Blue Acara

[Ben]

Common name - Blue Acara

Scientific name - Aequidens pulcher

Family - Cichlidae.

Origin - Central American areas ;Colombia, Panama, Trinidad, Tobago, Venezuela

Max size - 8" in captivity

Care - This beutiful fish will be peaceful wih other New World Cichlids of similar size or bigger, but they will get aggresive during breeding time. they prefer 72-80°F and a ph of 6.5-8.0. The will need a 50 gallon or higher tank as they do grow big and need their space. They will not get along with community fish such as livebearers, and will have these fish as their lunch. They like sandy bottoms and lots of rocks and caves. Plants should be kept in pots as the roots will get eaten

Feeding - The Blue Acara is omnivorous and will eat most prepared and frozen foods, including freeze-dried bloodworms, tubifex, and ocean plankton, as well as flake food and Cichlid pellets.

Sexing - When sexing the Blue Acara the anal and dorsal fins are longer, often extending beyond the caudal fin, on the male.

Breeding - The Blue Acara is an open-breeder and will accept a range of water conditions. To promote breeding, raise aquarium temperature to 78-82°F. The Blue Acara readily pairs and forms a patriarch/matriarch family and both the male and female will care for the young. The female will lay the eggs on a cleaned rock. They will spawn about every two weeks if the young are removed from the aquarium. Both Male and female will be aggressive when caring for young

 

[leroy]

Blue acara

 

[blue acara]

male

female

Notice they have different colour dorsal edging

 

[markandhisfish]

heres my male

 

[Glenbo1981]

All of those photos posted above are Aequedins Latifrons,the true Blue Acara 'Aequedins Pulcher' is very similar but has a Silverline on the top fin instead of gold.

(This was confirmed to me by a Aequedins collector/Breeder that i emailed)

i have one of each

(Latifrons on the left and Pulcher on the right)

 

[snowflake311]

Sexing - When sexing the Blue Acara the anal and dorsal fins are longer, often extending beyond the caudal fin, on the male.

Breeding - The Blue Acara is an open-breeder and will accept a range of water conditions. To promote breeding, raise aquarium temperature to 78-82°F. The Blue Acara readily pairs and forms a patriarch/matriarch family and both the male and female will care for the young. The female will lay the eggs on a cleaned rock. They will spawn about every two weeks if the young are removed from the aquarium. Both Male and female will be aggressive when caring for young
[/quote]


When sexing also the head shape is different From the top down to the mouth. Males have a bit more of a box head the females have a slope. Females are also much more round in body shape. Looking at just the fins will lot help you sex a young one. But the head shape will. The breeding tubes is a dead give away if they are ready to spawn. females have must bigger breeding tubes then the males.

Also. When breeding things can go wrong mine. Are in love untill the eggs are 6 hours old then the parents turn on each other this is happen 3 times now. Tonight in fact they really went at it defending the eggs from each other. My fish are retarded.

Another thing they fish should not be trusted with smaller cichlids. I have a male kill my ram. This is not how they all are but just remember they are still cichlids.

My male

Some Fry week old.

 

[Joller]

Also. When breeding things can go wrong mine. Are in love untill the eggs are 6 hours old then the parents turn on each other this is happen 3 times now. Tonight in fact they really went at it defending the eggs from each other. My fish are retarded.

Another thing they fish should not be trusted with smaller cichlids. I have a male kill my ram. This is not how they all are but just remember they are still cichlids.

I've found that both parents care for the fry quite well, and that they go great with dwarf cichlids, my 5" male ignores my rams and my keyhole follows him non stop. in my experience that are a great peaceful community fish

Also i think(99% sure) glenbo might have it backwards, the one with the white crest on its dorsal fin is aequedins latifrons(hence the common name platinum acara).
anyway heres my papa smurf

 

[snowflake311]

Yeah not all are crazy like mine. But is it is just a reminder that these are Cichlids and everyone has different personalities. Mine spawned again and both are watching over the eggs at the moment things are ok. But My female always ends up getting over protective. That's just my crazy pair not all are like this.

Mine also do fine with other smaller fish as long as the smaller fish can't be eaten and is not a cichlid. Like I said you never know with these guys.