Hardiest Central American cichlid?

[TigerTalon1]

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.

Why did you have a Red devil with a JD? Where they the only fish in the tank? In my experience JDs are definitely more succeptible to being shy when the tank is rearranged but will come back out soon if you don’t mess with them too much. All my past JDs have been decently hardy.

 

[HybridFinatic]

Why did you have a Red devil with a JD? Where they the only fish in the tank? In my experience JDs are definitely more succeptible to being shy when the tank is rearranged but will come back out soon if you don’t mess with them too much. All my past JDs have been decently hardy.

This was probaly a 1 year 1/2 ago. Mind you at the time I was pretty new to the hobby. It was in a 40 breeder. I used the method of overcrowding the tank to disperse agression so they were not the only fish in the tank. The red devil previously had been awesome and never showed any agression believe or not. I decided to let the red devil have his own outdoor tank for the summer and when fall came I brought it back inside and he killed the JD overnight. I sold the red devil after that because he probaly would have killed the rest of my fish. We all have had are mistakes early on in the hobby. We live and we learn.

 

[HybridFinatic]

This was probaly a 1 year 1/2 ago. Mind you At the time I was pretty new to hobby. It was in a 40 breeder. I used the method of overcrowding the tank to disperse agression so they were not the only fish in the tank. The red devil previously had been awesome and never showed any agression believe or not. I decided let red devil have his own outdoor tank for the summer and when fall came I brought it back inside he killed the JD overnight. I sold the red devil after that because he probaly would have killed the rest of my fish. We all had are mistakes early on in the hobby. We live and we learn.

Keep in mind all the fish were 5 inches and under. Their was probaly 7 different fish in there. I was not that bad of a fish keeper back then and perimeters were maintained with 2 aqua clear 70s and biweekly water changes. Far from ideal though.

 

[TigerTalon1]

Keep in mind all the fish were 5 inches and under. Their was probaly 7 different fish in there. I was not that bad of a fish keeper back then and perimeters were maintained with 2 aqua clear 70s and biweekly water changes. Far from ideal though.

Ahh I see, yes there is always that time when we are beginners, I remember those days when I got my first aquarium, a 29g and I had 2 JDs a fire mouth and a convict in there, which actually worked for a while til the JDs took it over completely, now that same 29g houses my proper kribensis pair.

 

[dan518]

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.

Mayaheros urophthalmus, very wide spread cichlid coming from all sorts of different biotopes, like cenotes, caves, rivers, lakes, brackish mangrove swamps, seagrass beds. This is certainly able to adapt to different conditions in the wild. Vieja maculicauda is another species with a large natural range, found in many different habitats all so observed feeding in brackish water. To me this adaptability they both show equates to hardiness, although not necessarily in the aquarium.

 

[duanes]

To me, some of the most hardy cichids are those from Uruguay, they can take temps down to the low 50's F that no Central American can handle (except maybe H carpintus and cyanoguttatus, or M beanii) and heat into the high 80sF.
The genus Australoheros, species Red Ceibal below

and most Gymnogeophagus


The Gymnos can also be kept in small tanks like 55s or 75s without much trouble.
The Gymnos are best kept as 1 male with 3 or more females.

 

[Toiletcar]

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.View attachment 1354663

This is one species I just can’t seem to keep. The longest I’ve had one live was 3 years. Next time I’m buying from Rapps and not a LFS.

 

[Toiletcar]

Mayaheros urophthalmus, very wide spread cichlid coming from all sorts of different biotopes, like cenotes, caves, rivers, lakes, brackish mangrove swamps, seagrass beds. This is certainly able to adapt to different conditions in the wild. Vieja maculicauda is another species with a large natural range, found in many different habitats all so observed feeding in brackish water. To me this adaptability they both show equates to hardiness, although not necessarily in the aquarium.

They are definitely one of the most adaptable CA cichlids for sure. Very prone to HITH in the aquarium. Very sensitive to poor water quality and stress.