Publication2 med aquascape Publication1cs complete | Page 83

Female fish changing into dominant colour form
sub dominant females from the group were to-
gether. I decided to remove the subdominant fe-
males and keep the male and two dominant fe-
males only, this arrangement worked out very well
in the end, especially in the males favour.
The group shared the tank with a large pair of
Vieja maculicauda (Black Belt cichlid) another fish
that is also found in both Costa Rica and Nicara-
gua, but not the Great Lake.
The tank was a 300g / 1363L, so plenty space form
pair forming and spawning. It wasn’t long before
pair bonding was witnessed, which meant one fe-
male was ignored. Pair bonding consisted of close
approximate swimming, body shimmering and oc-
casional jaw locking. Pair bonding in this case
seemed to be quite gentle, but this certainly isn’t
always the case, Central American cichlids are too
intelligent to be that predictable!
A vertical stone was chosen and cleaned as the
spawning site. I missed the initial depositing of
eggs, but I knew straight away they had spawned,
as both fish had dramatically changed from a yel-
low/ green to almost black and white with thick
1974 to the United States
from Costa Rica by Dr. Bill Bus-
sing, then later into Europe.
Aquarium experience
I introduced a small group into
my aquarium back in 2011. The fish were only juve-
nile specimens, so sexing at this stage was nigh on
impossible, however, there was a particular domi-
nate fish in the tank which I assumed was most
probably a male, this hunch turned out to be cor-
rect.
Archocentrus centrarchus are herbivorous in na-
ture, but will except most aquarium staple foods
with variety like occasional bloodworm. The group
grew fairly quickly where sexual dimorphism was
becoming a little more apparent. Fortunately, the
dominant fish turned out to be the only male in the
group, so I was left with 5 females. Two particular
females were changing to a slightly darker colour
with more pronounced barring and each defending
a corner of the tank. The male fish and the other
7