Living with the Parachromis Giants
Written by Wednesday, 30 June 2010 00:00
How do we chose our fish? Or rather, why did we chose the fish we currently own as opposed to some other ones? Appearance (good looks) is one reason, possibly the one most commonly applied. Other reasons include rarity (some aquarists will only keep rare fish), final size of the fish (thankfully this is now taken into consideration by a growing number of aquarists), temperament (namely the ability of the fish to cohabit peacefully with the other inhabitants of our tank) and so on. (1)
There is one more reason for chosing a particular type of fish over another and that is challenge. Some fish, rightly or wrongly, are considered more 'challenging' than others and a number of aquarists are attracted by this. The challenge mainly lies in keeping the fish alive and well and getting it to spawn. This applies mainly to species about which little or nothing is known.
For aquarists who home large cichlids spawning is not the challenge. These fish will spawn readily in most cases - which is where their nickname, JAW (Just Add Water), comes from. JAWs is a good laugh to score one over cichlidiots but how true is it? Cichlid lovers will retort with their endless stories about protecting the female from the male (and vice versa), taking the fry from the mother before she wipes them off clean and other such trivia.
For us spawning is not the main challenge when keeping large cichlids. At the end of the day who wants to spawn them and what for? Over the years we have had endless heartache trying to home the young of our pairs and quite often we ended up keeping a considerable number of them as, despite statements to the contrary, aquarists were either unable or unwilling to provide a good home for them. The whole idea of spawning comes as a reward for the aquarist in that it is taken that the home provided for the fish is apropriate. This may be so - but this is something one knows after the first spawn. Then what?
Knowing that we had issues homing rare fish such as the Paretroplus damii, the Paratilapia sp. 'Andapa' and so on, it would be insane to believe that we could home successfully young Parachromis managuensis or doviis. Firstly, these fish are bound to outgrow any tank of an average size. Secondly, they are predators and they love their privacy. They require a tank of their own - and regardless of where they will be placed they will still end up in a tank on their own (everything else will get wiped off). Finally, they are readily available in most LFSs as they are getting mass-produced in European fish farms.
To us, the challenge of keeping large cichlids lies elsewhere. It is not the spawning, it is not their size, it is not their looks. It is their intelligence and the way they can interact with the aquarist given the opportunity. The challenge, therefore, is to keep them stimulated and enable them to enjoy life and develop as much as they possibly can in their confined environment.
It would be wrong not to mention here our teacher in this game, Bouboukos. Bouboukos, our male Paratilapia sp. 'Andapa', taught us a lot of tricks. Having lived with Bouboukos for a while we could recognise when a fish was bored and was looking for entertainment, when it was content or in playful mood. Most importantly, he taught us when to leave him alone as he was 'otherwise engaged' (e.g. was guarding fry or was courting). It was interesting to note that Bouboukos at these times was threatening towards us, knowing full well who we were.
There are endless stories worth recording when it comes to large cichlids. (2) Here we would like to share our experience living with our Parachromis giants, a male managuensis and three doviis. All these fish were acquired when they were quite young - measuring about 6 cm TL.
We will begin with our male managuensis, Lord Percival or Percy for short. Percy was the weaker of two managuensis who were sharing the same tank. The other fish (which we assume was also a male) was chasing him relentlessly so that Persy was often going hungry or jumping outside the tank to save his life. The other male did not actually want to kill him - indeed they were too young for this. We are convinced he was toying with him as he often let him free straight after an ambush and attack. Nevertheless, following a nasty attack at the end of which he was cornered quite badly, Persy killed his tank mate in an attempt to save his life. Since then his character changed. He became more dominant and more interactive.
While he was growing up Persy was living in a 100 lit tank in the kitchen. The tank was in a good place so that Persy had an overview of everything that was going on in this room. He clearly identified the room as 'his territory'; anything and eveything that moved in this room was the object of observation, including the cat. Anything displeasing was immediately attacked or threatened. It is worth noting that on one occasion that we moved his tank to a different room Persy went in hiding and stopped interacting. We initially thought that he would slowly recover but that never happened. Eventually we had to give in and move him back again in the kitchen, where the fish resumed his normal activities.
Of the two of us Persy adores Marina and hates George - it is as simple as that. There is no reason for this behaviour - or at least no reason we can understand. George, being the cichlid specialist, has initially spent a lot of time to become friends with Persy. All his attempts were in vain. Persy gets infuriated when George enters the room and keeps attacking him, banging on the glass of the tank (to the point of breaking it ....) until George leaves the room. We cannot touch in front of him - in fact we cannot even get close to each other because Persy gets upset; he starts displaying - opercula wide open - bangs the glass and splashes water around in anger. When George gets out of the room Persy goes to the corner of the tank nearest to the door and stands guard there for at least five minutes, ready to attack George if he re-appears. This hostility is quite genuine. Persy, true to his feelings, does not accept food from George even when he is literally starving.
In stark contrast Marina is his favourite. Not only will he play with her but he also initiates play by hiding under a piece of wood and mock attacking or coming close to the glass and showing his belly to be stroked and tickled. He calls Marina if he wants attention by gently taping on the tank glass or simply swimming close to the front glass. Quite often he brings his toys to her (plastic balls of various sizes and styles) to play - and on occasions other 'toys' such as the thermostat or an airstone ... Marina is the only person who can put her hands in his tank without risking having a finger snapped off. The video below shows some of the interaction between Persy and Marina:
In this video clip Marina speaks to Persy in Greek asking for a kiss (notice how gently he approaches her hand to give a kiss, then he pulls back) and praising him. Notice how gentle Persy is when he catches her fingers in play. When given fish to eat, Persy picks it up gently and pulls back to eat it. At this stage Marina asks Persy 'Εφαγες?' (Have you eaten it?) and Persy lets some morsels drop out to show he is still eating. When he is ready he approaches for some more food. This is not a chance incident, it is repeated behaviour. Needless to add that this - and a full play session - must take place daily or else Persy sulks.
