Since I read about this cichlid in the book "Cichlider fra hele verden" (Cichlids from all over the world), I have been curious about it and wanted to have some in my own tanks. For a while, I was keeping the normal Butterfly Cichlid in stead, but when I visited AkvarieWest, and saw them swimming around in his tanks, I got too tempted. I ended up with four of these in a bag when I drove home. They are a more hardy than the normal Butterfly Cichlids and they also grow a bit bigger, but they are still a rather peaceful fish.
Behaviour
They are not very dominant towards other fish in the tank, but they fight quite a bit internally and that is probably the reason why I lost one of them. From the remaining three, I think there are two males and one female, even though I am nowhere certain. It is difficult to determine the sexes, but in time the male will develop extended fin rays and the most certain sign, is that the females has rounded dorsal fins. Around Christmas Eve 2005, the two I expected to be a pair, was acting crazy, swimming around the tank, pretending to be fighting. Unfortunately nothing more happened, but I am sure that it was some kind of breeding initiation.
In the beginning, they were swimming around in my top 325 liters tank, but later I moved them to my 128 liters tank, where nothing more happened. After waiting for a while I grew impatient and got rid of the trio.
