R.A.S. Fins & Friends

Cichlasoma Elloitti

By Lyle Buzash

Cichlasoma elloitti come from Central America.  It looks similar to the C. meeki (Fire Mouth) but its colours vary a lot showing more metallic blues, yellows and greens in its mid to upper portion of its body.  Red to dark orange on its lower portion like the fire mouth.  Its colours are beautiful and it grows to about 4" with the female slightly smaller.   The dorsal and anal fins on the male are slightly longer and it has a slight bump on its fore head compared to the female.

I had noticed the swimming habits of these fish to be slightly different compared to other central cichlids.  They tend to dart or swim a section of space about 5-8", then slow to an almost stop and then repeated swim in this fashion.  They just don't swim around back and forth like other fish.  They also are always aware of your presence and are looking at you if your looking at the tank.

I started to spawn these fish in the same fashion you would any other central cichlid.  I set up a 20 gallon tank with some rocks, gravel and plastic plants scattered within.  The temperature was at 76 degrees and the water 12 DGH/Ph 7.0.   Before I knew it a cloud of fry were swimming around the female.  She showed signs of parenthood by protecting them from me and the male.  At the time I was feeding the parents frozen beef heart mix and vegetable mix and once the fry were swimming I fed them live shrimp until they were large enough to accept crushed flake food.  After a few weeks I removed the fry to a 10 gallon tank, cleaned the 20 gallon and proceeded to spawn them again.  The second spawn went slower and I was able to see the mother lay small brown eggs on a dark coloured rock in the aquarium and then Hovered over top and fanned the eggs for 6 days before they hatched.   The female moved the fry from pit to pit that the male had so generously dug before hand.  Now I had about 600 fry in total.  The fry grow rapidly and are not two colourful at all until they are full grown.

I have taken lots of fry to our meeting and they sell for next to nothing.  Pick up a cheap bag of fish and you'll be surprised at what wonderful grown fish you end up with.