Blue Acaras..Are they really peaceful?

[Mystroe_TheMyst]

I've been sus-ing out blue acara's because I'm looking to change my setup and breed them. At aquaria centrals fish directory they say that they are peaceful. Obviously leaving room for heightend aggression during spawning etc.

are they really peaceful? I had a Gold Severum because I thought they were peaceful and it killed everything I put in the tank.

how easy and under what conditions will they breed?

I'm thinking of getting 4 of them all about 1" letting them grow and pair up. Then I will take the 2 that haven't paired to the Shop. This is a 3ft 35Gal tank. it has heaps of slate and pots, caves etc.

what do I need to know...any links?

thanks for the info.

[MoJo]

Here's some advice I posted on another board. Maybe it will help:


I think it depends on what you have been doing. You described what you had in the tanks, but nothing about what you might have done to stimulate them into breeding. Other than the normal tank maintenance, have you ever adjusted water temp up or down? What kind of water changes...30, 50, 75%? ANd the most important question...do you know what the normal conditions are when these fish spawn? By that I mean, do they spawn in caves? Rock walls? Substrate? Is their a lot of vegetation in their natural breeding grounds? Do they spawn more during any one season?

A while back at an ACA Convnetion I listened to Wayne Leibel talk about breeding Cichlids. He emphasized that you need to experiment with the conditions fish are kept in order to stimulate breeding. He also said...and this is where I slapped myself in the forehead and said, "DOH!"...you have to read about what conditions are in their natural habitat. Maybe their diet consist heavily of some kind of bug...or fruit. Maybe they require a mild current in the water.

It just made sense. I was having trouble breeding a pair of "proven" breeding A. Centrarchus. Until I read that they used th roots of vegetation to hang their newly hatched fry. I put in a cheap plastic plant with heavy roots and literally wthin a week they had eggs. Same with the Tiger Motaguense. Every photo I had seen of them with eggs had a piece of driftwood. I added some driftwood and in short order...eggs. Nicks are cave spawners that lay eggs in the open substrate. Neets are also cave spawners.

Now I am not saying any of this is 100%. Jeff Rapps doesn't have driftwood and plastic plant in his tank and he seems to be doing OK. All I am saying is that in order for the average aquarist to experience some success in breeding fish, it doesn't hurt for them to have all the pieces of the puzzle. Heavens knows there are fish that are more difficult to breed than others. Ask Jeff.

I would suggest doing the following:

Pick a species of fish you really want to breed.
Make sure you have a pair. I had a pair of Umbee a while back that I orignally thought was male and female...was two males.
Give them ample tank space.
Read on any special requirements.
Formulate a game plan and do it.
If the game plan isn't working after some time...change it.
Don't give up.

Finally regarding the peaceful nature of Acara...they are still Cichlids. And cichlid by nature are more aggressive than most community fish. The 35 gallon tank might be a bit too small. Especially if you are looking for two fish to pair off. After you "feel" you have a pair keep the others in the tank until the first spawning. The presence of conspecific fish will help strengthen the pair bond.

Hope this helps. Feel free to PM me with any specific questions.

[Tightdog1]

ok i bought 6 blue acaras about a year ago, they are in a 55g nowq, i only have 4 of them in there at the current time and sonn will be less since i am selling 2 of them and 1 is injured and the other is in my brothers 55g. but i have never done anything to stimulate my blue acaras into breeding. i just put them into my 55g adn 2 paired off and they jsut started breeding, the conditions are like 2.0 ammonia ( bad i know but cause of pacus), 0 nitrate, like 0 nitrite, hardness 120, ph 6.2, temp 78F, it has a bravo 200 and half a UGF with a powerhead and a fluval 304 with biowheel pro 60s inline. the blue acaras have been breeding like every 2 weeks or so jsut when ever all the fry die, get sucked into filter or stuck in the gravel. there are tons o fish in there currently but i have to get rid of my pacus ASAP then it will be ok and the ammonia will go back down to 0.

Blue acaras are pretty much peaceful they jsut get territorial when breeding and will chase fish out of the area but chase for more then like 2 seconds. they even try to attack the pacus eventually when the pacus are in their space, but the pacus ust turn on their sides and swim away FAST.

[Mystroe_TheMyst]

cool. most of the questions I had are now answered. I've got a few sites in which i must revisist for speciffic, or Ideal conditions. I'm not sure about the hardness, you might need, or need to rather, explain that to me.

But if they are as peaceful as they seem and sound then a 35gal for 2 blue acaras should be fine, IMO.

any objections?

thanks again

[Dragon_Lord_Tia]

the 2 acaras i had were cranky old barsteds they would chase everything apart from my N.polystigma and N. livingstonii the poly could i smashed them but just chose to igonore them

[Mystroe_TheMyst]

Ok, thanks for the feedback, They will only be in a tank with other Acara's. I will most likely leave the unpaired pair in their during the first spawn of the paired acara's. After they have spawned and the fry have become semi-independant then I will consider returning them. At about 1.5" I will be buying them at.

[Tightdog1]

so wait your gonna have 4 in a 35g? or 2 in a 35g?

aggression does change fish to fish and in different conditions.

[Mystroe_TheMyst]

yes I will have 4 in a 35gal.

and yes I will eventually end up with 2.

