Jaguar Cichlid

In Sydney at least, this magnificent predatory fish seems to have become sadly unfashionable. Having kept and bred jaguar cichlids in the past I find myself at a lost to explain the apparent lack of interest in this most majestic fish. Contrary to the experiences of many others I do not find the jaguar cichlid particularly aggressive. I have kept several specimens and in comparison with other central American cichlids, such as Red devils (A. citrinellum) and Wolf cichlids (N. dovii) it is quite unaggressive. By this I don’t mean to say you could keep a jaguar cichlid in a three foot tank with an oscar and not expect hostilities or even fatalities, however if kept in a large enough tank, the jaguar cichlid will claim a small territory and co-exist with other central American cichlids with little problem. I would suggest that a single jaguar cichlid requires an optimum of between 150-200 litres of water to itself. Water should be roughly pH 7.2 -7.5, the kH should be round 5-6, the temperature can be kept from 23 - 28 C the addition of 1 teaspoon non-iodized salt (NaCl) per 10L of water seems to be beneficial. The jaguar is an unfussy eater and will take most prepared-pelleted foods, although this should be supplemented with frozen foods such as cocktail prawns and whitebait. Avoid feeding feeders (feeder goldfish or guppies) - most feeders are of poor quality and can carry parasites which can infect and kill your prize fish.

Synoma: Parapetenia managuense, Cichlasoma managuense
Common Name(s): Jaguar Cichlid
Country of Origin: Central America
Diet: Opportunistic piscivore
Water Chemistry: pH 7.2 - 7.5, kH 5-6
Temperature: 23 - 28 C

Breeding: In a six foot tank breeding Jaguar cichlids does present some challenges and should only be attempted by the more experienced aquarist. Young jaguar cichlids (round 1″) in length should be bought from varied sources (there is no way to sex small jaguar cichlids reliably) to prevent inbreeding. As they grow, the faster growing larger males will pair up with the females and a single pair should be kept. The pair should begin breeding at around 4″ in length and will normally produce around 500 eggs during the first spawning, the eggs being laid on a large flat stone. The fry are easy to raise and should be culled to a manageable number (round 100-150 per spawn is manageable), not culling results in the decreased health of all of the fry. The fry should be raised on a mixture of powered flake/pellet foods, live microworms and newly hatched brine shrimp.

It is also possible to breed mature adults, a divider method is preferred. Two kinds of divider may be used. An incomplete divider, is a plastic grid with a hole cut into it that only the female can fit through, as when mature she is significantly smaller than her more powerful partner. This allows her to escape to the other side of the tank if the male becomes too aggressive. This works quite well with fairly passive males although sometimes the complete divider method is required. In this method, the tank is completely divided in two, and a large flat spawning stone is placed right next to the divider, the female will lay her eggs and the male can fertilise them from the other side of the grid. Water movement is critical though in allowing the males sperm to reach the eggs.

Suprisingly I find it difficult to feed my Jaguar cichlid. He’ll take fish or prawns with relish (frozen) but seems uninterested in most pelleted foods. I suspect for the most part these are too small for his wide mouth. While he’ll take a few pellets at a time, feeding several leads to wastage and an explosion in the snail population cleaning up the mess. To keep the snails down, I’ve taken to feeding him large sized pellets, one at a time, he can get quite a few into that cavernous mouth of his!

I think I’ll stick to frozen foods. Must buy some cocktail prawns and whitebait for the jaguar.

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