From your experience, what is the hardiest medium-large Central American cichlid you know of or have kept? I’m talking rock solid. A fish Resilient to diseases compared to others. A fish that is stronger than the others.
Hardiest Central American cichlid?
- Thread starter HybridFinatic
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To me the genus Amatitlania are probably the most forgiving when it comes to lack of maintenance, and generally smaller than ideal, or unfit conditions (not advocating them of course).
The rainbow cichlid, also fits into this category, in nature it moves onto flooded plains where conditions can often be less than ideal, temps vary wildly, and lives in only inches of water.
These will also tolerate within reason, smaller tanks.
The least forgiving of substandard conditions, like less than perfect temps, small tanks with high nitrate or lack of constant maintenance are Nandopsis, or those genera that come from highly oxygenated, pure flowing streams and rivers.
These become easily diseased if conditions like temps, proper currents, or other intangibles are not maintained perfectly.
Genera such as Chuco, or Paraneetroplus are among them.
The rainbow cichlid, also fits into this category, in nature it moves onto flooded plains where conditions can often be less than ideal, temps vary wildly, and lives in only inches of water.
These will also tolerate within reason, smaller tanks.
The least forgiving of substandard conditions, like less than perfect temps, small tanks with high nitrate or lack of constant maintenance are Nandopsis, or those genera that come from highly oxygenated, pure flowing streams and rivers.
These become easily diseased if conditions like temps, proper currents, or other intangibles are not maintained perfectly.
Genera such as Chuco, or Paraneetroplus are among them.
I like the Salvini Cichlid. I've keep them at varying times over the years and have never lost one due to disease. They pack a lot of punch and also a lot of color. I've kept them with Festae & Rivulatus with little problem.
For me, most large cichlids make for great eating, I have eaten, everything from JDs to Tilapia, but my favorites are Cichla (Peacock Bass make great fish tacos),
Deep fried Cichla from Lake Gatun below
Deep fried Cichla from Lake Gatun below
From the Amatitlania family the very popular Convict Cichlid. They are extremely hardy.
Well of course the convict. I’m sort of mainly talking about larger Central Americans. Since Nandopsis, beanies, and istlanum and other larger cichlids can be difficult what would you consider the hardiest LARGE cichlids.
Depends on the individual fish and the environment. But in my experience definitely not. My regular 6 inch jd was a delicate flower. Every other fish would be fine. Perimeters perfect. But the JD would turn pale and play dead during water changes and he was a constant battle with internal parisites the whole year I had him. He then died one day when a past red devil I had finally snapped and killed him. I think JDs definitely do better in larger tanks with larger fish when they are the subdominant smaller fish even when full grown. At least from what I have seen.
