Is there such a thing as a centerpiece fish for my subtropical SA 75?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
AutumnEffect said:
That is an awesome tank lekkiandgas! Love the plants too. I've never had good luck with plants, so I'm envious of those who do.

So it looks like my choices are:

Electric Blue/Blue Acara
Black Acara
Australoheros facetus

For those of you that have owned any of these, can I keep more than one female together? Say 3? Or should I stick with a single specimen regardless of sex?

Once I decide, what is the best way to find one? I really don't want to buy a large group and grow them out (doing that now with a batch of Dollar Sunfish). Could I just buy one and keep it regardless of sex? Is it possible to buy only females?
Click to expand...

I would order online if your fish store cannot get one for you. As far as sexing, most of the time the vendors would have the fish very small and it would be hard for them to sex for you. Some online vendors have a minimum order and then you end up buying more than one fish. Jeff Rapps (www.tangledupincichlids.com) doesn't have a minimum order so if he carries it, he can just send you one, and if they are large enough, he can make a guess at the sex. His stock list changes weekly. You can try aquabid.com to see if anyone is selling the Black Acara or Australoheros. Another place is thewetspottropicalfish (http://www.wetspottropicalfish.com/index.php/fish)

Here's a sample from aquabid, the cichlid is from Uruguay so it doesn't need a heater

http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwcichlids&1442595607

How far is ThatFishPlace from you?
 
Last edited:
A. facetus isn't readily available in the hobby. About the only place you'd be able to find them would be from someone who collected them in Uruguay and brought them home. A. sp. Red Ceibal and a. oblongum are the only ones that I'm aware of that are being bred by fish farms and regularly distributed. Jeff Rapps may have other rare species from time to time, but I haven't seem them regularly.
 
I'm about half an hour away from That Fish Place. I was just there a couple days ago, and they didn't have anything I was interested in. Can they special order stuff? It was pretty busy when I was there, so I didn't get a chance to ask.

I have ordered fish online before and would have no problem doing it again. I am not interested in a group of fish so people like Jeff who will sell individual fish would be the way to go if I can't get it locally.

I'm still not sure I want to go the heated tank route. I've found a minimum temp for the blue acara as 72*F. Does that sound right? If so, that's still a bit warmer than winter tank temps in my basement... They are pretty though.

I'll keep an eye on Aquabid and Jeff's site to see what comes up.

Are Cichlasoma bimaculatum, Cichlasoma portalegrense and Aequidens portalegrensis all the same fish? I ask because a google search for 'black acara' brings up all three and I want to make sure I am looking for the correct fish. It appears the last two names were used historically and the first name, Cichlasoma bimaculatum, is the current one.
 
What temp does the room get during winter?

Cichlasoma bimaculatum and Cichlasoma portalegrense are different fish. Aequidens portalegrensis is the same fish as CIchlasoma portalegrense.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/identifying-your-cichlasoma.366569/


According to this you may probably be able to put the Cichlasoma portalegrense in an unheated tank, due to the origins being from Argentina

http://www.fishchannel.com/freshwater-aquariums/species-info/cichlid/port-cichlids.aspx

http://www.fishbase.se/summary/Cichlasoma-portalegrense.html

Liveaquaria has it in stock

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=747+870+1598&pcatid=1598
 
Last edited:
Temp gets about no less than 65*F, normally around 67*F most of the winter. High temp in the summer is around 73*F. Maybe 74*F if the outside temp is nearing 95*F.


Thanks for the clarification about Cichlasoma bimaculatum and Cichlasoma portalegrense. I appreciate it. Not sure how I missed the Cichlasoma portalegrense before, but I think it's pretty much what I'm looking for. I will do some additional research on the distribution/temperature ranges before making a final decision.

I wonder if That Fish Place could order one for me. I'll have to check .
 
SInce you specified South American cichlids, both convicts and firemouths do not fit the bill, they are Central Americans.
And temp narrows your choices even more, but Jon and others have mentioned, all the Uruguayan cichlids do fit. Mine have thrived in temps down into the 50sF.
Some examples
Australoheros sp red ceibal

Gymnogeophagus gymnogenys "yerbalito"

Cichlasoma dimerus

Ceibals will spawn in temps as low as 60sF
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom