chancho and company

[Willem Heijns]

Interesting developments. On Saturday the managuensis pair appeared with the fry (2,000 of them) and drove the zaliosus away from their spot. These subsequently disappeared behind the bogwood with their offspring. They are still there.
Then on Sunday the managuensis ventured far to the right and apparantly met with the chancho pair. I know that because the chancho pair suddenly had many more fry to tend for. Then managuensis must have retreated; they are back in the left hand corner.
Today the situation is about the same, although the chancho pair has either lost or eaten the foreign fry.

And you know what? All this is happening without any damage to the fish. If I weren't already, this would surely convince me of the advantage of large tanks (for big fish anyway).

[Willem Heijns]

There's about a dozen young survivors of earlier spawns of Amphilophus chancho and Amphilophus zaliosus in the tank. They take care of any excess fry. Today they almost finished off the managuensis school. Then the male managuensis decided he had enough of his partner and so he joined one of the two other managuensis females in the tank. The zaliosus pair and the chancho pair are still tending their remaining fry. But for how long?

[Willem Heijns]

Well, not for very long.
Today I noticed that both the chancho pair and the zaliosus pair have lost their fry. Now everyone is swimming freely about. I wonder which pair will start the next cycle.

[Willem Heijns]

So summer is the silent season after all. Nothing much happening in this tank. All three pairs keep on breeding at regular intervals. There is always a pair (or two, or three) with freeswimming fry. Breeding cichlids can get very dull.

Maybe today will be the start of something new. The male Parachromis managuensis has decided that he wants to use the cave formerly held by Amphilophus zaliosus. He has attracted one of his three females to the place and is courting her. I tried to locate the zaliosus pair but I couldn't find them. That's what you get with decorated tanks, I guess.

[Death Angel]

How big are the Chanchos?

Any chance of ever getting a video of this tank?

[paulwmin]

love 'em....especially the zalio. I still can't believe I lost my little guy

[Willem Heijns]

There is beautiful footage of Amphilophus chancho on the DVD "Nicaragua, cichlids from the crater". Do you have a copy?

[Death Angel]

There is beautiful footage of Amphilophus chancho on the DVD "Nicaragua, cichlids from the crater". Do you have a copy?

Yes I have one and purchased 2 more for friends. I have a male form the frist group brought to the US. He is 16" now and was wanting to see how dad looks. I have him in a pond with other CA's and he is like a new fish. A 125gl is just not big enough for these fish.

[Willem Heijns]

Since I lost one of the two males of Parachromis managuensis the surviving male has a free choice between three females. What a life!

Two of those females are larger than the third, so they always win fights over the male for the next spawn. Parental care of this species is not very strong. Freeswimming fry will almost never last more than a week. But not to worry, there's always a female ready for the next try.

The smaller female has never laid any eggs. She is (like the others) nine years old. So I did not expect her to be able to lay eggs anymore after such a long time. But I was wrong. The other week she suddenly decided that it was her turn. For the first time in her life she took up her two competitors and managed to separate them from the male. He was hardly interested.
But she persisted and finally the pair disappeared behind a piece of slate. This morning I saw the wrigglers lying in a small pit.

Now I have to wait and see how the two larger females will react when the fry start freeswimming and, more importantly, how faithful the male is going to be.

[Willem Heijns]

Well, he wasn't faithful at all! It didn't last more than a day. The pair lost the fry and erveyone is swimming about as if nothing has happened. I do suspect the nine juvenile zaliosus though....

[Willem Heijns]

Nothing much is happening in this tank. Parachromis managuensis, Amphilophus chancho and Amphilophus zaliosus all breed at regular intervals. Usually the fry don't survive, but lately a few have come very far. Right now I have about 100 zaliosus fry getting close to an inch and a dozen or so chancho.

Over the years nine zaliosus youngsters have survived even longer, the largest of them now at the 8" size. So I decided to remove them from the tank. I was very reluctant to do that because of all the wood and rocks in this 600g tank. I tried my fish trap but none of them chose to enter it. But yesterday I finally got myself to catch them. I took much of the wood out of the tank and, using two dividers, created three compartments. In the middle one I caught five of the zaliosus. Moving to the right compartment I found the other four. I didn't even have to check the left compartment.

It was all over within an hour, including the re-arrangement of the wood and cleaning. My wife was very surprised of me not cursing and all while catching the fish.

Today I will deliver them to a good shop in Germany. Unless some rings my doorbell within the next half hour.....

[Willem Heijns]

Removing the juvenile zaliosus has revealed an new problem. It appears that those nine fish kept breeding under control. With them gone both Amphilophus zaliosus and Amphilophus chancho have managed to raise a brood to independence. Now I have a school of 2" youngsters (both chancho and zaliosus) roaming around the tank. Impossible to tell the two apart......

Here's a pic of the 9 year old wild male chancho:

[Willem Heijns]

Problems with managuensis. The one male has always had a choice between three females. The smallest one has only been able to spawn with him once. And that lasted only until two days after freeswimming. He then went on to mate with the other two females. Now the rejected female has a swollen belly. That can be caused either by a tumour or by blocked eggs. No good perspective either way.

[Willem Heijns]

No more perspective at all. Yesterday the female died.

[Willem Heijns]

This tank has become a place for elderly cichlids. All three species (chancho, zaliosus and managuensis) are ten years of age and it shows. Spawning is less successful although zaliosus is raising another batch of fry right now. Earlier spawnings are now a problem because quite a few young have survived. A mixed school of zaliosus and chancho (numbering over a hundred) have grown to a size between 3 and 5 inches. If I want to get all of them out of the tank I will yet again have to tear the whole thing down. Anyone who cares to come and help me with that is in title to as many of the youngsters as he/she wants. For free!

[Willem Heijns]

No reply to my request.

Anyway, I moved all the fish out and I am now looking at an empty 600g. Plan is to put tuba, rostratus and splendida in there. And maybe one or two other species. Any ideas?

[Sandman]

Try some non-cichlid species, dither or target, of enough size/type that they won't endanger too many potential fry (like tuba) ,yet be able to survive/serve a prupose and add some interest and diversity to such a large tank ?