Re: Laetacara thayeri and parenting

["V Kutty" <kutty@earthlink.net>]

tsuh yang chen wrote:
> i forgot to mention this : my thayeri are very shy fish, in spite of their
> size.  when my other cichlids spawned (Pelv. pulcher, Nann. anomala, Ap.
> Rotpunkt), they were never that shy, i'd see them herding their fry around
> the tank.
>
> even not spawning, all other cichlids i have (Laetacara dorsiger, Microg.
> altispinosa, A. panduro, A. pertensis etc.) do not hide at all.  but the
> thayeri are very jumpy and always hiding.  funny thing.
>
> tsuh yang chen, nyc, USA

Yup, they are the shiest fish I've ever kept.  The only way you'll get them
to stay unhidden is if you have them in a tank with a million other bold
fish.  Dithers dont help.  Plants, floating or otherwise, dont help.
Driftwood and caves dont work.  In their 60-gal tank, my eight thayeri
banged and bashed their empty little heads up against everything, everytime
I walked into my fish room.  So, to keep them from giving themselves
concussions, I took the drastic step of covering up the whole tank with dark
paper with a small peep hole (3 inches by 6 inches) on the side for me to
observe.  This helps with the head-banging but is a sorry and pathetic way
to enjoy cichlids.  I really dont blame them because there were Hoplias
(nasty Wolf fish) everywhere in their habitat.  The very closely related L.
flavilabris that I have in a tank right next to the thayeri are not shy at
all.  Flavilabris is not as colorful as thayeri but they have incredibly
beautiful, long fins like Acarichthys heckelii.  I'll hang on to the thayeri
for one more year and if they still dont breed, I'll go out and get a
Hoplias and start feeding the little numb skulls to the Hoplias one by one.
:-)

Vinny





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