South American Cichlids • Laetacara Araguaiae ("Buckelkopf")

[magpie]

Anyone here have experience with them?

How about photos? Please share!

What size tank did you have them in, and with what tankmates?



Thanks!

[Just Me...]

I have experience with Curviceps. Want me to elaborate on them?

[magpie]

Sure!

[magpie]

Shameless bump to see if anyone missed this....

[RayQ]

A couple photos from 2008, I couldn't get them to spawn, but, I imagine that is because of my really hard and high ph tap water. They were some of the best snail eating cichlids that I have ever kept.

[magpie]

Thanks so much for the great photos! I had read somewhere else that they like snails... I have a planted tank, so yes do have snails for them.

What were their personalities like other than that they're snail fiends?

There's just not a ton of info out there. Thanks!

[Chromedome52]

My own experience with araguaiae is mixed. I had a pair that spawned several times, but the fry were extremely sensitive and did not like my water. They were kept in a 15 gallon tank, and got along fine. I'm pretty sure these were tank raised fish, though I can't say for certain. The male of that pair is my avatar photo.

OTOH, I currently have a pair of wild caught fish, and the difference in personality is considerable. First, the male killed 6 others in a long 30 gallon tank when they were still young! The only survivor is a small fish, which I think is a female, but they have never spawned so far as I can tell, and most of the time "she" is hiding from him in the plants. I did have some Loricariid cats with them for a while, but he seemed to ignore them.

Given the opportunity, I would get more of them again. I still haven't given up on the ones I have, but I'd like to find some nice tank raised stock again.

[RayQ]

I only kept them with tetras, but, they weren't shy really, I had four of them in a 15 long, moderately planted and didn't loose any of them, no real aggression between them. I will get more again at some point. . .

[magpie]

It's interesting because I read so many varying reports on the aggression of the Laetacara, both wild and captive bred.

I appreciate the input from you all. I think I'm going to pick a few up in a week or two, hope to get a pair out of them. I'm thinking 4-6 to start?

[DeadFishFloating]

My experience with Laetacara. Wild caught are aggressive, and a dominant male or pair will eliminate other dwarf cichlids in smaller tanks (30 gallon breeders and smaller). Tank raised Laetacara are not that aggressive and I have only witnessed conspecific aggression (3 pairs of curviceps in a 6 foot 150 gallon tank), even with other dwarf cichlids (apisto agassizii & keyholes) present.

[magpie]

I have a 65-gallon 3-ft tank, well-planted. If it was a 4-ft tank I'd not worry as much... I guess I will have to just wait and see what happens. ?

[magpie]

Well, I got a couple of these guys, and am loving them so far! They're adorable, already starting to color up, and are pretty active. They be-bop around the tank, swimming around and looking for food, and don't seem overly shy, they're not skittish at all, and they've been with me for less than 48 hours. They are obviously mainly bottom dwellers but mine also swim up around the plants looking for food / snails and they even go check out the floating plants and swim in and out of the roots looking for food - so far they seem like they use the whole tank more than other dwarves like apistos. They're about 1 to 1.25" right now, so still young.

I'll get some photos up later on.

You're definitely right about the snails! Bonus...

[magpie]

OK, here are some photos from when I first got them. I should take some updated ones now that they've been here for a bit.

The dominant one chases the other at feeding time but not enough to keep the other in hiding, and no damage done. They are little pigs and very food motivated - I haven't found anything that they won't eat. They'll even take bites out of veggie and algae wafers on the bottom, and will come to the surface during dinner time if there are some floating foods present. They are wild-caught, so I expected at least some initial pickiness. They don't seem to have one turf specifically, just kind of hang around throughout the tank. They could care less about anyone else in the tank, with the exception of snails, who they actively hunt. I'm enamored with them! They're really cute and their colors are coming out more now - the yellows and pinks are more pronounced.

The dominant fish




You can kind of see the colors here, at least on the fins, but I need to take some more to really show them off.


Who says we're bottom dwellers? There might be snails up here. Or flakes. Or pellets. Or brine shrimp....


Deciding whether this snail is too big or snackable.


The less dominant one


Hanging out with the stiphodon goby female




And totally unrelated, the Apisto baenschi inka snuffling around the substrate for food.