# Etroplus maculatus - Chromide



## ashilli48 (May 14, 2006)

Is anyone keeping this fish with success? What are you keeping it with? Are you staying brackish?

The reason I ask is that a LFS around here has them for a great price and he has never let me down quality wise before, but he currently has them in complete freshwater and looked very puzzled when I mentioned that these are brackish fish.

If they can be acclimated to freshwater what are people keeping them with as tankmates? Any other cichlids?

I am on a dwarf cichlid kick lately, but as always wanna do the research, buy the tank, THEN get the fish. Just because they are small is not a reason to bring something home. I did that years ago with pea/pygmy puffers. $50 dollars later, they had their own tank.....grrrrr.....


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## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

Becuase they aren't really brackish water fish. Like kribs and JD's, while they are occasionally found in brackish in the wild ... they do prefer and are much more plentiful in freshwater, in this case harder freshwater.

I could never breed the wild color form in brackish water (before I learned they came from fresh water mainly in an article by Dr. Paul Loiselle). Conversely, I never breed that bright red man made form in freshwater ... that one needed brackish for me.

I kept mine with harequin rasboras at first, but they were soon eaten. And they are fiesty with each other despite their smaller size (mine each time killed their way down to a pair in a 40 gallon breeder, 36"x18"). Had to switch to larger rasboras like brilliants and scissortails.

Very neat, under-rated fish. Absolutely beautiful (wild form) in breeding coloration. Heres a youtube video by Heiko Bleher of them: http://www.youtube.com/user/18Heiko44#p/a/u/0/yxEZhjw80hg


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## ashilli48 (May 14, 2006)

good to hear...wasn't looking forward to dealing with brackish.

Awesome video!

Any idea on keeping with other species of cichlids?


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## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

I never tried, canary chromides weren't available back then ... and I tend to keep them in regional tanks, so never tried. I think of them as being as fiesty as a convict, but with slightly less damage potental towards other fish.


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## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

dwarfpike said:


> I never tried, canary chromides weren't available back then ... and I tend to keep cichlids in regional tanks, so never tried. I think of them as being as fiesty as a convict, but with slightly less damage potental towards other fish.


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## Darkside (Feb 6, 2008)

I actually keep a male chromide (wild form) in a Tanganyikan community setup. I have pretty hard water with a high pH. He's jumped around several tanks and is now at home with a group of Tropheus. They are amazing fish, I highly recommended them. I had 6 to begin with, but my one remaining fish, killed the other 5 in a 75 gallon. I've paired them up before and like *dwarfpike* said, I've only had success breeding the wild forms in FW and the man made forms in brackish.


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