who keeps blue acaras?

I had two...one died, I think he was a runt, and the other is alive and well in my 150 gallon tank. I bought him when he was under an inch about 8 months ago, and he has since grown to be about 4-5". Nice coloring, too.

I had a male and female (bought at 3 inches) that spawned. I sold the male at 5 inches and the female at 4. The male was amazing. Now I have 7 babies. Ive had the babies for 3-4 months now. The size ranges from 3/4 inch to 1 1/2 inch.

The largest baby is more colorful than the adults were, ever. Im amazed at how much better looking home grow fish are than store bought fish.

my brother has one. it is about 4 inches and he has had it almost a year

i have a pair now around 2.5 yrs old. the male currently has a TL of 6.5 in. while the female is right at 5 in. they bread like crazy early on but in the last year have not produced eggs. i really don't understand as they simulate breeding activity, make pits, and the female becomes gravid literally all of the time. oh well. i like their breeding colors and i would never raise the fry. i keep them in a large mixed cichlid community and they are awesome. they defend an area of around 6"x6" as a pair and otherwise display NO aggression to other fish in the tank. my brother also has a pair in his 100 gallon tank nearly the same age that behave the exact same way mine do with regards to breeding. there are several pics of them in this photo album:
http://community.webshots.com/user/05doctor
i have taken some much better pics recently but have not yet added them to the album, sorry.

O5dr. Did your eggs ever hatch when they did lay them?

absolutely. both i and my brother's pairs had many successful attempts(with free swimming fry) but then suddenly stopped at around 1.5 yrs of age. they produced fry atleast 7-10 times. i really have no idea what happened. my current theory is that it has something to do with being in a large community setting. both pairs discontinued egg laying once move to large tanks. mine from a mixed 55g to a mixed 125g and my brothers from a mixed 65g to a mixed 100g. as previously stated both pairs continue the other aspects of breeding including defending a small territory, cleaning of a particular smooth rock, females becoming gravid, and even rubbing their thingy's on the rock surface. they just don't lay eggs. my pair is not intimidated by any of the other tank inhabitants although my brothers pair is not at the top of the pecking order in his tank. feel free to post any theories.

I was just going to say that your male doesn't really look like a male, cause his dorsal and anal fins do not extend to the end of his caudal tail. but I was wrong.

maybe my acaras were coming to that point, but after the first 5 batches, the male got real aggressive towards my female. if I seperated him and then put him back in a week later, they would breed 1-2 days later. but the eggs wouldn't hatch. I think they kept eating them. I dont know. maybe its a degenerative issue brought upon by inbreeding or domestication or lack of room or lack of hiding places or lack of a new partner.

hrm...

try this: replace the female with a new female. see if Acara's are life long breeders or if they are short term breeders.

i appreciate the input. i will try some form of mate exchange in the next couple of weeks. do you think it would be better to switch males or females considering each newly displaced fish would have to enter an already established cichlid community? i am not too worried about my tank but as i already stated my brothers tank is a little more aggressive. as far as genetics are concerned i think it could be an issue as our pairs are quite possibly siblings. for whatever reason blue acara's are infrequently stocked here in houston and i had to purchase all of them from the same store. i have no idea if they were pond, hobbiest, or lucky first-timer bread. they were a little larger(almost 3") than what sibblings are typically sold at though. anyways, i will make sure and post the results in the future. any more tips? i have tried changes in feeding, large water changes, and both incr. and decr. in water temperature.

males tend to be more aggressive towards the females, so replacing the males could be a better choice. Im not really sure if one is better than the other tho.

if you have enough room, you could buy two more acaras and make two new pairs and keep both of your old fish.