Hi!😃😃
Omg! What a beautiful baby!!😃😃
What a blessing; ey?
I'd look on Google for this is what I'd do!😃

 

Found this info. Nice fish.

Ivanacara bimaculata

Genus: Ivanacara
Species: bimaculata
Group: Dwarf cichlids
Description: Eigenmann
Year: 1912
Previous scientific name: Nannacara bimaculata
Geographical area: South America
Type locality: Erukin, Guyana.
Distribution: The Potaro River and its vicinity in the Essequibo River area.
NCS Species description: David Rejdemyhr, 2015-01-03


Temp for water
24-29 ° C

Grows to 6 cm & 80 l tank

pH 4-7

Natural biotope
Occurs mainly stagnant water with a lot of plants. In the biotope you will also find many decaying plant parts such as leaves and branches.

Food
Eats small invertebrates that it finds in the bottom sediment. Also eats plant parts and other things it finds. In aquariums, it is unpretentious and eats most of the sinking such as pellets and flake feed. Feel free to feed with live food or frozen food from time to time.

Gender difference
The female is smaller than the male. The male has clearer colors and markings on the gill caps as well as longer anal and breast fins.

Aquarium environment
Prefers a well-decorated aquarium with many plants and other hiding places in the form of roots and stones. As it is cave-playing, it is favorable to provide it with a cave of some shape.

Behavior & play
The species is a substrate grape that prefers a cave as a playground. For lack of it, it also likes to play on a smooth part of a rock or root. The eggs, which can be up to 300, hatch after 2-3 days and the fry are free-swimming after another 8-10 days. In brood care, the female is also very aggressive towards the male and it is usually possible to raise fry even in an aquarium with many species.

 

Hmmmm....

i understand they’re extremely rare

Yep.
And so, like a few of us have done in these situations where there are few to none who have kept the species before... you should look into the natural habitat of these Cichlids. That is, where they were collected from. What are the aquatic conditions in Guyana in the Potaro River and nearby in the Essequibo River basin? And fortunately for you, you have an outstanding resource available in the man that collected the parents of the fish you are looking at purchasing.
Some things this guy should be able to provide you,

• PH of the water they were collected from. Current PH of the water they are are now in. Does he know if the PH of the aquatic environment varies due to seasonality changes in the geographic area? (Whitewater/High PH conditions during times of heavy rainfall followed by near blackwater conditions when things dry out?).
• Temperature. What was the water temp in the locality these Cichlids were collected from? Hot (78 degrees plus) or something else. And once again.. the water temp they are being kept in now.
• And how are these Cichlids spawning? Do the males act like 'rage machines', needing multiple females to spawn with to more safely spread aggression? Pair bonds? Is the female hyper-protective of the spawning site after fertilization? That is, in smaller tank will she potentially kill the male (or others of the same species) in protecting the eggs or free-swimming fry?

-
GREAT INFO put up by @Aussieman57!
These little guys look and sound like they are pretty amazing. You are getting something unique and potentially valuable ($$$). Ensuring success at the source will definitely help to reassure you at least, that you are on the right track. And definitely, having a plan going in to this thing, always helps.
Good luck!

 

From what I read even the females are aggressive when spawning and will aggressively guard eggs that hatch in 2-3 days and fend off "most" interlopers in a community tank. Sound like an interesting species.

 

A bit like these little beasts?

Aggressive Female Checkerboard

hi all, new to the forum but not fish keeping, kept marine for many years and various planted tanks. about 4 months ago decided to venture into biotope and decided on a rio n egro black water scape in a 15g, 2 pieces of wood,lots of sticks, branches, botanicals, oak leave litter, substrate is...

www.cichlid-forum.com

People get these tiny little (Harmless?) Cichlids and place them in 10 gallon-sized (or even smaller) tanks. Then the females go on a rampage after spawning - and ALL the males die! (kinda like a Roberto Rodriguez movie?!!).
So, in attempting anything with a species that might behave anything in the aquarium like Checkerboard Cichlid females do? I would stock those in nothing smaller in size than a 20 gallon 'long' sized aquarium, with a 30" X 12" bottom footprint.

