Dicrossus Maculatus

[eageraquarist]

A local store has some D. Maculatus(Spade-Tailed Checkerboard Cichlid), I'm curious if anyone has had any experiences with them so I can be better prepared if I end up buying a few. Would a 20 gallon High hold a trio, and some dithers? Any knowledge would be appreciated, so I can determine if I will have to time to keep them or possibly breed them.
Thanks

JRH

 

[Bilbo]

I cant help with how to keep them sorry but they are one of my favorite fish and definately on my wish list.

I would say do a bit of research and grab them while you can, they dont seem to be discussed all that often so I can only guess they are reasonably rare over your way too. The fact you are asking proves you are more likley to look after them so best of luck.

 

[Tom C]

I keep them.

One pair in a 160 liter tank. They are peaceful, and move around the whole tank. I don't know how/if they will thrive in a smaller tank....

Peat filtered soft water with pH of around 5.
Dithers are Nannostomus nitidus (they breed there too)

Right now they have fry:

Very nice fish, absolutely worth keeping!

 

[Apisto_Dezign]

They are some gorgeous fishes. If you come across them definitely pick them up not only a pair but a few if the price is reasonable I know they do get expensive. I picked up 3 pairs when I bought mine when they were small about $15 each. I end up with 5 males and 1 female which 3 males died. Mine are huge now and beautiful. I keep mine with my Altums at 6.5 Ph and temp at 82. If you are going to breed them I agree with Tom of Ph of 5 because mine do breed at 6.5 but they don't past the fry stage. 20 gallon is good but do put in a lot of hiding places for the trio. Good luck.

 

[Christine33]

Awwwwe those fry are so cute!!! I see them every once and a while at my fish store as well but I would say they are difficult/hard to find

 

[merlin]

I have spawned these successfully and have currently split out a trio and a group of 5 into separate tanks. They were easy to spawn but i lost the parents during the time they were looking after the young. The seem to be very greedy eaters and i was feeding tons of bbs and they looked like they died of bloat.

 

[merlin]

I personnaly would get rid of all my apisto and keep all the dicrossus species. If i could find them for sale.

 

[Christine33]

I would as well

 

[andris]

My experience with dicrossus maculatus. My tank is 280l, 140cm wide. ph 5.5 gh <1 kh < 1 tds 55. I started with 18 n. marginatus, 4 young pterophyllum
scalare , and 5 dicrossus 3 females and 2 young likely females). The community was doing well it was relatively peaceful, but there was not much going on. I’ d added 1 dicrossus male and 2 weeks later I decided to remove ‚angels’, immediately the next day dicrossus female spawned. After female lied eggs she became agressive towards environment. 10-12 days later after free swimmers appaered /50-60/ she started guarding them across the tank resulting some unfortunate losses. Couple days later 2nd female spawned and the tank was initially under terror. Then I decided to remove 2 young dicrossus.


Currently i have 18 n marginatus 10 n eques and 4 dicrossus / 1m plus 3 females/ plus dicrossus babies. the tank has became much stable, there is also less agression between females as they settled in their territories and feel less stressed due to initial overstock. It is actually very interesting to watch them now as behaviour became more sophisticated regarding signalling and interactions between them. Conclusion for me less means more again.


I am wondering whether this combination of n. marginatus and n. eques could be an obstacle for breeding of them?

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

...The seem to be very greedy eaters and i was feeding tons of bbs and they looked like they died of bloat.

Same happened to mine, but lovely fish.

cheers Darrel

 

[Bart Hazes]

Very beautiful and peaceful fish indeed. Also much less picky eaters than Apistos. I find keeping them to be very easy as well and they tolerate pH up to 7.5 in my tanks and hardness up to 100ppm. Possibly higher but most of the time my tanks are below these values. I haven't bred them because from the two groups I got on separate occasions all turned out to be males.

 

[Drayden Farci]

In my opinion, a 20 High is too small for this fish. You might fit a pair comfortably for a while, but once they reach their 2.5" adult size they will be too crammed to enjoy the tank. I was gifted a pair a few years ago that I put into my 55 gallon tank, and unfortunately the female died very soon after. I am not sure if my Apistogramma got her or the male, but I witnessed both acting aggressively towards her the day before I found her dead.

 

[andris]

keeping dicrossus maculatus is a good lesson. 1 male and 2 females in addition to dither fish would be probably enough for this size (140cm long 280 liters) of the tank. i can keep 3rd female and i do, but does not seem she wants to spawn as clearly there is no room for her. 2 spawning females split tank into 2 parts occupying practically 70cm of tank lenght.

 

[andris]

further information about keeping and breeding dicrossus maculatus 1m plus 3 f. My tank is 280l, 140cm wide. ph 5.5 gh <1 kh < 1 tds 50. community 4 adult dicrossus maculatus, 18 nannostomus marginatus 10 nannostomus eques. female no 1 that is probably a dominant female is not successful in raising the fry. out of 1st batch ~70 babies, she managed to raise 3 of that she abandoned when they were about ~0.8-1cm size. they managed to survive and reached the size of 2cm now. Out of 2nd batch ~70/80 babies she managed to grow up zero! meanwhile female no 2 (not dominant) managed to raise 9 babies out of ~50/60 and still protecting them - they are about 1.2cm size. I spotted that nannostomus marginatus predate on tiny babies and the father is not helping at all and eat the wandering babies.