# Texas Cichlid tank question



## adixon816 (Jul 9, 2012)

I will be acquiring a breeding pair of texas cichlids soon. I got some driftwood for the tank and believe I am going to do sand as a substrate. Would you guys recommend black or natural colored sand? I am interested in the black as I feel it may make there colors pop as opposed to neutral sand making them look drab. Also as far as rocks go, do I need to create caves or just break up the areas a bit. The one piece of driftwood I intend to caddy corner to make a natural cave area for one of the fish. Attached are pictures of the driftwood and fish. (I believe that are true texas cichlids and not carpintis.) Any info or advice is appreciated. Also they are about 4-5" currently and will be housed in a 55 for approximately four months until I move, I hope this is ok until then.


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## Azedenkae (Apr 19, 2012)

They're both H. carpintis (green texas). The driftwood by itself is okay, but it's better to add caves/pots. You can get away with a 55g. They may be a bit cramped, but it should be okay. Dunno about sand tho.


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## adixon816 (Jul 9, 2012)

How can you tell they are green Texas? I am not questioning you just for curiosity's sake. They are a very plain silver without the flash from my camera and I truly wish to know more about these beautiful fish.


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## Azedenkae (Apr 19, 2012)

Mhm, the pearlings on a true texas is very small and circular, more like speckles than anything.

Like this:









Whereas the pearlings on a green texas is a lot more irregular, both in their shape, pattern and distribution. 

In your third pic, you can see how the pearlings especially on his face are not round, but rather irregularly shaped.


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## adixon816 (Jul 9, 2012)

Fascinating! Thank you so much for this info, it has helped me choose my sand color and let me know I have to read a bit more as I was reading about the wrong species. Will they move away from the silver color with age or is it a fish by fish basis.


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## alfred14 (Aug 27, 2012)

this is my male texas caught from a stream about 15 mins from my house. about 99% its pure texan. he recently had babies with my female texan caught from the same body of water. i plan on getting some newer pictures of them both and the babies. i feel that these are good examples of texas cichlids. 

1 by alfred1414, on Flickr


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## aicardi (Sep 15, 2012)

Personally I prefer natural color sand as that is what they live in naturally. As for tank size a, 55 gallon will be short term. Minimum is 75 gallon for a single specimen. You will want something substantially larger for a pair as they can grow in excess of 12". 
I think they are stunning fish with allot of personality and a Texas size attitude!


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## alfred14 (Aug 27, 2012)

i dont think they will ever reach 12" when raised in a small aquarium. i though typical was about 10 inches. the big ones being caught from the wild where they had large ponds to live in.


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