 

Good luck, this will be very interesting if you really can get them.

 

Thanks everyone. They have been shipped my direction, eager to give it a shot.
They’re going into a 125 gallon darkwater setup. I’ve got driftwood and a ton of almond leaves in there.
thank you for the suggested questions @Auballagh

 

Thanks everyone. They have been shipped my direction, eager to give it a shot.
They’re going into a 125 gallon darkwater setup. I’ve got driftwood and a ton of almond leaves in there.
thank you for the suggested questions @Auballagh

Lucky you! The setup sounds great, keep us posted.....

 

 

In that tank at the moment I just have some Copella and a few Otocinclus. I started with 6 Copella but now there are more than 20! I have been waiting for some interesting dwarf cichlids to become available, but here (in Ecuador, surprisingly maybe), they are very rarely available, just keeping my eyes open until something interesting turns up. I have other tanks with bigger cichlids.

Regarding the almond leaves and wood, I have never had a problem with them, even though I have soft water with low KH, the pH doesn't seem to drop below 6.6-6.8. Perhaps because I do regular weekly water changes (tap water is 6.8). Without the water changes maybe the pH would gradually decrease, but that would probably not be a problem for your fish.

 

I think that quote from Mike Wise might have been in answer to my post, when I very briefly thought I might be able to get some…

 

Interesting, and very hopeful that they are the correct fish!

I only found these, not much information here but you might be able to contact him.

Selling - Ivanacara bimaculata

Hi, I have multiple pairs and fry of Ivanacara bimaculata for sale. These are offspring from fish collected in Guyana in 2019. The fish must be picked up in Stockholm/Örebro, Sweden. If anyone is interested in buying a larger quantity there might be a chance to get them delivered to countries...

apistogramma.com

 

That must be the man i bought from. Same video he sent to me, and same origination point- stockholm. Anyone familiar with that seller/reputation?

 

@Aussieman57 @Auballagh @fishybuisness @Mazan
They are out and about, dancing with eachother already. one of them ate a cherry shrimp.. I was worried it would choke tbh. The white spot by their anus is much more apparent in real life, but some of these photos were able to capture it. Any thoughts?

 

Also- the breeder responded to that list of questions you suggested, here’s what he said.
The fish shipped from Sweden.

The most prominent difference between the sexes is that the females have a white spot around their genital opening on the belly. See the following two pictures for example:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...f/Nannacara_bimaculata_Armbruster.jpg/640px-Nannacara_bimaculata_Armbruster.jpg
https://www.ciklid.org/artregister/artbild/i_bimaculata05par-hans_vermeulen.jpg

As for your other questions:

Temperature in biotope around 25 C. pH 4.5. I don't expect pH to fluctuate much over the year, it is a blackwater biotope. Similar conditions in aquaria. Higher pH is fine if you don't wish to spawn them.

They have a pretty loose pair bond. Either the female or the male may become aggressive before/during spawning. Mainly the female takes care of the spawn in my experience but the male helps to guard the offspring. They are pretty bad parents and often eat their eggs and they will start to chase their offspring when they reach around 1,5-2 cm (if the pair decides to spawn again).

If you wish to spawn them it is best to spawn them in a tank of their own. I don't realistically see them successfully spawning and keeping their fry in a community tank. I spawned mine in tanks ranging between 30-50 liters. It is easy to get them to lay eggs but it is more difficult to get free swimming fry. Probably because the parents are quite skittish when they have spawned. They prefer a tank that is very well decorated with lots of hiding places and floating plants to ensure that the tank is not too bright. These things seem to be key in order to get a successful spawn, in my experience.

 

Useful information, and yours are looking good considering they just arrived. Keep us posted.

 

Totally seeing that male already in your fresh arrivals from Sweden.
That's a good thing.
Showing and displaying natural coloration is a key indicator of an overall acceptance of the environment. That is - Not too stressed.
And so, now?
It's.....
One.
Step.
At.
A.
Time.......
Or, as they say, "To Spawn, or Not Too Spawn?"
That IS the question.

