My experience with them was similar to Duane's. Once they started to reach maturity, conspecific aggression was a huge problem, and I eventually ended up with the single alpha male. Friends of mine have had similar experiences.
Threadfin acara
- Thread starter Ilovefishes24
- Start date
In my pics I had had them about 3 years.
here's a shot taken soon after I got them.
about 2 years to get here.
and 3 to get to the intolerant stage
In the pic above, you can already see missed scales on the head of the one on the left from the start of aggression.
If I were to get them again, as soon as they hit 5" or so, I move them to a 300 gal tank, maybe even larger kiddy pool with large pieces of PVC lengths they could fit into, similar to those used by pike cichlid keepers.
Acarichthys are said to spawn in long tunnels.
Females ready to spawn at 2 years of age, males not until 3 (Cichloki 1976).
This may be why the alpha, and last one "standing" in my group was a female.
here's a shot taken soon after I got them.
about 2 years to get here.
and 3 to get to the intolerant stage
In the pic above, you can already see missed scales on the head of the one on the left from the start of aggression.
If I were to get them again, as soon as they hit 5" or so, I move them to a 300 gal tank, maybe even larger kiddy pool with large pieces of PVC lengths they could fit into, similar to those used by pike cichlid keepers.
Acarichthys are said to spawn in long tunnels.
Females ready to spawn at 2 years of age, males not until 3 (Cichloki 1976).
This may be why the alpha, and last one "standing" in my group was a female.
In the pics above, mine were about 3 years old, and 8"-10" and just coming into maturity.
I grew them out from about 1 " in 150gal6ft tank, but at the maturity, the tank was not enough space for a spawning territory, so they atarted killing each other. I had been warned they needed more than a 200 gal tank, but thought I could manage it. Their aggression with each other, was hardly ever overt, but the alpha subtly bumped off 5 others
almost over night.
One of my favorite species to keep, and quite beautiful.
I was thinking about picking up another one from the Wet Spot but this pretty much squashes that idea. Thanks. Always enjoy hearing and learning from your experiences.
Mine were peaceful with other genera and species, just not with each other at maturity, and their aggression was very subtle.
There is a great article about them in an issue a few years back, in Cichlid News Magazine.
There is a great article about them in an issue a few years back, in Cichlid News Magazine.
