tetrachantus juvies
- Thread starter qieter
- Start date
I've raised many Cubans up from that size. Very active cichlid with a great personality. Not a picky eater at all; I feed mine a mix of NLS Thera +A 1 mm pellets and Omega One Super Color 1.5 mm pellets with the occasional freeze dried krill or frozen spirulina brine shrimp. Mine have grown fairly quickly up until they reach the 5"-6" range (usually about .75"-1" per month) and then slow considerably. The one problem I have encountered with the species is conspecific aggression is usually rather high, so keep an eye out for that. I really do love Cubans. I wish you the best of luck with yours, I'm sure you'll love them too.
I've had four of these and all have died within 3-4 months. I'm not trying to deter you at all... just sharing my experience. I had three that I grew out from about an inch and one just recently that I bought at 7.5" thinking he would be more durable. Three of them including the big one died from stress. The other was by mistake, which I'll share in a second. These fish were kept in community tanks and I've been told that I should try to keep one in a solitary or pair tank, but I 'm not sure I will try this again... at least not any time soon. The one other that I lost goes like this... I sold all of my big cichlids in like May 2010 and decided to grow out a group of all males in a mixed community (what I still have). I was moving the grow outs from my 56g tank and putting them into the 265g, however I had a 12" wolf fish in the 265g and these were my only two tanks running at the time. I asked my girlfriend to help by holding the wolf fish in the 10" net against the glass of the 265g. The wolf fish was just chilling. So I'm dropping the little guys 3" or so into the 265g on the opposite end of the tank (7' long). My girlfriend is NOT paying attention to the tank and watching TV. I just got the last of the little guys out of the 56g and turn around to put them into the 265 when I notice the wolf fish is not in the net anymore and is chompping down onwhat looks to be my lil Cuban!!! I just don't have any luck with Cubans I guess??? Good luck with yours.
That's interesting Anthony, I've raised majority of mine in communities as well and never had any stress issues or untimely deaths. I'm interested to see what other members' experiences have been.
Anthony and Mike, Thanks for sharing your experience. I now house them in 2 tanks, 8 in each tanks. Yes I do observe that there is a high conspecific aggression. They are only eating frozen bloodworms and not yet touching the tetra bits I dropped for them though. Im not sure what I should do in the future...should I mix them with similar size festae juvies in a bigger tank?
How big are the tanks they are in now? You could mix them with the festae, but I wouldn't want to risk losing any to the cubans.
I just re-read what I wrote and let me clarify... the 3" fish that I had in the 56g were a mix of ca/sa, there was only one Cuban in there. It just so happened that the wolf fish snagged him out of all the little guys (6 or 7) that I put in the 265g. Again, this is just IME. I've seen many people have Cubans in community tanks and do very well... just not me. Mine were all pretty aggressive, however once another fish started chasing them or messing with them too much they uped and died on me, maybe Cubans and I were just not ment to be, lol. I still love them tho.
I've got 100+ fry right now and even at 1/4" they're just plain evil to each other. They will literally attack and eat a piece of flake that is three times bigger than they are as well.
Luckily my pair are extremely gentle towards each other, which isn't that common with the species from what I hear from other Cuban keepers. My male is in my avatar.
Luckily my pair are extremely gentle towards each other, which isn't that common with the species from what I hear from other Cuban keepers. My male is in my avatar.
I have 3 in a 125 with some other aggressive cichlids. They are great eaters and are the least shy fish in the tank despite being the smallest.They are housed with a midas pair, 2 salvini, and 6 silver dollars. I used to have 5 but lost one to bloat and another to injury. They are nasty to eachother. I thought keeping them in a 6ft tank would help but it took alot of decor and other tankmates to prevent them from pinning eacother to the surface. I got them at like 3/4" and my largest is like 3" now. I got them in febuary. I have seen some flaring between them lately so hopefully I get pair which would make me very happy. Awesome fish for sure though.