Fish of the Month June 2004

Uaru amphiacanthoides

Uaru cichlid(Waroo cichlid, Triangle cichlid)

Maximum size: 12". Temperature: 24°-27° C pH - approx 6.5-7.0 Water Hardness: 5-10° gH Temperament: Gregarious, it likes to be in groups of its same species and forms pairs that last their lifetime. tame to live with big companions, but able to defend a territory at breeding time. feeding Habits: Omnivorous, the vegetal food must be an integral part of its diet. Minimum size of the tank for a single specimen: 55gal Minimum size of the tank for a mating pair: (without companions) 80gal. Sexual dimorphism: none



This fish goes through a complete transformation when it reaches maturity, when young, Uarus are of color greenish chocolate with white dots, when maturing all the dots disappear, changing them by a brown-orange orange with an almost black spot shaped like a triangle from the gills towards the tail in each one of his flanks. They have great orange eyes and a spine with very long dorsal fin. This beautiful fish is now very rare in the Hobby, occurring stratospheric prices for mature fish.

Its diet must be varied and must include vegetal (lettuce, spinach, peas, zuccini and even some fruit like peach), sometimes they also bite and eat the driftwood of the aquarium, because of that, you must not put varnished driftwood inside the aquarium. because they love to eat veggies live plants are a bad idea in the tanks of these fish, since they will end up being devoured by the appetite of Uarus. Like all the big cichlid, a filtration of 10 times the volume of the aquarium per hour is a necessity, since these little friends will dispose approximately 10 grams of poo everyday, as well as near a third of its body mass in every day urine.

despite 10 times/hour filtration, frequent water changes are necessary to maintain to these fish in perfect conditions, since they hate nitrate, this is why maintaining nitrates below 10ppm is very recommendable so that these friends grow strong and healthy.

 


As far reproducing this beautiful animal, there is no sexual dimorphism among them, although some say that the sexually mature males will develop a hump or that that the dorsal and anal fins of the male will be but longer and pointier, this not always is a good indicator of the fish gender, the only sure way to know for sure is to observe them during a successful breeding attempt. Its reproductive behavior is just the same to most of the American cichlids, the female lays eggs on a rock, or driftwood and the male will pass after her to fertilize them, an adult pair will lay between 300 and 400 eggs each time, they will take fan the eggs to prevent them from fungusing , as well as will transfer the wrigglers once the eggs hatch (after 72 hours approx) and the wrigglers fall from the surface where they were originally layed. When the wrigglers had consumed the yolk sak and are free swimming (72-96 hours after they hatched) they will be fed on a mucus secreted by the flanks of the parents for a pair of weeks, after that is necessary to feed them with newly hatched brine shrimp, in this stage it is recommended to feed them between 4 and 6 times a day, after a while young brood must be separated from the parents to growth aquariums so they keep a healthy growth and development.


Distribution: The black River of the affluent of the Amazon River in Brazil (neighbor of discus and Angels, as well as the Cardinal tetra).


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Written by: Nimbusv

Photos: ©

 © 2004  World Cichlids