# Hypsophrys nicaraguensis



## cc_woman (Jan 31, 2008)

Yesterday when I was at the LFS, I saw a tank full of these guys....and since I know they are pretty rare to find in the hobby in my area, I bought a couple of them.......hopefully a male and female. I knew a little bit about them from before, but after reading some things I went back today and bought 2 more. I know the females are more colorful, is this still true when they are only 4" long?

What is the best ratio to have them in? Any other suggestions? What kind of tank mates are compatible with them? I found one site that said swordtails and a type of tetra are, but there has to be more than that. Haha funny thing is I put them in a tank that had my swordtails before I even knew that. I also know that it says they are compatible with smaller cichlids of the same temperament, but what about other fish like rainbows or roseline sharks? I would love to get a group of schooling fish that grow larger to put in the tank with them if possible.

I have read quite a few sites and as well they give different info on maximum size. Some say 10", others say 8-9". I would like to know what it actually is from anyone else's experience with them.

Will 4 of them be alright in a 90 gallon tank to full size? I am hoping that eventually I will get a pair out of the 4, and if I do I would sell the other 2. I will be temporarily keeping them in a 33 gallon until I can clear out my 90 gallon for them. I was thinking of using sand substrate and some slate rocks and driftwood for deco.

Anyone else have any experience with these guys you can share with me? I would love to keep them in the best possible habitat I can. Any more help would be awesome, since I didn't find very much thorough info online. Thanks guys


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## gage (Feb 7, 2007)

Nic's are a pairing fish, so i wouldnt go anything more then a pair as far as the ratio with M:F.

a lot of things are compatible with Nic's as they are a pretty peaceful fish as far as CA cichlids go.

as far as i know, females are always more colorful then males, even at only 4" in size.

i have a feeling that Rainbow fish would be a good mixer for them, even though i prefer to mix only things from the same lake as my fish, rainbows would be fine, *** never owned a roseline shark but i would imagine they would be fine from the research *** done on them.

if given proper care, a male can and will attain 10", at least in a 90g tank, if they were in a 55 i would say 8-9 would be an average size, thought id add females only get about 6" or so.

there natural habitat if im not mistaken is a sandy substrate with large rocks as Decor, i wouldnt add driftwood because it will lower there ph, try to keep the ph at around 7.5 with these guys.

there natural habitat doesnt have a lot of plants if any so i wouldnt bother with plants, one plant that comes from there natural habitat is Vallisnaria, it is found all over NA and CA, so if any plants go with this one IMO.

id like to add i have never kept this sp, though i have done a number of research on spp coming from the same area.

if you have any more questions just shoot!


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## cc_woman (Jan 31, 2008)

Well I bought more than 2 of them because I was reading they can sometimes be very picky and not pair up easily, so I figured if I manage to get 2 males and 2 females or 1 male and 3 females, the chances of having at least one pair would be higher. I can tell I have one dominant female in my tank, she has more blue on her face and more yellow in her body than the rest of them. But I know I must have 1 male for sure because he had not really any color but brown when I saw him in the tank.

I have found them to be quite skittish right now, and are always hiding, but that could change. The water from my tap is at about 7.6, so that should be perfect for them. I will leave the driftwood out then and just use rocks.....vals I can do also since they are growing like mad in my planted tank  I wasn't planning on putting really anything in the area of plants with them because I read they are diggers and don't want to go through the same thing I did when I had some earth eaters....trying to anchor them down and always replanting them every single day :roll:

Are there any other type of tetra or schooling fish that come from the same lake as them? I know of most CA cichlids to be rather aggressive, so I would think that tetras and stuff would be scarce there. I will do more research into the roselines, I really love their color....though for the price it makes me cringe.


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## rmcder (Jul 9, 2005)

Female about 6", male to about 10" - Those are pretty good size estimates. I had a female that was quite aggressive, but she was also the biggest fish in the tank at the time. She LOVED to dig, and moved a LOT of sand each day!!


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

The one female I've got isn't picky at all, she spawned quite often with the male I got with her (they were the last two in the tank) since then the male has passed but I've got quite a few of his sons that mom has spawned with.... :lol:


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## cc_woman (Jan 31, 2008)

See I bought 4 of them but I am not sure if any of them are males. Right now they are about 3.5-4" in size, and all of them seem to have blue tinges to their faces and fins, and yellow through their bodies. The male pics I have seen show the male with a longer more pointed dorsal fin, yet all of mine seem to have rounded dorsals, will this change at all as they grow? Or does it sound like I ended up with nothing but a bunch of females?

If and once I get a pair to form, I will most likely be removing the others, but Spencer jacks told me that the male will mate with more than one female if given the chance. Does anyone know if frontosas will be able to be kept with them short term? the 3 fronts I have are about the same size as the nics, but I have to get them into a larger tank soon too. I will be trying to get a 90 gallon for the fronts in the future, but just for now, otherwise I may have to get rid of them.

I will be aquascaping their tank with sand, river rock, and vallisneria.....tank mates will be boesemani rainbows and turquoise rainbows, possibly a school of roseline sharks, and a BN pleco. Any issues anyone can see?


