Although I don’ t recommend leaving fry in with the parents for this long, it is safe to let the parents raise them for a prolonged period. In one instance, I had to remove the fry from the spawning tank only a week after they were free swimming as they were contact feeding off the parents slime coat and were creating some worrisome wounds. Amatitlania siquia“ Rio Cabuyo” has some interesting parental behaviours in the wild. One of these is“ fin digging”. One of the parents will use its fins and body to dive into the sediment and stir up food for the babies. Another interesting behaviour is leaf turning. Parents will turn over leaves in the river allowing their fry to eat the microorganisms growing on the bottoms of the leaves. This interesting behaviour can be witnessed in the aquarium by cutting leaves off of artificial plants that can be purchased at a craft store or aquarium store and placing them at the bottom of an aquarium. When the fry are free swimming, they will follow their parents and when mom or dad flips the artificial leaf, rush in for a meal. These behaviours are also documented in other Convict Cichlid types as well as Cryptoheros species. Conclusion
The intense gold coloration and chunky build of Amatitlania siquia“ Rio Cabuyo” makes it an interesting convict cichlid to keep as it is quite different than other Amatitlania siquia variants in the hobby. While many people consider convicts to be a beginner’ s species, I personally am still fascinated with keeping them even though I’ ve spawned over 150 different cichlid species It’ s hard to beat a spawning pair of convict cichlids when it comes to parental care. I find myself time and time again purchasing new convict cichlid species from different collection localities to observe this fantastic behaviour and enjoy the differences between populations I have spread the fry from pairs of Amatitlania siquia“ Rio Cabuyo” to other hobbyists and I hope soon that others will be able to keep and experience the joy that keeping this species has given me.
The Amatitlania siquia of Rio Cabuyo are much chunkier and higher bodied than other populations of Amatitlania siquia. Males from the Rio Cabuyo can get quite an impressive nuchal hump for a convict cichlid.
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