The Happy Acara

Lots More (Little) Smilers...

Provided the aquarium conditions are as suggested, then breeding will usually follow in due course. However, although some aquarists have been successful with an alkaline pH, success appears to be more likely if the pH is round about 6.5, or a little lower (down to 6). A diet of natural rather than dried foods may also now prove beneficial.

The first sign that something new is afoot is usually the female becoming more rounded as she fills with ripe eggs, and the pair will start to display to each other, quivering and spreading their fins, often in a slightly head-down position. Next comes the selection of a spawning site - often with interludes of further display. This

species is not normally a cave-spawner but usually spawns on a slanting solid surface sheltered by plants. The outside of a flowerpot cave may be chosen, or a smooth stone. If no suitable surface is available, then you must provide one, and this can be a useful way of persuading the pair to spawn at one end of the tank - by siting a selection of spawning surfaces there. Resist the temptation to put them in the open where you can watch what is happening - they prefer a private site, among or behind the plants. There is no point in visible spawning sites if the fishes won't use them!

The spawning substrate is cleaned by both parents before the eggs, numbering 100-500 depending on the size and condition of the female, are laid in close-packed short rows, each fertilised by the male after it has been laid. The rows together form a roughly square patch of eggs which are tended by both adults in apparently equal shares. If any other fish ventures too close it is "seen off" by the "off-duty" parent, with the other coming to help if required. Both parents usually turn rather dark at this time and during the rest of brood care.

The eggs hatch after 36-48 hours and the larvae are now carried by the female, in her mouth, to a small pre-dug nursery pit in the gravel among the plants. They will probably be moved to further pits at least once per day - this is a natural mechanism, used by many open-spawning cichlids, designed to protect against predation, largely by nocturnal catfishes, which can "scent" the fry but will hopefully be misled by an increasing number of "fry-scented" pits. Remember that cichlids are not active at night and cannot guard their brood effectively when it is dark. We must assume this works in the wild as the species still exists, though undoubtedly many broods are nevertheless lost. In the aquarium catfish predation can be a problem as there simply isn't room enough - a resident catfish cannot help but stumble across the brood in its routine foraging round the tank. If you have catfishes present and don't want to remove them, leaving a lamp on in the room (not the tank light - constant bright illumination would stress all the fishes) should provide just enough light for the parents to be able to guard the vulnerable larvae until they are free-swimming, which takes about 6 days from hatching.

The fry can be offered newly hatched Brine shrimp and Microworm as first foods, and will also forage for micro-organisms occurring naturally. They soon learn to take tiny morsels of their parents food. The parents continue to guard the brood for a further 2-4 weeks, during which the fry gradually become more independent. In a community tank situation they are best removed about 2 weeks after they become free-swimming, before they disperse too much - to be instantly eaten by the other occupants of the tank!

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