Cichlid Profiles - Vultuosa Cichlid

[robertprice]

Acaronia vultuosa is a rather plain looking resident of Colombia and Venezuela, in the Orinoco and Rio Negro. It is grey or brown, with a prominent midbody dorsal blotch, a stripe through the eye which has a red iris, and a lateral thin bar from operculum to tail and about 8 indistinct vertical bars which appear and disappear with the fish's mood. It has some yellow scales with dark tips, and may have blue tinged fins. It gets about 6 inches long, and is a bottom dweller which eats small fish living in planted substrates.It is not quite Acara shaped, being oval but with a more sloping forehead, pointier snout and bigger mouth.

In the aquarium it does not require more than a 30 gallon gallon tank and is well behaved in community tanks. It is actually quite passive except for the small fish it prefers to eat. It likes pH of 5.3-5.6, and temperature of 78-82 and very soft water. It will breed in captivity, is a substrate brooder, and the embryos will only develop in soft acid water.