Seriously Swank Salvini Cichlids
Welcome, fishtank fans, to the Trichromis Cup! Where the most beautiful north American Cichlid is awarded a gold medal! And the prize goes to... a brilliant golden cichlid called Trichromis salvini or Salvini Cichlid. You may also know it by it a few other common names, like Yellow Belly Cichlid, and Tri-Color Cichlid, but whatever you call it, you'll never forget once you've seen one. They are stunning. Mature males will develop a golden belly that does an ombre fade to orange/red toward the tail, there is a series of black spots that connect into a line down their side that are often rimmed in metallic blue. The females are larger, getting seven-ish inches long, and are silverer, but are liberally flecked with neon blue on their scales and they share the same, black-spotted stripe.
They are a pair worthy of keeping completely by themselves, and that's one of the ways we suggest keeping them. They're very reclusive if kept alone, and when spawning, can be very aggressive when kept as more than a pair. You can keep them with other aggressive central and north American Cichlids, like Jack Dempseys, Convicts, Green Terrors or Firemouths, but there are also many Armored Catfish that are up to the task given a large enough space.
Given that Trichromis salvini can get five to seven-ish inches long, that space should be at least 55 gallons for the pair, and bigger if you want to add more fish. Salvini Cichlids come from relatively fast-moving rivers in Mexico, Belize and Guatamala. So, the aquarium should also feature a good amount of flow, but also some places to get out of the “river channel.” You can use powerheads, bigger canister filters or even air stones to increase the flow and oxygenation. They love sand, and will move it around, and so (if desired) plants will need to be things like Java Moss that can be affixed to driftwood or rock. Use décor to break up sight lines in the aquarium if you're planning to keep a mixed species aquarium. If you're planning to breed Salvini Cichlids, offer them a smooth flat rock and enough substrate to dig some pits.
On this topic, if your Salvini Cichlids are well fed, healthy and you have a pair, they're going spawn. Trying to pair adults isn't recommended and may end up with two badly injured fish. The best way to get a pair is to start with a group of 6 or more juveniles. Salvini Cichlids reach maturity at a fairly small size, and you'll see them start to differentiate and pair off when still fairly small. Once pairs form, they should be removed to their own breeding tank, which could be as small as a 40-gallon breeder. The pair will dig pits around a smooth rock and the male will defend this against anything and everything. Large females can lay more than 500 eggs in a spawning event that might take more than an hour. The eggs hatch relatively quickly and Trichromis salivini are good parents. They'll move the babies from pit to pit. It is postulated that the juveniles feed off the adults in some way, and so they shouldn't be removed from the tank for at least a month. The fry has about a week's worth of yolk sac to live on, and after that are big enough to take brine nauplii, microworms and crushed flake. Then you're back to stage one. You're going to want to separate them sooner than you might think so they don't pair off and start spawning too!
This easy to feed behavior continues into adulthood. They're a moving water fish, and so in the wild the spend all day hunting and don't have the luxury of passing up too many meals. They eat mostly small fish and invertebrates, and they'll continue this in the home aquarium, even if they were aquacultured (most are). If they can fit something alive in their mouths, they're going to try and eat it. Because a portion of their diet is invertebrates and fish that eat algae and plants, the Salvini actually get a good amount of plant matter in their diet. To get this into their captive meal plan, we suggest using Nutramar Algae and Color Boost Shots. The Salvini will chow these down. We also feed them a mix of meaty foods from Gamma like Chopped Prawn, Chopped Mussel, Mysis, Bloodworm, and White Mosquito Larvae. They'll happily take feeder fish and live red worms or earthworms if you have a clean source for them.
The Salvini Cichlid is one of the most beautiful and interesting American Cichlids. They're easy to feed, easy to breed and generally very hardy. They bring color and activity to species specific and mixed aggressive tanks alike. If this sounds like a fit for the tank, you're planning head to your LFS and ask them about getting you a group of juvenile Trichromis salvini or maybe an adult pair of them from Aquatropic today!