Common but Unique-the oxymoron of the Day

By Jeff Michels MAS

As South American Cichlids go Laetacara thayeri isn’t a standout fish. So why do I stop and take a second look every time I see them in a store or at someone’s home? The question has several answers. One is the origin of the fish. Almost all the L. thayeri come in as wild imports, so the possibility of other species of fish being mixed in or just plain mislabeled is high. (Maybe it’s not that high, I’ve yet to find a different fish with the thayeri.) Another reason is the striking pattern and colors that are present.

Laetacara thayeri is relatively easy to acquire. Aquarium stores that stock more then the bread and butter fish seem to always have a few thayeri in stock. I think two factors contribute to this fact. One, retailers are looking for an inexpensive unusual fish, and two, the fish doesn’t sell very well so it stays in the retailer’s tanks. But why don’t they sell? The fish is attractive, having a stocky oval body with a black stripe starting at the eye and stopping at mid-body. The stripe is highlighted with a creamy yellow and the rest of the body has shades of brown and red with hints of blue and green. Over all the fish is ideally colored to blend in with leaf litter in the shallows of slow flowing streams. The retail problem is deportment. The fish are shy, preferring to hide in the plants and behind driftwood. Even in my home tank, a 20long filled with several low piles of smooth stones and some floating Naja grass, the Laetacara choose to hide.

Spawning this little South American beauties proved to be hard and easy. The five tank raised babies I purchased grew up fast and were almost 3" 6 or 7 months after receiving them. Unfortunately the fish is not sexually dimorphic. In other words the boys and girls look alike. After several months of not seeing any spawning activity I decided to try my luck at pairing off two fish. I caught a large male that had very long fin tips and very bold dark colors. With the male I put a large robust female with duller colors and no fin extensions. After a week in a 10 gal tank decorated similarly to the 20long the male had split the tail fin and frayed the other fins on the supposed female. So the "pair" went back into the 20 long with the other thayeri.

Another month or so passed and I had grown bored with trying to facilitate a spawn. But as the general course of nature goes, the fish decided the time was right and I spotted the large male and a mate guarding an end of the tank. With a flashlight in hand I quickly spotted a large plaque of opaque amber eggs on one of the river stones. I quickly collected some water from the tank and placed the water and the stone with the eggs into a large shallow container. I used and air stone placed by the eggs to help circulate fresh water and air around the eggs. After three days I was rewarded with a dish full of tiny Laetacara fry. After anther two days I started to feed the fry newly hatched baby brine shrimp. A week later the fry were moved into a 2 ½ gal tank with a sponge filter. Over the next 2 months I lost maybe half of the 200+ fry, although I never saw any dead ones in the tank. Apparently natural selection took over and did the culling for me. The rest of the babies have moved to up to larger tanks several times as they have gotten bigger and are doing well.

The Laetacara genus currently has four described species and already two undescribed species in it. These six fish make up a unique family of dwarf cichlids too big to be dwarfs but to small not too be dwarfs. All of them have dark earth tone hues with splashes of brilliance. They’re easy to care for but not always easy to spawn. They make you stop to see what they are but they’re easy to over look. The Laetacara are truly an unusual fish that’s fairly common. A great candidate for the poster "fish" of South American brown cichlids