 

I added more plants tonight and moved the wood around, the fish really colored up nicely afterwards. he chased her around a bit and then they were dancing with eachother, swimming in very tight circles to the point of rubbing one another. I wish I had caught a picture.
any plant or hardscaping advice? I’m new to plants In freshwater so if you have shggestions I’d love to hear them.
i plan to keep adding rocks and plants, I buy two new seiryu stones every couple weeks. I have enough almond leaves to double up on what’s in the aquarium. Should I?
The male squared off with my Cacatuoides tonight, no actual fighting.

 

Oh wow.
Your aquarium is looking very nice.
The look you have now, and the direction you are taking it, seem very good to me!
Just a couple details I can offer, that you could consider.

• Add some Java moss to some of your textured/rougher surface rocks. Plus, a little of it placed here & there on some bog wood pieces would look pretty nice. Esp. if you can mask any of those wood pieces with visible cut points or other artificial places showing. Super glue actually works pretty good to get that stuff started out where you want to place it.
• Anubias comes in a bewildering array of types, sizes and actual species. You might want to indulge yourself online and look at potentially purchasing some of the less common types. Placing a mix of those different types onto the wood and some rocks looks pretty natural, and helps to sustain continued strong growth throughout. That is, if you have a species that is being a temporary 'sulker' or something... another Anubias species might be reacting differently and booming in growth for you.

Otherwise, your aquarium looks a little young, but has got some nice bones and should grow out for you into something pretty outstanding!

 

Thank you! I didn’t know it could be super glued. I was just going to get some super glue for my reef tank, now I have even more reasoning. I’ve been struggling to hide the edges on my wood and I’d been using rock piles. Java moss incoming!

 

Keep us updated on your progress with more pics! This one will be fun to watch develop.

 

I was told on a different forum that these Bimaculata will require RODI water, which means the Cacatuoides will need to go. Does anyone have any insight on this matter?
due to the Bimaculata rarity I do t mind prioritizing them, just looking for opinions on water standards

 

I am not sure as there is so little information about them, but I would not be surprised if they need very soft, low pH water to breed successfully (for the eggs to be fertile and not attacked by fungus), even if the adults can survive OK in slightly harder water. You might find you eventually have aggression issues with the cacatuoides anyway.

 

+1 to @Mazan on that.
-
The water chemistry needs of the I bimaculata will definitely have precedence over the A. cacatuoides. But, of the two I would believe that the little Cockatoos will be the most adaptable to the water chemistry conditions in the aquarium. Found naturally in the wild at higher elevations with white water conditions up to a PH of 8.0, on down to the basin where things get down to the mid - high 6 range in PH - this species should be able to adapt well to whatever you deem is necessary for keeping the I bimaculata.
However, softening the water is one thing, but I would be careful not to let the PH get below 6.0, as that will make it tough for many species of aquatic plants to grow in the aquarium. Plus, be careful when stripping your tap water out with RO that you don't remove too much of the dissolved minerals out of it. The water will lose almost all buffering ability when that happens, causing the PH to sort of go crazy on you in the aquarium - a BAD result for everyone.

 

Many people keep blackwater tanks with RO water and very low pH (4-4.5), they maintain a thick leaf litter bed and apparently the humic substances act as a buffer to prevent pH fluctuations. I don't speak from experience, just what I have read.

 

Oh man.... PH 4.0? Battery acid!
(Not really...).
But yes, if that PH drops below 6.0 in the aquarium? That would definitely be too low in PH to keep A. cacatuoides.

 

Thanks for the input everyone. on the Apistogramma forum they were suggesting I try to get under 5 for PH. So low! The fish are happy and colorful now, but I would prefer successful breeding over non obviously.
how fast is too fast when reducing PH? I know it needs to be a slow process to preserve their health. I’ve added another 70 almond leaves but when I get home from work, I think I may need to take a bunch out to avoid swinging too fast. I think 70 may have been a mistake. This is my first time trying almond leaves to manage PH. I just don’t want to make any mistakes That cause death.