April 2, 2015 I purchased my Paracyps. Today it is October 23 2015. I decided to write about them to remember their progress. They are coming into breeding age and I am so excited to hopefully get some fry!
They now range from 1.5" to 2.75". 2 have not grown as large. Not sure if they are females, or if they just didnt grow..
I can tell the males, as they show off a black anal fin and lyre tails. Much more colorful.
Now...Paracyps apparently only show color when the lighting in a tank is right. That means you have to give them dark areas, and place your lighting towards the front of the tank. Then when the light hits them, you can see the Neon blue.
They will swim upside down when near a rock face, or there is no current in the tank.
They are not like the photos I am showing you if you are just sitting on your couch viewing them. The color in my photos comes from the flash of the camera. As they swim around the tank, the light hits them and you do see some of their color, but they are not a bright orange color like other cichlids.
So here are a few close ups I took today.
I have started feeding them frozen Brine shrimp and Daphnia lately in hopes to help breeding. Otherwise I feed a very small fish food containing 46% protein. They love to follow the catfish around and suck up any particles that come off their veggie discs.
Here is a video of my male happy about a new rock i placed in the tank:
To be continued..
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If you keep Paracyps and would like to contribute, please feel free to comment. I would love to hear from you!
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