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

Males will have a cross hatch pattern to their body. Here's my pair:

Male is on the right, check out the cross hatch pattern on his scales:


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## Vincent (May 7, 2004)

They may still not be large enough to sex yet. The males will have dorsal fins that are bronze with spots and the females' dorsal fins will be iridescent as in the photos here:

http://www.cichlidae.com/gallery/species.php?s=217

Very nice choice of fish!


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## chrispyweld (Dec 20, 2005)

I had a male that was a real terror. He beat up syns, firemouths, a smaller jag, cutteri, everything but my 9in GT. He would have if he was larger though I am sure. So know they have the ability to be MEAN. Just an FYI. Great looking fish though.


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## marge618 (Mar 12, 2006)

TheFishGuy said:


> Males will have a cross hatch pattern to their body. Here's my pair:
> 
> Male is on the right, check out the cross hatch pattern on his scales:


Are you referring to the black lines? Female: the line seems to go the full length of the female with 2 larger triangle shapes? Male: the line seems to start in the mid area of the fish.

I really would like to know how to identify male/female Nics as I expect to get some soon.


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## Vincent (May 7, 2004)

marge618 said:


> I really would like to know how to identify male/female Nics as I expect to get some soon.


Mature males will be much larger and have spots on their dorsal fins. Mature females will be smaller and have shiny blue/green/yellow dorsal fins.


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## gage (Feb 7, 2007)

it is truly the easiest cichlid to sex IMO, look at the dorsal, males will have black spotting all the way through the dorsal and females will have none.


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

Males also have a cross hatch patern to their entire body on the edges of their scales


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## marge618 (Mar 12, 2006)

TheFishGuy said:


> Males also have a cross hatch patern to their entire body on the edges of their scales


I keep looking at the picture of the nic pair your posted. Still can not see the 'crosshatch' pattern on the scales of the male.

Could you explain what it is you are seeing?

Thanks,
Marge


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## BigJagLover (Oct 25, 2006)

Well as far as dithers from the same lake as the Nics I'm not sure but I do know that a lot of live bearers come from there. so I wouold say while your Nics are small get some sailfin mollies or some swordtials and let them grow together. The Nics shouldn't mess with them unitl they breed.

Good luck and I hope you get your pair . By the way if their not 4-6" yet don't try to sex them they ussually don't stasrt lookig diffrent until around that size.


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## illy-d (Nov 6, 2005)

I found this information in an online article and thought it may be useful for members here that are searching for info on Nics. Rather then start a new thread I am posting in this one...



> Also often regarded as belonging to the Theraps section, 'C.' nicaraguense is one of the most unusual North American cichlids. The body is long like that of the type species of Theraps, but its head is round and blunt. Its mouth is low-slung and despite a lack of other noticeable modifications for sifting, that is exactly how this species feeds as thoroughly explained by Loisellel (2).
> 
> C.' nicaraguense has a unique sexual dimorphism -- mature females have a dark line running from their gill covers back to their caudal fins, whereas males have a single dark spot in the middle of the flanks instead. Juveniles sport both the stripe and the spot at once.
> 
> ...


In the last paragraph the author makes note of the uniqueness of the non-sticky eggs and the propensity for these guys to lay their eggs in a trough between 2 rocks - not quite a cave, not quite a pit... I find this particularly interesting as I noticed this digging between/beneath rocks behaviour from my male almost immediately after introducing him to my aquarium. While I have a female present I have not seen anything that indicates these two are a pair. I have read that this fish can be difficult to pair up, but as TFG can atest this not always the case. It may be that mine want to spawn, but not with each other... :?


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

I've got two males and three females. One of the females is the mother of all the rest. The offspring have yet to spawn but are going through the motions... funny thing I'll be rescuing two big males and two big females here shortly...


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## illy-d (Nov 6, 2005)

TheFishGuy said:


> I've got two males and three females. One of the females is the mother of all the rest. The offspring have yet to spawn but are going through the motions... funny thing I'll be rescuing two big males and two big females here shortly...


I'm jealous! I'm very excited about these guys and can hardly wait for them to grow up!


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## Tongue33 (Sep 17, 2007)

here's my female  I haven;t taken new pics for a few months... But anyway 

I like her.


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## MonteSS (Dec 8, 2008)

She looks so sad 

....Bill


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## MonteSS (Dec 8, 2008)

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/view ... 2c404d4ab7

....Bill


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## Norm (Feb 11, 2012)

I have 3 of these guys that range from about 1 3/4 to just around 2 1/2 inches and one of the around 2 1/2 inchers has great showing of spots on the dorsal fin and the other at about the same size does not show any spots and the (apparent male) has already set up a territory and if it sees the other one about his size with no spots they face off (8 to 10 inches apart) and display while feigning an approach to each other.

The 2 1/2 inchers both have light blue noses and some yellow and both have chosen a cave type area at least 2 feet apart.

The smaller one (1 3/4 ish) also shows no spots and this one seems to be the shy one that spot fin chases once in awhile, but not too aggressively.

All 3 are a long way from 4 to 6 inches.

Looking forward to the time when they have doubled their sizes.

They are in a 100 gallon tank 5 feet long.


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