Paraneetroplus nebuliferus

[ahrooo]

Hello all,

Does anyone have any experience keeping this riverine species? If so, what has your experience been? I have read conflicting accounts about their conspecific aggression. Are they brutish to each other? Should they be kept in small groups?

Can they co-habitat with another species, specifically, a member of Thorichthys group?

Any insight would be great.

 

[duanes]

I have kept them, and found intraspecies aggression to be high.
But think it was my own fault.
I wonder in retrospect, if the current I provided was too wimpy, and without that wall of water to constantly push hard enough to use up excess energy, spurred on the aggression.
And if rheophillic "non-cichlids" would have been a preferable choice as tank mates.
If I were to try them again, I would probably put a number of powerheads on one end of the tank proving a strong wall of water across the length.of the tank.

The type habitat they come from are riffles and rapids, and has quite the flow rate, similar to below.

IMO Better tank mates would be dithering tetras from similar rheophillic conditions like these below, I caught in the above streams.

I believe a dithering school of tetras would have shifted the cichlids focus off each other.
Most Thorichthys prefer only moderate current, so providing both types in the same tank might be complicated unless the tank was quite large., but could be possible in a tank 180 gallons or larger. (the tank I used was only a 150 gal)
If you do try them, it will be interesting to see if your experiences mirrors mine.

 

[ahrooo]

Thanks for the pictures.

I was seriously considering combining them with T. maculipinnis, my favorite fish, but I think that project needs a 120-in aquarium to really do right. So, I will likely tweak my plan, and instead, do two separate species only tanks for each fish.

I have not had the opportunity to acquire large wild-type CA tetras before, maybe one day, but I doubt it as they are either illegal or not often available.

Do recall what river is pictured above?

 

[duanes]

The first and 3 rd pics, are Rio Canitas, and the 2nd pic is Rio Pacora.
Some of the most available Central American tetras these days are from the genus Astyanax. ( I just saw on Wet Spots stock list)
A friend in Milwaukee had a shoal of Astyanax that were almost 5" long.
I also saw the tetras from the genus Bryconamericas on the list , same genus as my photos above (although might not be the same species)