Introduction to Paratheraps bifasciatus keeping

[Archy]

Hello to all the group,

I am new to this forum and monsterfishkeeping and would like to know some basic information on keeping P.bifasciatus. I have a 125 g tank and just bought 4 of these fish(hope they are correctly identified by the guy who sell them to me, will take some pics and send them to the forum to make sure). so far the tank has no gravel and the landscape has just a few scattered big rocks. Also in the tank there is one tiger oscar and two salvinii. All the fish are from 3-5 inches and so far are getting alone.

Thanks for any help and advice. Keep up the good work that I have read in this site.

Thanks

Archy

 

[the animal guy]

a member once said "pics or it didn't happen".. So.... Pics or it didn't happen

 

[duanes]

I grew out a quartet in a 125, with other cichlids. When 2 paired up, I had to remove all other fish, except the pair.
They are omnivorous, and should be given a varied diet, beside pellets, mine appreciated romaine lettuce and de-shelled peas.

 

[decoy50]

I've had a group of three growing out for about 8 months now. I got them at 2.5in and they are probably close to 7.5in now. I've found them to be bulletproof. They will eat anything and are the fastest growing(melanurus close 2nd) out of the viejas I've kept.

If you don't want them to pair up and wreak havoc like duanes mentiond, you can always vent them and keep either males or females.

 

[Archy]

Hello crew, I still haven't had the chance to take some decent picture of the fish, but will work on that in the next days. Hope they don't pair up since I would like to keep them in a community with the other fish. Right now I feed them hikari cichlid excel pellets and bio-gold. For now the tank set-up is pretty barren, I want to do a aquascape with drift wood and some rocks. I still havent put any substrate in the tank, which do you think is better coarse or fine substrate for the bottom of the tank. How about the color of the substrate? I would like one that enhances the color of the fish and gives a natural look. Tank filtration is with two aquaclear 500, do you think this would be enough or should I get any other.

Many thanks for your advice

 

[duanes]

I think frequent water changes are more important than filtration.
Yes filtration gets rid of some of the stuff you see, but it's the chemical stuff that you don't see, that's most important to get rid of. And although the biological aspect of filtration gets rid of a portion of the chemical soup, water changes do much more to keep the system at its healthiest.

 

[BenDotz]

Love them. If you have good filtration, you could power feed them. As mentioned above, they eat everything and grow fast.

 

[Aquaticfan]

Another favorite "old Vieja" species I absolutely love. Of course I don't think there is one of these species that I don't love. I love all the old Vieja's. Its one of the few I don't have in my current collection.



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[Aquaticfan]

Hello to all the group,

I am new to this forum and monsterfishkeeping and would like to know some basic information on keeping P.bifasciatus. I have a 125 g tank and just bought 4 of these fish(hope they are correctly identified by the guy who sell them to me, will take some pics and send them to the forum to make sure). so far the tank has no gravel and the landscape has just a few scattered big rocks. Also in the tank there is one tiger oscar and two salvinii. All the fish are from 3-5 inches and so far are getting alone.

Thanks for any help and advice. Keep up the good work that I have read in this site.

Thanks

Archy

Welcome to the forum btw.

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[Aquaticfan]

I think frequent water changes are more important than filtration.
Yes filtration gets rid of some of the stuff you see, but it's the chemical stuff that you don't see, that's most important to get rid of. And although the biological aspect of filtration gets rid of a portion of the chemical soup, water changes do much more to keep the system at its healthiest.

I agree with duanes on water changes. I like to do a very good sized water change every 5 days or so. Some where around 50 to 75% per change.

But I'm also a fanatic about big filtration. I like my water crystal clear so high quality good mechanical filtration is a must. Along with big amounts of bio filtration like a wet dry or a quality big canister filter. I'm personally not a big fan of hob filters. They just don't get me What I want for filtration and they seem to not last.

So I like to go big with both filtration and water changes. Your fish will love you fot it.

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