chancho and company

[Willem Heijns]

this topic will be about the brand new tank, to be more precise, about its inhabitants. the 600 g contains:




a huge pair of Amphilophus chancho (wild caught in Laguna Apoyo)




a pair of Amphilophus zaliosus (also from Laguna Apoyo)




a pair of Parachromis managuensis (wild from Laguna Xiloá)

surprisingly the fish I thought to be the widow (see topic "The majestic dovii") turned out to be a young male dovii, one of her sons. the old widow must have been killed at her temporary home. apparantly I didn't check the box good enough. but he'll do. until he gets too big and/or nasty of course....

[Willem Heijns]

after two days home the fish are doing fine. the managuensis pair must have been preparing to spawn, they seem ready to go ahead (beautiful colours!)

strange enough the zaliosus pair is very shy. they only appear at feeding time. also I noticed that the dorsal fin of the male is damaged. het doesn't put it up so I can't really see if it is permanent or not.

next week or so I will add a breeding group of adult Theraps wesseli. (no need to search for males, Dan).

I'll keep you guys posted.

[Willem Heijns]

no wesseli yet. but the Amphilophus species haven't disappointed me. this morning I noticed chancho had spawned.
and the zaliosus are still behind a piece of wood but have been vigorously defending their spot for several days.

managuensis hasn't chosen a spot yet.

[Willem Heijns]

I was right. zaliosus had spawned. today I saw their brood freeswimming for the first time. chancho won't be far behind. not a good time to add new fish (the wesseli).

[Willem Heijns]

OK, a few weeks on. the chancho indeed had spawned, but they have already lost their fry. zaliosus is doing much better. the swarm occupies the best part of a heep of driftwood, almost out of control of their parents. the juvenile dovii male has snatched a few, but he is not very successful in the hunt. now I have wait for the broodcare to wane. and add the wesseli.

[Willem Heijns]

I don't think I'll ever be able to safely add the wesseli to this tank. the zaliosus fry are still being defended by their parents; the chancho have a new brood and this morning the managuensis produced a (huge as ever) spawn. I'm afraid I'm stuck with three pairs of cichlids in one 600g tank. but I love it!

[maddog10]

That tank has to be a sight to behold!

Are the territories well defined or do they wander across the tank, defending the fry wherever they may be?

[Willem Heijns]

territories are never well defined. after a while staying close to the spawning site they start to wonder around the tank. and get chased if they come to close to another territory. but somehow they always reach a balance.

[RMac]

Hello Willem,
I recently received my first pair of Chancho. They are about 4" in length. Are they big enough to be sexually mature? When I try to put them together in the same tank, they immediately go into a ferocious lip lock, tearing each other up pretty badly. I have been afraid to let it go to see if they work things out, and maybe are actually just testing each others jaw strength before pairing up... What do you think I should do? Presently I have them separated in different tanks. Do you think I should let them get some size to them first? If so, how big before reintroducing them to each other. I know that you have as much experience as anybody with chancho, so I am hoping you can give me the best ideas of what to do, and understand what might be going on.
Thanks!

[Willem Heijns]

sexual maturity is not a matter of size but of age. how old are your fish?

about agression: chancho's need a very large tank (400g and up). starting with a group of subadults is the best way. if you only have a pair, it's hard to say even if you have a male and female at the size they are now.

splitting them up and joining them when they have gotten big is an adventure in itself. the weaker one might get killed overnight.

[RMac]

Thanks Willem for your reply. I put a lot more hiding places in and added a few more dithers along with a pair of Neetroplus Nematopus in the tank. The male chancho was already in there, and then I added the female... This time she didn't try to fight back since she was the new comer. The male chased her for a bit,and she got out of view easy enough, that the male eventually gave up on her destruction, and is getting more tolerant of her being in there. Much better outcome than I was expecting... , When I put her in there yesterday I did it under the assumption that I will probably lose her in short order, but had to let it take its course, and it couldn't have worked out any better. One thing I did was keep feeding the male to distract him... he is such a pig and loves to eat. He seems to be packing on the weight pretty quickly... I will be surprised if he turns out to be a slow grower. I got the pair from Jeff Rapps sexed by him, one of each..., so I don't really know how old they are, but they are F1's off of wild parents that he has. The Neets are also an f1 pair at around 3-4 inches, and then I also picked up a small group of F1 Amarillo fry, and a small group of F1 Grammodes fry. Everything is working out fine so far (in a different tank of course)..., only lost one of the grammodes.
(I'm sorry if this post doesn't belong in the cichlidarium) Doh!

[Willem Heijns]

Nothing much to report here. One interesting development is about the dovii. As the single male that I have put in with the chancho and managuensis is growing it is ever so slowly taking over the tank. At a size of 8" it has started to harrass the other fish, threatening them and chasing the smaller ones (second females managuensis and zaliosus) from his territory and around the tank. I wonder what will happen if it gets to the same size as the chancho and managuensis males.

[RMac]

Hi Willem,
How large are your Chanchos presently? I was wondering if you have any photos posted any where of them, or if you would be able to post some up? Would be great to see them. Do they have much vibrant yellows with dark black barring, or are they a little more drab in coloration? My pair is finally getting along, but I still think too young for any breeding yet.

[Willem Heijns]

I edited the first post to contain pictures of the fish.

[Willem Heijns]

I spent the best part of today catching the dovii. It took me many hours to get it and I had to tear down the tank almost completely. But it had to be done. He has become too agressive for the other fish.

So the decision has been made: never again will I keep Parachromis dovii. It simply isn't fit as an aquarium fish.

Amphilophus chancho, Amphilophus zaliosus and Parachromis managuensis now have the 600 gallons to themselves.

[Willem Heijns]

Removing the dovii had a remarkable effect on the balance in the tank. The male Parachromis managuensis was always hiding behind some piece of wood, but now he is out and about trying to select the right female for his next spawn. He is in the company of three females, so he has a good range of choices.

Meanwhile the Amphilophus chancho couple is sharing their fry with Amphilophus zaliosus. There's two schools of them, both consisting of mixed fry. Amazing how many have survived the ordeal of the chase for the dovii yesterday.

Peace has returned to this tank.

[Dan Woodland]

I spent the best part of today catching the dovii. It took me many hours to get it and I had to tear down the tank almost completely. But it had to be done. He has become too agressive for the other fish.

So the decision has been made: never again will I keep Parachromis dovii. It simply isn't fit as an aquarium fish.

Amphilophus chancho, Amphilophus zaliosus and Parachromis managuensis now have the 600 gallons to themselves.

The perfect example of your tank size recommendations - a tank seemingly big enough was not. Cichlid keepers should take notice...

[Willem Heijns]

There's trouble brewing. The zaliosus pair is still guarding a moderate sized school (200 fry). The chancho pair is about to appear with a new batch of youngsters. And the managuensis pair has laid a record number of eggs (over 2,000) which hatched last Friday. It will be a busy week....

[Death Angel]

been waiting of a update. Can't wait to see how everything turns out.

[Willem Heijns]

Here's the current situation. The chancho pair is guarding their fry in the right hand corner. The zaliosus pair is holding their own in the left hand corner. Space between them slightly less than 4 meters.

The huge managuensis school has started freeswimming yesterday. Their position is...... in the left hand corner. There are so many fry that the school fills the whole watercolumn (70cm). They are still sort of hiding behind the bogwood but also very close to the zaliosus school. No more than 25cm between them. I wonder what will happen once they come out into the open.