I like a lot of Central American species, but I find South America to be far, far more appealing in terms of fish diversity. I also like my biome specific aquariums, even though I never ultimately did a biome specific aquarium.
What is your favorite? South American, or Central?
- Thread starter JoePikeStrike
- Start date
Aaah the path to multiple tanks emerges… good luck they’re both awesome
Most of my favorite cichlids come from South America, but currently I am keeping mostly CAs. Both are really great, I just find personally the souths more interesting.
They both have their distinct features, I enjoy both types of setup. In general I like CA the best, the shapes and colors of the species available appeal to me, vieja in particular are a favorite of mine. I find they tend to have a lot of attitude. I also love South Americans, as you can generally keep a wider variety of fish together, they tend to be more tolerant of each other, and more variation in body shape. To me they both are great, and cichlid keepers should try to experience both.
I only kept fire mouth cichlids.
My interpretation of a fire mouth cichlid is that its energetic and squeamish at the same time and a good amount of the time either refuse to hide in PVC tubes or do indeed hide in them stubbornly, swimming in the PVC tube from end to end, regardless of the number of PVC tube outlets.
And they seem to only like larger PVC tubes.
I would assume that south american cichlids are more realxed because of their origin, perhaps in more murky south american rivers and such?
My interpretation of a fire mouth cichlid is that its energetic and squeamish at the same time and a good amount of the time either refuse to hide in PVC tubes or do indeed hide in them stubbornly, swimming in the PVC tube from end to end, regardless of the number of PVC tube outlets.
And they seem to only like larger PVC tubes.
I would assume that south american cichlids are more realxed because of their origin, perhaps in more murky south american rivers and such?
Geophagus own my heart! Only centrals I’ve had were Texas and convicts but I’ve kept many different South Americans, Centrals are great but I’d have to go with south’s just because of Geos.
I do find myself drawn to them, save I can't seem to keep them for more than a few years. They also are not terribly aggressive, so other fish I get often outbully them. If only I could have more than one aquarium... oh well.
SAs- Festae and Umbees
CAs- love the parachromis family, mainly Jags and RTMs. The Amphilophus family is great too, my favorites would be Labiatus, Trimacs and Chanchos. Istlanum and Beani are amazing also. You don’t see much big male Istlanum around.
All time favorite fish tho isn’t from SA or CA. Any guesses?
CAs- love the parachromis family, mainly Jags and RTMs. The Amphilophus family is great too, my favorites would be Labiatus, Trimacs and Chanchos. Istlanum and Beani are amazing also. You don’t see much big male Istlanum around.
All time favorite fish tho isn’t from SA or CA. Any guesses?