Beautiful Cichlids from the Andes
It's easy to get lost in the weeds when talking about scientific names of fish, so today, we'll just delve one teeny weeny toe into the binomial nomenclature pool. The Acara Electric Blue Cichlid is a gorgeous, easy to care for cichlid. Its scientific name is Andinoacara pulcher, which very loosely translated from multiple root languages means “Pretty Cichlid from the Andes mountains.” This is a very thoughtful and descriptive name. Acara Electric Blues are native to Trinidad, Tobago, and Venezuela. Some of the more geographically astute of you may be thinking, “hey, do Trinidad and Tobago have the Andes Mountains?” And it turns out, yes, they do. Islands or not! In addition, after their initial “discovery,” populations of A. pulcher have also been discovered in Guatemala, Honduras and Belize.
EBAs (Electric Blue Acaras) are gorgeous fish that stay in a manageable size never getting much bigger than five inches long. They are easy to breed and are relatively peaceful making them ideal first Cichlids, and an adult breeding pair is worthy of their own tank in any room. You can keep them in groups; five or six juveniles would be just fine in a 55-gallon aquarium, and an adult pair could be kept in the same tank. If you wanted to keep them all into adulthood, or mix them with other peaceful south American Cichlids, a much larger tank would be required. Like many American Cichlids, EBAs are notorious for redecorating, which makes them less than ideal in most planted set ups. In the wild, these fish can be found in a huge array of conditions, from freestone streams to stagnant ponds, leaving you with plenty of leeway when deciding how to show them off. You could leave them in a bare bottom tank with some clay pots and a sponge filter, and they'd be totally fine – as an FYI, this is our preferred breeding tank set up. Just give them lots of cover to dart around in, whether that's plants, pots, wood or rocks, groups will do best with enough stuff to break up the sight lines in the tanks.
Like many other American Cichlids, the Electric Blue Acaras are a perfect first aquaculture project for a new aquarist. In a well-maintained tank with plenty of good food, they'll get it done pretty much on their own. This has resulted in them being available as aquacultured specimens for a long time now, in fact, it would likely be a challenge to find a wild specimen in your LFS. If you did want to breed them on purpose, first you'll need to pair a couple of them (or buy a pre-mated pair). The best way to create your own is to buy six or more juveniles and let the pairing process happen naturally as they are sexually mature. Once they pair off, get a room (tank) for the adults of their own. They will find a smooth surface to lay eggs on, she lays 'em, he fertilizes 'em and they both guard 'em. A day or two later, the eggs will hatch. The new fry do not swim well, which is why we recommend a sponge filter, but they can eat surprisingly large food, like powdered flake, rotifers, daphnia, microworms, and brine nauplii almost immediately.
When they get bigger, the base of their diet here is Nutramar Freshwater Complete Pellets. These protein dense pellets offer unparalleled nutrition and a broad spectrum of vitamins and minerals. We also feed them a mix of protein dense foods from Gamma like Bloodworms, White Mosquito Larvae, Tubifex and Mysis. They'd also relish the opportunity to get some live food, and if you have a good source for clean red worms or earthworms, these are a favorite treat for Electric Blue Acara Cichlids. In house we feed them twice a day and once would be adequate for larger fish.
All fish will do best in consistent and good water quality, and we always recommend keeping up with your water changes and filter maintenance. That being said, Electric Blue Acaras are a very hardy fish and will be tolerant of a wide range of conditions. They'll do best in water that stays between 70 and 78, with a pH between 6 and 8 and they aren't going to care much about water hardness, as long as it isn't crazy and stays consistent. Keep nitrates under 20ppm and they'll be just fine.
As we've indicated, you can keep your EBAs in groups, and you can also mix them with other south American Cichlids of similar temperament like Serverums. They also mix well with fish like Plecos and Corys. They're also often tolerant of small fast fish like Columbian or Buenos Aires Tetras. If you go this route, be sure to add larger specimens and a large number of them.
There are many reasons that Electric Blue Acaras are popular, and if you've never kept them before, our hope is that you'll give them a try. These are absolutely beautiful, very active, hardy fish and watching them rear offspring is really satisfying. If this sounds like your kind of aquarium full of fish, head to your LFS and ask them about getting you a group of them from Aquatropic when your display is ready!