I am finally getting a female Parachromis sp. "la ceiba yellowhead" of the right genetics. Those that know me, know I love the guapotes. I have dedicated the last three and half years and countless dollars to the ever elusive guapote community tank.
Early goals were to have all five together without murders. Check. Next was to allow breeding without murders. Check. After that was to be able to successfully raise fishes all the way from eggs to adults in the same tank with all five Parachromis. Almost check, the biggest of five is now over three inches with no signs of impending doom from his much larger tankmates (and I have six more in other tanks that made it into the sump as fry and survived to a couple of inches before I was able to pull them out). The last and ultimate goal is to have all five as mated pairs with breeding allowed. Now, since Paul Loiselle considers the la ceibas to be a variance of friedrichsthalii, that's how I count them as well. I will soon be one step closer to that final goal. I am still missing a female dovii and the female la ceiba of proper genetics.
The largest of the five fry grown out in the big tank from eggs hatched in the tank. Very likely a male motaguense, but maybe a male loiselli...
Now, more on the la ceiba genetics story. To understand, you must know the backstory. It is told that five wild adult la ceibas were collected from a lagoon that was since destroyed for construction of a hotel resort. Ken Davis had one pair and Rusty Wessell had the other pair with Jeff Rapps selling Rusty's fry. To have diverse genetics, you would need one from each.
There was another member here at MFK that claimed to have wild caught la ceibas (the number escapes me, but not many). Nobody believed him til he provided his bona fides. Suffice it to say he was telling the truth. His username escapes me at the moment too. Sorry.
So, fast forward to now. A local club member has a pair with one from each of the two suppliers discussed above. I have been promised a female of around 3". So, I'm super excited to say the least.
This is my male from a couple of weeks ago. He is around 11" or so...
Over half my Parachromis are F1. The la ceibas are easily the most wild acting of them all. This male la ceiba is the only one in the tank to which the much larger dovii (now over 13") will be submissive. Easily tied with dovii as my favorite fish in the tank. I can't wait to get him a woman.
A female dovii is still in the cards, but not in the next couple of weeks. Counting an Oscar pair, I had as many as five simultaneous breeding pairs in the same tank. This is not a race, but rather a marathon. Success can only be judged in terms of years rather than months. Still going strong though. The lone murder occured when I added a male and female dovii at about 3" and 4 1/2". The female was killed within 24 hours when she picked the loiselli pair's fry grazing area as her first hiding spot. Her entire face was bitten off. Wrong place, wrong time, too small and too timid was the story here. The male went on to thrive and is now well over a foot.
This is the male dovii...
Time will tell. Like I said, this is not a race. And that dovii still has a lot of growing to do, both in size and atitude. But so far, so good. I've had much success, but have suffered some losses as well. A giant UV sterilizer took care of disease concerns that took one. One giant managuense paralyzed himself by hitting the glass protecting his fry from my daughter. One was lost to blockage from what I suspect was shrimp shell.
The bottom line is I've learned and been tremendously fascinated by the behavior and atitudes of the guapotes. I've been very lucky to be able to do this. I'll post some pics when the female comes!
Early goals were to have all five together without murders. Check. Next was to allow breeding without murders. Check. After that was to be able to successfully raise fishes all the way from eggs to adults in the same tank with all five Parachromis. Almost check, the biggest of five is now over three inches with no signs of impending doom from his much larger tankmates (and I have six more in other tanks that made it into the sump as fry and survived to a couple of inches before I was able to pull them out). The last and ultimate goal is to have all five as mated pairs with breeding allowed. Now, since Paul Loiselle considers the la ceibas to be a variance of friedrichsthalii, that's how I count them as well. I will soon be one step closer to that final goal. I am still missing a female dovii and the female la ceiba of proper genetics.
The largest of the five fry grown out in the big tank from eggs hatched in the tank. Very likely a male motaguense, but maybe a male loiselli...
Now, more on the la ceiba genetics story. To understand, you must know the backstory. It is told that five wild adult la ceibas were collected from a lagoon that was since destroyed for construction of a hotel resort. Ken Davis had one pair and Rusty Wessell had the other pair with Jeff Rapps selling Rusty's fry. To have diverse genetics, you would need one from each.
There was another member here at MFK that claimed to have wild caught la ceibas (the number escapes me, but not many). Nobody believed him til he provided his bona fides. Suffice it to say he was telling the truth. His username escapes me at the moment too. Sorry.
So, fast forward to now. A local club member has a pair with one from each of the two suppliers discussed above. I have been promised a female of around 3". So, I'm super excited to say the least.
This is my male from a couple of weeks ago. He is around 11" or so...
Over half my Parachromis are F1. The la ceibas are easily the most wild acting of them all. This male la ceiba is the only one in the tank to which the much larger dovii (now over 13") will be submissive. Easily tied with dovii as my favorite fish in the tank. I can't wait to get him a woman.
A female dovii is still in the cards, but not in the next couple of weeks. Counting an Oscar pair, I had as many as five simultaneous breeding pairs in the same tank. This is not a race, but rather a marathon. Success can only be judged in terms of years rather than months. Still going strong though. The lone murder occured when I added a male and female dovii at about 3" and 4 1/2". The female was killed within 24 hours when she picked the loiselli pair's fry grazing area as her first hiding spot. Her entire face was bitten off. Wrong place, wrong time, too small and too timid was the story here. The male went on to thrive and is now well over a foot.
This is the male dovii...
Time will tell. Like I said, this is not a race. And that dovii still has a lot of growing to do, both in size and atitude. But so far, so good. I've had much success, but have suffered some losses as well. A giant UV sterilizer took care of disease concerns that took one. One giant managuense paralyzed himself by hitting the glass protecting his fry from my daughter. One was lost to blockage from what I suspect was shrimp shell.
The bottom line is I've learned and been tremendously fascinated by the behavior and atitudes of the guapotes. I've been very lucky to be able to do this. I'll post some pics when the female comes!
