The most comprehensive cichlid blog on the Web!
I don’t post much about New World cichlids because, well, that isn’t what I keep. Nonetheless, there are lot of beautiful cichlids endemic to Central and South America (SA), many of which are highly popular in the hobby. In fact, there are some really cool cichlids found mostly in the country of French Guiana in South America (it is located just north of Brazil, btw)? Read on.
Have you heard about Aequidens paloemeuensis, the beautiful SA dwarf species endemic to a tributary in Suriname in South America? Though not actually new (it was described in 1989), it has not been a regular fish in the hobby. That may soon change. Oliver Lucanus has acquired a few specimens and hopes to breed them in the very near future.
For those of you interested in South American dwarves, the Laetacara araguaiae is a beautiful, easy to keep little fish. If you aren’t familiar with it, check out the species profile in the September/October 2020 issue of AMAZONAS Magazine. Written by well renowned cichlid expert Dr. Paul V. Loiselle, the profile is quite detailed and provides a great snapshot of the species. You can read an excerpt of the profile on the magazine publishers website here – Reef to Rainforest Media.
Do you have considerable experience keeping eartheater cichlids (primarily Geophagus or Satanoperca genera)? Do you know someone who does?
There are lots of variables that affect a cichlid’s aggression. Did you know that physical body colors is one of them? Some recent research using Pearl cichlids (Geophagus brasiliensis) as a model investigated how body coloring might affect territorial aggression levels.
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Not long after beginning in the hobby, I took a determined path toward keeping and breeding cichlids. My interests originally focused on colorful dwarf species of Central and South America. Very quickly I was starving for knowledge, having already consumed nearly every monograph and magazine article I could get my hands on. It was then I began reaching out to the experts. One of my very first contacts was a kind gentleman by the name of Don Zilliox, otherwise known as Z-Man in the aquarium hobby. I can’t count the number of times I e-mailed him with questions. He responded to every e-mail and was quite patient with me. A quick Google search for Don will yield a plethora of links to all kinds of information about cichlids. He has written numerous articles covering a variety of dwarf species, including Ctenopoma ansorgii and Crenicichla regani. He’s also written a great piece about keeping and breeding Apistogramma in general. Through decades in the hobby, he has bred more than 100 species. Suffice it to say, he has forgotten more about fish keeping than I’ll probably ever know. I recently got in touch with Don, who has mostly retired from fish keeping. He was gracious enough to answer a few questions for the blog. |
