Re: Laetacara thayeri and parenting

["Helen Burns" <helen.burns@bigwig.net>]

Vinny,
I was given a possible pair of L. Thayeri a few months ago.  I had them
housed in a tank with my breeding pair of Uaru plus two pairs of Geophagus
sp. Pindare. I can tell you that these Thayeri were bold little fish and
kept the Pindare in place when it was feeding time, they wanted the food
first.  Unfortunately one died recently and now the other stays hidden
behind the bogwood, poor thing.  This tank had no plants whatsoever, only
bogwood for decor.
In a years time Vinny let yours take their chances in a box and send them
over to me in Scotland.
Have a nice Fishmas everyone,
Helen

> 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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