The most colorful dwarf pike?

Buphy

Dovii
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Jun 10, 2015
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So recently I’ve had to cut down on large tank an am only left with a 40 gallon (not currently stocked). I’m trying to decide what to stock and wanting to look into a brightly colored or high contrast pattern pike cichlid that would fit in a 40 breeder for life. Any suggestions?
 
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darth pike

Peacock Bass
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Korriban
The most coloful dwarves are really brought into the hobby. Sadly the most common, the tapajos regani, is probably the least colorful. But you get them for their unique behavior.
 

darth pike

Peacock Bass
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Most of the dwarves prey on Apisto fry, so if you have deep leaf litter you see them snaking through the leaves on the hunt. For those that like big glass bangers, my Cr. sp. wallacei would actually glass bang when the lights were off and saw their reflecting, not a behavior you usually see in 3" cichlids. I had a large, vertical piece of driftwood in a tank with a small hole through it. I would see one of my male noto's peeking through it and watching the goings on, darting out when needed. Basically the can act like their foot long cousins, but in a small, more managable size.
 
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mrrobxc

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Compressiceps is the most colorful dwarf. The others are mostly a tan base with a dark brown/black horizontal stripe running lengthwise down the middle of the body. Females will get a beautiful pink abdomen and have one to three nice ocelli isn’t their dorsals with a nice iridescent and red border. Both sexes will have some nice iridescent parts to their unpaired fins with a nice iridescent border. All that said, the compressiceps is a lot more striking.

The regani/notopthalmus, Orinoco Dwarf type will eat fish up to the size of rummynose tetras. Deeper bodies tetras can work long term. Compressiceps have smaller mouths and can be safely kept with rummies IME.

One last thing to consider, compressiceps are more demanding of water quality and oxygenation and are much more aggressive. They’ll need a 48” length tank minimum while you can get by with 36” for the others.
 

darth pike

Peacock Bass
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I mean, colorful is somewhat subjective. I would agree Compressiceps are the most colorful of the commonly seen dwarves, but from the rare pic of Cr. heckeli, I'd go with them as most colorful. They are also the smallest I believe, would love to get a hold of them. They come from the same habitat as compressiceps though, so I imagine they are equally territorial.

I have a theory though I'd love to try if I had a big enough tank. There are stories of compressiceps hunting each other down in a 10ft tank. But what if they are like certain Central American rapids dwellers that become more aggressive in a calm, low flow tank? Keepers have noticed they show far less aggression when kept in tanks that mimic their native, high current habitats. What if comps react the same way? The idea is a tank with massive amounts of shelter but also high current through out. It's almost as if the extra energy these rapid dwellers spend fighting the current needs a release, and in calm tanks this expresses as more aggression. Just a thought.
 
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