guard the nest eggs and female.

Comments:
Red Terrors are usually ranked among the top 5 most aggressive cichlids in the world! Also, the true Red Terror is often mistaken for the Mayan cichlid...Cichlasoma uropthalmus. The easiest way to distinguish the two is that the second vertical bars will form a Y on the upper portion of the body and the occeli on the tail arm being larger and more centered then on festae. festae are very aggressive and need to be kept on there own when breeding. they are also fairly slow growers in 6 months myn grew about 2".

they can grow out in 55G+ tanks but when reaching maturity will need 150G+ tank for life for a pair. a female can be kept with others in a community of 90G+ because they only reach 12" and they will take along time to do so.


pictures of male and female Amphilophus Festae below

Male A.Festae

Female A.Festae