Publication2 med aquascape Publication1cs complete | Page 66

Paratheraps sp. ‘coatzacoalcos’, male (Rio Grande)
Like most very young centrals, they are unim-
pressive to look at, they will be a grey/silver col-
our with a dark slight curved lateral bar from the
caudal peduncle, that extends to the operculum.
As they grow, the body develops to a grey/blue
colour with a lot of speckling. Dappling will start
to develop on the dorsal fin, as will blue with red
edging. Like many Paratheraps sp, they will grow
into large fish and it’s not unusual for sp.
‘coatzacoalcos to attain sizes of up to 12 inch-
30cm in the confines of the home aquarium.
That said, the absolute minimum size aquarium
These are a population from Rio Carolino and were
kindly made available to a handful of keepers in the
UK. Looking at recent photos, they appear quite
blue with red edging on the dorsal and caudal fins,
with some red speckling displayed round the head
and facial region. I personally think they look very
similar to the Rio Ajal populations that I’ve seen in
the hobby.
I was lucky enough to obtain a group of seven F1
youngsters to raise on, these were a population
from the Rio Grande, I believe the parents were
sourced from German collectors?
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