I take back everything good I've said about c.cutteri

[Hybridfish7]

keeping one female in a tank of bigger things it couldn't mess with as a kid? that was fun. I miss that fish. because of that fish, it was my favorite species until I got my current pair. getting a pair nowadays when I have more knowledge of them? absolute chaos and I hate it. I got my pair, had them in a QT tank with a bunch of other CA cichlids, and they got dropped on their heads by all of them. I put the small pair in a 10 so 1. they'd recover and 2. they'd be in more contact, but this was counterproductive because they'd just hide and fight. I tried getting some platies in there to bring them out more, which worked, until the male killed them all in a week, and then turned on the female. I put him in with my nanolutea pair (big mistake), and got the female in more quarantine. the male nano and cutteri got in a fight, cutteri took his mate, spawned 3 times with her, which is how I learned cutteri can't really fertilize nanolutea eggs. as a result of this, I guess the female nanolutea got fed up with getting beat up after every infertile spawn died, and paired back up with the male nano. I moved that pair to their own tank, and the male cutteri proceeded as usual with beating up the female, who was now back in the same tank with the male. As I touched on in another post of mine, I put my pair of HRPs in their tank while I tore down their old tank and got their new one refurbished. This was a 3-4 hour window. I get back, the male cutteri is corralling the pair behind the sponge filter, and the male HRP pretty much no longer had any fins. The pair of HRPs is recovered now, at least from the cutteri attack. I moved him to one of my empty QT tanks, and got the female in with my ataeniobius. Then she took on the role of the male and ripped the face off one of my male ataeniobius. That is not an exaggeration. His face was gone, bone was exposed, eyes were hanging out or missing. I unfortunately had to put him out of his misery. I put the female in the same tank as the male, he killed her in a day. Currently trying to rehome him.
TLDR, the cutteri experience is not a good one.

 

[duanes]

My experiences were the total opposite, I kept the pair all to themselves in a 125, where they spawned a few times before they were given away.
The male hit around 7"-8" female maybe half that size.

Male above in regular coloration, below pair w female in the foreground in spawning colors.

They raised many fry, and were great parents.


Female, she was maybe 4" in the shot below.

 

[Hybridfish7]

My experiences were the total opposite, I kept the pair all to themselves in a 125, where they spawned a few times before they were given away.
The male hit around 7"-8" female maybe half that size.

Male above in regular coloration, below pair w female in the foreground in spawning colors.

They raised many fry, and were great parents.


Female, she was maybe 4" in the shot below.

I remember you said your sajica got to a similar size, how big did those get?

 

[duanes]

The male sajica probably beat the male cutteri in size by another 2" (maybe more).
With those two species though, their bulk and height seem to necessitate tanks of at least 6 ft long, minimum for a pair to keep the peace.
Even then, I always had one of those egg crate dividers with a space carved out the female could escape thru, just in case, like the one below.

The rule I use for my tanks, is once any cichlid hits 7 ", a 75 gal is then too small for even a single pair.
The myrnae, red points and nanoluteus all did fine in 75s.
Some other cichlids at just 5 " seem too much for anything but 6 footers.
I really like the genus Nosferatu, and have never been able to keep just 5" adults from killing each other in under 6 ft tanks.

N. pantostictus above, N. bartoni below

 

[Hybridfish7]

Holy hell that's a big sajica, how long did it take him to get that big? Was he wild caught?

 

[duanes]

Holy hell that's a big sajica, how long did it take him to get that big? Was he wild caught?

It was probably 2 years to max out in my tank for the male. The female only reached half the size, because the energy used constantly producing broods.
I picked them up at a GCCA auction where she was under 2", male a little larger, so I never found out true age or if F1 or whatever.

 

[LordMantill]

I think I have made severe mistakes, got a 2 in cutteri and 2 1in sajica along with a keyhole and electric blue acara and cutteri is absolutely terrorizing others except for my tetras doesn't even looks at them...

 

[ryansmith83]

It’s usually advisable not to mix Centrals with peaceful South Americans, especially keyholes which are one of the most passive cichlids you can own. I would advise separating the keyholes and the acara before they are stressed to the point of being sick.

 

[LordMantill]

It’s usually advisable not to mix Centrals with peaceful South Americans, especially keyholes which are one of the most passive cichlids you can own. I would advise separating the keyholes and the acara before they are stressed to the point of being sick.

Ok I gotta stop keep saying keyholes it's actually biotodoma cupido I believe and was sold to me being similar to keyhole at about 4 in while acara is little under 2 and they never interact. It's the cutteri that don't get along with anyone and even then he never bothers the cupido and gives him way. I really need to do my research before I buy fish

 

[duanes]

Whether cupido , or keyhole, both are S American, and do not tolerate the same level of aggression threshold as almost any Central American, so they really don't belong in the same tank.
Cutteri may appear outwardly passive, even cutesy when young, but can be as territorial as any other Central American cichlid, so they are doing what evolution has demanded of them to survive in their environment.
S America's being from much more diversified fish populations have evolved slightly less "intolerant" attitudes.
But aggression level aside, their water parameter needs are different enough to warrant separation.
Sure....if your tap water is neutral and only moderately mineralized, both geographical types will acceptl it, and may remain healthy, but any cichlid from east of the Andes prefer softer and less mineral content water than Central Americans that have evolved to live in highly calcified liquid rock.
S Americans from west of the Andes are much more tolerant of alkaline water parameters, and seem to be on a more similar aggression scale to centrals. Andinoacara and Mesoheros are perfect examples.
Below, is some collection point data for water parameters where Biotadoma cupido are common.

If you compare that data to collection point data for most Central Americans (like cutteri) below, the differences are quite dramatic.
Be sure and compare pH, Total, and Carbonate Hardness, and Conductivity.