Acaras dress up pretty for shrimp cocktail party…

Mighty pretty!

Your gonna be a dad when they breed

I doubt that will happen until I find a place for the “bumbling brothers wrestling team” ( those 4 earth eaters I got stuck with ) they’ve gotten maybe a little better, and it’s funny they don’t shred any fins, but they still fight enough, no one else could claim a spot to nest…

Cool cichlid . I like them .

They're amazing...

I have 3 in this tank... the biggest one, has been "flashing" at the smallest one, lately... spreading his fins & tail out, with waves of electric blue rippling through the fins an tail... it looks amazing... pictures don't do them justice...

They look like a Port Cichlid which you never see anymore . Are they in the same family ? If memory serves the Port Cichlid was called Aequidens portalagrensis .

my understanding, is they are aliens... there is no info out there, where they came from, never see pictures of throw backs from line breeding... nothing... they are pretty peaceful for their size...

I bet @Naughts knows .

Back in the fold said:

I bet @Naughts knows .

Click to expand...

Haha, thank you for the vote of confidence but I am no ichthyologist!
EBA don't have a scientific name indicating a manmade farmed species.
Here's what Practical Fishkeeping think:

"To clarify, there are two kinds of Blue Acara. In the first instance there is the standard, naturally occurring Blue Acara, Andinoacara pulcher. Wild types of this fish are gorgeous beyond compare, with streaked blue ‘warpaint’ over their faces, blue flecks and bars down their sides, and striking yellow trim to the dorsal and tail fins. At least, that’s how they were before mass farming overproduced them and turned them into ugly curs with washy colours, stunted bodies and ailments galore.

The Electric blue Acara is quite different. Here, the popular theory goes that ordinary farmed Blue Acara are mixed with Blue Rams to make a new fish. It’s not a natural process, female Blue Ram eggs are fertilised with the sperm of male Blue Acara, giving rise to Electric blue Acara/Ram hybrids. Because of the relative closeness of Rams and Acara, genetically speaking, the new fish are then able to produce offspring of their own.

After that, you can breed Electric blue Acara to your heart’s content, occasionally tossing in fresh Blue Acara DNA to stop inbreeding becoming rampant.

There’s a counterargument by some that the Electric blues are just a line bred mutation, like the Blue Ram, but this seems refuted by people who have bred them with normal Blue Acara and assessed the dominant and recessive traits. The farmers and breeders who sell these fish prefer the lay public (and by extension other farmers) not knowing how these most valued assets are produced, so it’s little surprise that there’s never any clarification when asked.

So here’s a curious thing. If it is a real hybrid, the Electric blue Acara inherits the temperament of neither its Ram mother, nor Acara father, and of all the ‘fake blue’ fish, these are up there as some of the more peaceful. That’s not to say they won’t scoff the occasional small fish, because they do. But anything over the 5cm/2in mark is usually quite safe. "

Credit! Practical Fishkeeping "Electric Blues"

@Naughts Holy Encyclopedia Batman ! That’s a lot to process . This mad doctor stuff is getting a little out of hand .

@Naughts ... said... "EBA don't have a scientific name indicating a manmade farmed species."

several; sellers, including Dan's ( where I got mine ) do call them... Andinoacara-pulcher


but I don't find a listing for them at Seriously Fish... and their listing of Wild Type Blues, have no notes listing Electric Blues

Back in the fold said:

@Naughts Holy Encyclopedia Batman ! That’s a lot to process . This mad doctor stuff is getting a little out of hand .

Click to expand...

And then some believe that, given the natural elasticity of blue acara colouration, and the lack of elasticity in the colouration in EBAs, the logical explanation is genetic modification.