Dominant Female deppii will display a dark dorsal blotch
Herichthys deppii is found on the Atlantic slope , Nautla and Misantla River basins , in North Mexico . Reported habitats are slow to fast moving water with lots of rocks / boulders with a stone / sandy substrate . I would imagine that plants are rarely encountered , except marginal . No other cichlids are reported to live sympatric with deppii apart from possible Paratheraps sp . cf . fenestratus , Gobies , Poecilia sp and Agonostomus monticola ( mountain mullet ).
Aquarium setup , care and experience .
I had the pleasure to keep this cichlid back in the middle of 2009 . Easily sexed from a small size , i decided to buy a male and female . Probably not the best way to get a bonded sexed pair , as most keepers would buy a group of at least six fish . Young saleable sized fish are a light colour with a yellow / green hue . Six dark blotches are displayed from the base of the caudal to just below the middle of the flanks . Subtle orange dappling will start to develop on the operculum , which is very characteristic feature of the fish .
As they grow , the base colour of the body develops into a green / blue colour . H . deppii will attain sizes of 8 inch-20cm ( Male ), 6 inch – 15cm ( female ). Young fish can be very similar looking to Herichthys sp . turquoise . Sp . turquoise in my opinion display less orange markings around the head area , but appear to display a more orange patterning in the dorsal and caudal fins . Of interest , it was believed that all 2009 stocks of deppii available to the hobby were sourced from Rio Bobos . In fact they were collected from Rio Misantla , this I doubled checked with Rusty Wessel . The recommended minimum size to house a pair would be in the region of 120 x 50 x 50cm . The tank setup I used was a large tank . Dimensions 8ft , 2ft , 3ft 240 x 60 x 90cmwide , which was currently setup as a general Central American Cichlid community . The tank was decorated with play-pit sand substrate and large rocks and pebbles .
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