I just want a medium sized fish that can have a companion without smashing the crap out of it. seeing as Blue acara's are "suposed" friendly fish, then it seems the way to go.

but I'm not overly joyed about keeping convicts incase you guys where thinking that was another option.

but the way i've always thought to pair fish up is to have about 4 and let them decide who they wish to spend time with and then hopefully they will become a breeding pair.

[Tightdog1]

i thought u would have 4 in the 35g forever. i was like thats not a good idea, but 4 until a pair forms should be ok, if you actually get a pair.

blue acaras grow fairly slow after they hit like 4" tho so keep that in mind, i mean ive been feeding beef heart for like ever ad they jsut grow so slow now, ive taken em off and back to normal food but they still grow very very slow if at all.

[Mystroe_TheMyst]

Well I'm not looking for a monster for my tank. So if they grow slow after 4" I guess I'm going to take that as a positive. The more they are with each other the less chance of them battling each other. So this is a good thing.

out of 4 fish you don't think I will get a pair? I will pick out Juvinilles that look like they are going to be male and female so my probality of getting a pair will be greater.

well in 2 days I'm getting them. Setting up my whole tank, going to get all the requirements to the optimal level, so Life will be happy as.....Hopefully :P

thanks for the feedback...

[Tightdog1]

im not sayin your not gonna get a pair you probably will casue they pair off fairly easily, and mine did like 2 weeks after i got them, but you never know.

I will try to post some pics of mine soon.

[Mystroe_TheMyst]

Well I picked up 4 today and I'm currently sorting out my water issues...I'm going to semi plant the tank...pH is at 6-7 and temp is at 26'C

[Tightdog1]

sounds good, hope all turns out well keep me posted on the results.

[GoLdFiSh_GrL]

Blue Acaras SHOULD be peaceful... my friend's are...

[Mystroe_TheMyst]

Yeah, They are looking really nice. One supposed female is so nicely coloured up, dark blues and her spots etc.

I'm hoping to take some picutures soon...I'm also going to get some more plants I have 1 broadleaf plant and many caves. Everything is looking SWEET AS!

[Mystroe_TheMyst]

not very good quality...still working out how to take good pictures.

http://members.optusnet.com.au/absnkwoo2/JPEGS/Blue%20acara%20female.JPG

http://members.optusnet.com.au/absnkwoo2/JPEGS/Blue%20acara%20male.jpg

I think the bottom is a male (in front) and a female (in back)

[demon_surfer]

that second picture looks like a silver saum. A rare colour morph of the green terror. the first one im not sure but is it a convict?

[Mystroe_TheMyst]

No no they are both Blue Acara's The top dark coloured one is the same dark coloured on in the bottom picture...

once again I blame my picture quality

[demon_surfer]

I may need to look up pictures of acaras but that second one seriously does look like a silver saum to me.

[ChilDawg]

I think the reason that that's the case, demon_surfer, is that Blue Acaras and Silver Saums (GT-like fish, right?) would be in the same genus (Aequidens, to be exact).

[demon_surfer]

i found some acara pics and they do look very alike..im still not sure because of the coloring on the fish..

look at the pic of the silver saum and compare.. (http://208.51.130.220/~mojo/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=Photo;action=display;num=1063407944)

and to clarify. the silver saum is a color morph of the gold saum (common green terror that yah see in all the LFS) they look identical except that the silvers tail is trimmed in silver. They come from diffrent rivers.

[Mystroe_TheMyst]

yeah they are very similar...I understand how you could mistake it now.

You could only really tell if you look very closly at the shape of their heads...plus the tail characteristic that you mentioned.

[Mr.Jingles]

that blue acara definatly looks like a green terror. silver saum. whatever.

the thing that makes me think it is a terror is its larger forehead, its blue spangles, and the white edge of the dorsal fin.

a) GT's foreheads generally have less coloration than the rest of their body and are slightly more verticle due to their naunchal humps they grow.

b) GT's have that blue/green spangling in the rows that your fish exibits. Blue Acaras generally have much less spangling on their bodies and the spangles do not appear in rows like that.

c) Blue Acaras only have the yellow/orange coloring on the dorsal fin and occasionally on the anal fin. ive never ever seen a white color.

the thing that would make me think its a blue acara is its lack of coloring on the caudal fin. all blue acaras have no colored fringe. yours clearly exibits this trait. it also has the dotted cheeks, rather than the lines.

as an extra note (I dont know if this is a true statement): your fish is more robust and pan shaped than acaras are. if you look at GT's (not the true variety) than you will observe that they are a little shorter in length, while being the same hieght as a BA.

[Tightdog1]

i have seen blue acaras with the white on their fins. it is very rare but it has been noted and i have seen it. but i see how it is questionable because the eyes are so big and the body is kinda scrunched up horizontally and the forehead does have less coloring compared to my blue acaras. but they are very close hard to tell. take some betetr pics and maybe we willl be able to tell but it does resenble a silver saum

[Mystroe_TheMyst]

LOL, I got told...

I will try to take some better pictures...got some other priorities at the moment but I will try to get a clear one of the "unknown", I think he can adopt this name. I'm an certain that he is a blue acara...once again I blame it purly on the bad quality of the picture.

I'll try to get some new pics in the next few days or so....

[Tightdog1]

sounds good. i will get some of mine too, even tho i jsut lost 1.