Orange Chromides (E. maculatus)

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wolfsburgfanatic

wolfsburgfanatic

Fire Eel
MFK Member
May 17, 2008
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Frederick, MD
Anyone here have any experience with these Asian Cichlids? I'm trying to settle on a future tankmate for my Dragon Goby when he gets a nice big brackish tank (55L or bigger). One of the websites I found mentioned these as being brackish and peaceful so I'd like to learn more. I've also read that they are very sensitive to water quality, but thats about the extent of what I've found. Any information would be helpful.
 
They're not hard to keep. Finding healthy specimens to begin with is more difficult IME.
Once settled in they take to changes in salinity quite well, so long as the water is kept clean.
They're not very difficult to spawn either. Once started they spawn regularly. They fry would be easy to raise if you had plenty to feed them on but I personally never bothered. My fry would feed on algae and whatever teeny tiny organisms they found in the algae until they were about 1/4" and were eventually eaten by tankmates once they started to wander away from their parents.
Sexing them is a little tricky. There are said to be several ways of sexing them but I found that sexing them by the caudal fin held true. In males the caudal fin is uniform in color. In females, the caudal fins upper and lower edges streaked in a slight milky color. If you've ever seen a comet platy, it's the same pattern only the caudal itself is orange (or red or yellow - whatever your chromides are sold to you as) and the edges are a faint pale bluey white. Not the easiest thing to notice but it worked for me.
Overall, they're fun and not hard to keep and IMo would make great tankmates for a dragon goby as long as they could be given some space of their own. Mine were a bit aggressive toward one another and being cichlids, they are territorial in general once paired but mine didn't mind one bit if any goby or killifish came and intruded on their territory even while they were spawning.

Some pics
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1-11-06058-E.jpg


1-11-06208-E.jpg
 
I would get the 'red' version that straightjacketstar is showing versus the wild form, the wild form is more of a hardwater, but freshwater fish than brackish. The man made color form has been kept in brackish for quite some time now and would do better. Ironically, I never got the wild form to breed in brackish, but did in hardwater ... never got the red form above to breed in hardwater, but did in brackish.
 
thanks a lot for the info guys; and great pics too :thumbsup:

Do they eat the regular cichlid pellets? Do they tend to steal every bit of food in the tank, or are they more laid back at meal time?
 
From what I remember (kept them over 13 years ago now or so) they behaved very similiar to kribs in temperment.
 
I had some ages ago, and do recall that they were hardy, but they were always a little on skittish side, as in not up next to the glass most of the time. They were otherwise accepting of most foods, and I did not have them in brackish.
I ordered some when I worked at Pet Supermarket, but the ones that came in both times had serious camallanus infestations
 
darth pike;1899861; said:
I would get the 'red' version that straightjacketstar is showing versus the wild form, the wild form is more of a hardwater, but freshwater fish than brackish. The man made color form has been kept in brackish for quite some time now and would do better. Ironically, I never got the wild form to breed in brackish, but did in hardwater ... never got the red form above to breed in hardwater, but did in brackish.
Click to expand...

Good to know. The wild variant looks so beautiful though... I need to make a trip to some not-so-local fish stores - the only possible tankmates I can find at my LFS (other than guppies/mollies etc) is a pair of knight gobies (very tempting though). I'll have to see what I can find. I got the new tank sooner than expected and its cycling as we speak. Smaller than I had hoped for though: http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=151784

What would you guys say is the min. tank size for E. maculatus? Probably should have been the first question I asked :duh:

Brackishdude, your tank is amazing! Loved the fire eel especially... and where did you find an Anableps?? Nice work!

Thanks again for all the info guys! :thumbsup:
 
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