keeping Crenicichla regani?

[rrcoolj]

So I am looking for a pair to put in my 29 and i was pondering on getting one of these. I am compltely new to pikes so I know very little about them so I want to ask a few q's...

1)Is a 29 gallon big enough for 1 pair and some mild tankmates?

2)Can they take pellet food?(I really don't want to feed live all thier lives, what do you guys feed yours(pikes in general))

3) Will they thrive and breed in a pH of 7.2?

4) are they sensative or hardy?

That's all I can think of right now, any comments welcomed.

 

[darth pike]

1) Probably. Regani are known as the "peaceful" pike and have been paired and bred in 20 gallon long tanks. Having said that, they are still cichlids, pike cichlids at that, so an individual might be differant. I kept a single female in a 20 gallon long with a convict and jewel cichlid without issues.

2) I only got one dwarf pair onto prepared food, my pair of compressiceps would accept flakes believe it or not. But they couldn't keep weight on with just flakes. Mostly I fed frozen food, with most finally learning to accept freeze-dried.

3) Thrive, yes. Breed? Depends on which regani you have. Regani is considered a "super species complex" much like Apistogramma agassizii. The ones from the Tefe region are super blackwater species. Luckily, the ones most commonly available right now are the Rio Tapajos race, for which your pH would be fine. Breeding success will have more to do with hardness for egg development than pH will. The softer the better.

4) With maybe the possible exception of compressiceps, regani seem to be the hardiest dwarf pike to keep. Deffinately more so than the blackwater species like noto's or the colombian race of wallacii.


If you can find them, I'd deffinately recommend giving them a go. Females will have either blotches or spots in their dorsal fin (depending on which race). Just make sure you have more caves than you do pikes. You would need larger, mid sized tetras to go with them which might stretch the bioload of a 20 gallon long. They will eat smaller tetras. Regani are listed at 6" max, but most won't get that large. MtnPike is the only ones I know of that have one that large. Still waiting for a pic of it though!!

 

[rrcoolj]

Thanks for the info. i will definatly look into them more.

 

[its_an_obsession]

i think darth covered it all.

id recommend sinking carnivore pellets and mysis shrimp as good foods to feed them. thats what i feed my noto's

 

[rrcoolj]

okay I can do frozen it just might be a bit of a pain to feed live all the time.