vieja's synspilum & regani

[bill hundt]

I went out and got a regani and a synspilum. I am getting conflicting information. If you have or had one what can you tell me. They are housed in a 180 gal tank. The regiani is twice as big as the synspilum. They dance around each other but do not seem to do any harm. Both are very timid. I put 3 small silver dollars in and they both came out of hiding. The big question is can they live together as they grow? What type of groth do you get with them? I did all this research went to the store and forgot my plan.What a dumb ass.

 

[Jason_S]

in a 180 gallon tank I'd say you have a pretty good chance that they'll get along ok. regani will probably be the more aggressive of the 2 if they are the same sex. synspilum are typically a bit more laid back than most other Paratheraps and definitely more so than Viejas. They are not the fastest growers for sure. I'd say if you get 3/4" per month you're doing very good. be patient though as they'll both get very large (12" at least) and both will be extremely gorgeous. if you add any other cichlids, to be safe I'd add something medium sized that can hold it's own like maybe a few female convicts. female cons make excellent dither/target fish with larger more aggressive species. otherwise up the school of silver dollars to like 8ish and add some bottom feeders and you'll have an awesome setup.

 

[chiquita]

Agreed. In a larger tank your cichlids have a better chance of getting along. If they have some targets to take attention off of each other, even better.

 

[Darthsniper]

Red-heads are actually one of the cichlids that I have bred on and off for years. You need to figure out the sex of the two fish for one. However, in a tank that size I really can't see many problems. Every couple of years I get the itch and start breeding them and I have done this maybe 6-7 times. I gotta say that at least in my experience, when males get FULL grown they REALLY aren't as mello as so many people think. Again, that has been my experience. Just 5 months ago I had to get rid of a male that was housed in a 300 because he was creating so much chaos. Only the jag really punked him down.

Those are two really nice fish that you purchased, however, would you consider bringing one back and finding the other a mate? I think that in a tank that size with nothing but dithers you'd get to experience their parenting and breeding behaviors. And lets face it, that is one of the best things about cichlids. The other day my red-tiger mota female took a chunk outta my ass when I dropped my guard lol. My reaction was "that's my girl! Good mommy!".

No matter which one you picked, I think that you would have a really good experience if you mated them.

 

[bill hundt]

Thank you all for your insight you have given me a lot to toy with. I like the idea of female convicts, but the thought of breeding is good too. Jason I was thinking 8 silver dollars was to high, thoughts. Also what bottom fish do you like.

 

[Jason_S]

I think in a 180 gallon that 8 silver dollars and one pair of large cichlids would be fine. that or keep the silver dollar number down to around 4 and get a group of clown loaches they grow so slowly that a group of 8-10 or more would be fine for a long, long time. once they get larger and you need to cut the numbers down a bit, you'd be able to sell a large clown loach for a fair amount of money. I do like Darthsniper's idea of breeding one of them but I also think you'll be fine with one of each. it just depends on the personality of the 2 fish you have as well as wether or not you want to watch their breeding behaviors or not.

synspilum are typically a bit more laid back than most other Paratheraps and definitely more so than Viejas.

when I said they were a bit more laid back I was meaning in comparison to other Viejas and Paratheraps species. Others like bifasciatus, fenestratus, zonatus (supposedly, mine is rather laid back), maculicauda, argentea and even regani are known to be very aggressive. so in comparison to these guys who are known to be super aggressive, the synspilum is a bit more laid back and not so psychotic. I've had 3 synspilum in the past and none were too terribly aggressive and got along fine with other cichlids in a 150. the largest one I had grew up to around 7 or 8" and another one (a beauty that died shortly after I moved) grew to around 6" and was fine in a 125 with other cichlids.

You couldn't go wrong breeding either species because they're both gorgeous. If you want to breed synspilum I'd get some from Jeff Rapps. the ones he sells are pure synspilum as opposed to the mutts you usually see in lfs sold as Red heads. I've added a pic of the synspilum I used to have that I got from Rapps. this guy was probably around 4" in the pic so would have still colored up a lot as it grew. I really miss that fish.

 

[CentralMayhem]

hey bill.......ROSSI 4 EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 46!!!!!! woot woot. you know he'll come back from the first round crash to win the title again. the doctors in the house!!!! and both fish you are talking about will be ok together in a large tank. but breeding cichlids is fun so the decision lies with your preference