Persy's fascination with Marina almost resulted in a tragedy. During one of her absences for a long period of time Persy simply refused to eat. He was attacking anybody entering the kitchen let alone venturing near his tank. The food in his tank was left uneaten to rot as nobody dared remove it. Persy ate again a month later, when Marina returned from her trip. At the time he was in quite a state - to the point we thought we would lose him - but he made a fantastic recovery. To-date he remains Marina's pet; we are hard pushed to find ways to keep him entertained and alert.
Kaiser, one of our male doviis, is the total opposite. Despite the fact that Marina brought him up since we acquired him, he cannot stand her. When Marina approaches his tank Kaiser hides and remains hiding until Marina gets out of sight. He fell in love with George the minute they met and to-date he remains very much George's fish, though he does not see him very often. On entering the house George calls Kaiser by name; Kaiser comes to the front glass of his tank and fixes his eyes at the door, full of anticipation. When he sees George he swims almost frantically up and down the tank, plays hide and seek with him and comes to do 'kisses' behind the glass. As is the case with Persy, Kaiser attacks people he does not like if they approach his tank. With other visitors he just retreats in his 'headquarters' and observes them - until he makes his mind up about them. Kaiser has a number of floating and bottom toys in his tank to keep him entertained and he regularly plays with them.
Another thing about Kaiser is that he is very particular about what goes in and out of his tank. A couple of years ago Marina tried for a while to keep a plant in his tank. Kaiser objected to it and kept uprooting it. In the end a very frustrated Marina secured the plant on a piece of wood and put lots of rocks around it so that Kaiser could not shift it. Kaiser patiently waited under his piece of wood until Marina was done. Once the lid of the tank was back on Kaiser pointedly swam to the plant, chewed it to pieces and swam to the front to spit each piece to Marina's face. That put an end to Marina's attempts to plant his tank; game, set, match to Kaiser.
Erica, our female dovii, also considers the room her tank is in as her territory (this was a given, considering ..). She is totally different to the males in that she can keep herself happily entertained with her toys, without demanding too much of our time. Erica's issues are different. She hates living in a 'dirty' tank, she detests lids on her tank and she has issues with airstones and cats. So here is what she does: If her tank is dirty (uneaten food, debris etc) she 'sweeps' the dirt (or, occasionally, what is perceived to be dirt) to the front of the tank with her fins or pushes it with her snout. She then bangs on the glass to attract attention. Once one of us arrives in the room she points at the dirt with her mouth and withdraws under her piece of wood until the dirt is removed from her quarters. Leaving the area without removing the dirt is not an option; Erica will get destructive and will attack anything and everything in her tank (wires, pump, thermostats, glass) unless her orders are promtply executed. The bang on the glass also means 'time to feed me'. But then we know what each bang means. Dirt in the tank can cause serious banging no matter where we are in the house. If it is food she wants she will wait until we appear in the room, then tap the glass and stay still under the slot on the lid through which we use to feed her. In similar fashion to our males undesirable food is spat straight out to our faces - followed by a meaningful look.
The lids on the tank are a different story. Since she grew up Erica lives in a big sump, waiting for her own tank to be constructed (the sump is barebottom on purpose - to avoid the debris drama). As she is quite a playful fish she has a tendency to literally jump out of the water to catch insects or anything else which may, from time to time, attract her attention. In fact we often hang toys outside the tank for her as she loves trying to catch them - or surprise attack them. The lids are a hindrance. So ever so often Erica will undo the lids and throw them on the floor. (After she broke a couple of glass lids - and was very proud of it too - we got her plastic lids which are safer.) Knowing that serious banging on the lids results in one of us appearing in the room to check what is going on Erica also employs this strategy from time to time to call us when our presence is required.
Another characteristic of Erica is that she dislikes cats with a vengeance. Guess what, we have cats! As opposed to Persy who considers the cats as his pets - and part of his territorry - Erica believes they are outright intrudors and gets alert every time they get in the room. Felines are predators - and they are considered to be very intelligent. Much as we love our cats we have to admit that they are no match for Erica. Sitting and watching their interaction is both interesting and entairtaining. Erica is aware of any cat's presence in the room the minute the first paw crosses the doorway. She stops whatever it is she is doing and comes right in front of the appropriate panel of glass (this depends on the direction from which the intruding cat enters the area) watching every step the cat makes. As the cat approaches her tank (if it does) she is ready to attack. If, on the other hand, the cat walks past the tank Erica sees it off by swiming in parallel to the cat's course and makes sure the cat is away prior to returning to her previous activity. If, God forbid, the cat stays around gazing at Erica WW3 starts. Erica bangs the glass, attacks the cat and splashes water around in a frenzy until the cat gets scared, bored or wet enough to want to leave. At which stage peace returns to our living room.
We have plenty of stories such as these to tell, all of which point to one fact: keeping the Parachromis giants does not simply require regular water changes, enough space and appropriate food. It takes more than that: if the fish are kept on their own they require serious attention, time commitment and a sound entertainment programme. The fish are fully trainable in that they do want to interact. They have strong personalities - which differ amongst different individuals - and specific preferences. So much so that adapting to their new habitat includes the aquarist first and foremost: the challenge is, for us, to become part of the habitat we provide for them.
Photos and video clip by the authors.
Notes
(1) We do not refer to 'selfish' or otherwise unworthy reasons for acquiring fish here.
(2) See for instance the behaviour of Paratheraps fenestratus.
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