Publication2 med aquascape Publication1cs complete | Page 68

height and width of 60cm. I wouldn’t recommend
adding conspecifics; perhaps only in very large
aquaria, but small to medium sized centrals like
exCichlasoma salvini or groups of Thorichthys sp.
should do well.
Feeding is very straight forward. They will accept
all sorts of dry foods like flake, floating pellets and
food sticks. Chopped up mussels and prawns are
eagerly excepted, full of proteins which will help
bulk up your fish. Stay clear from mammalian
foods like beef heart. I personally don’t see the
need in offering these types of foods as the alter-
natives mentioned earlier will benefit your fish in
the long term. Other important foods to offer are
vegetables.
Paratheraps sp. is known to be herbivorous detri-
tus feeders and makes up a lot of their diet in the
wild. Offer thinly sliced cucumber or quickly
blanched lettuce and spinach. Blanching helps
soften the vegetable, so will be easily digested. For
convenience, offer them with a lettuce clip. The
fish can then graze at their own leisure.
The tank can be decorated with rocks and wood.
Plants are rarely encountered, so will probably be
up rooted and eaten. A sandy substrate is pre-
ferred rather than a pea gravel one, as fish find it
easier to sift through. Sand also looks better and
natural to the fish. You can either use children’s
play pit sand or pool filter sand. Pool filter sand is
starting to take preference with many hobbyists as
it is heavier and doesn’t compact as much as play
pit sand. Periodically stirring the sand with a tool
will ensure the sand stays fresh.
The tank used is 8ft, 2ft, 4ft wide and fitted with a
‘Back to Nature’ background. I decorated as natu-
ral to their home environment as best I could. This
included large boulders and beech tree wood, ar-
ranged as if there is overhanging roots penetrating
through the water surface. Paratheraps sp.
‘coatzacoalcos live in faster flowing bodies of wa-
ter, so we can try to replicate this by adding a
power head or positioning a spray bar so that it
agitates the water surface. Bright clean water is
good, so regular water changes will benefit and
aid growth and vitality. Water quality needs to
be taken in account, so as a guideline we should
be looking at medium to hard alkaline water
with a pH of 7 to 8 and a temperature of 72 to
82. This range seems the best compromise when
accommodating water conditions to centrals.
The higher temperature range will produce lively
fish and prolific spawning activity, so adjust to
lower levels if required.
Sexing and spawning.
For the benefit of the article the fish described
are a population from the Rio Grande. Other
populations may have different traits when de-
scribing sexing differences.
Early sexual dimorphism in sp. coatzacoalcos can
be weak. Rio Grande females will display a dark-
ened area on the dorsal fin, this is usually seen
when females are dominant or becoming sexual-
ly mature, females can also display subtle pink
coloration around the operculum. Males tend to
display black dappling on the unpaired fins and
also develop a larger head profile and thicker
body than the female. As the fish become larger
and sexual mature the differences are quite ap-
parent. Males develop a lovely blue colour with
a yellow green iridescence on the base of the
dorsal. Red is displayed on the edges of the dor-
sal and caudal fin. The thickness of the red band
on the caudal can vary between populations.
Females can develop an overall golden/brown
colour, but not so much the strong blue colour
of the male fish. I found that they can be early
developers and it's not unusual for fish to start
pairing up at only 4". Two fish will separate from
the group and start body shimmering and cir-
cling each other. It's interesting to note that
their eyes change to a bright orange/yellow col-
our and the dark lateral band will be broken up
somewhat. The female’s dark blotch will certain-
ly become noticeable at this stage. Bonding can
be quite rough with occasional jaw locking and
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