Cichlasoma festivum
The natural habit is in South America in middle Amazon area, Rio Plata, in stagnant waters or with slow flow, with rich vegetation, with plenty of rocks and roots. From the behavior point of view they are similar to scalars, with which they are friendly. It doesn`t need special foods; it eats almost anything, even dry food as flakes or tablets. It needs a supply of vegetal food, or the given tablets should contain vegetal parts too. The optimal temperature is about 25° C and for reproduction it needs 26-27° C. It has some water chemistry preferences, needing a pH of 6.5-7 and 5-8° dGH. In aquariums it appreciates the sunny areas, but shadowy ones aren`t bad either. It likes rich planted aquariums.
The body shape is typical to Cichlids, so it has a burly body, laterally oblate, with a big sharp head and a small mouth. The fins are imposing, the anal and caudal are sharp, the abdominals are prolonged and the tail is round. It can reach 15 cm length.
The body is colored in yellow-grey to green-grey; the back is olive-brown, the pectoral area is blue-green. On the body laterals it has a line from the mouth to the base of the tail which divides the body into two different colored areas. It can also have some lateral transversal lines made from dark colored spots. At the base of the tail it has a black spot with light colored outline. The fins are colored from yellow-grey to blue.
The sexual difference isn`t obvious, both the female and male are colored the same. As in the scalars case, the sexual difference can be observed in the spawning period, looking to the genital pupil. The male`s is shorter and sharp at the top, and the female`s is larger with a cone trunk shape. In general the male is bigger; it has sharp anal and caudal fins, while the female`s are round.
They are friendly fish, sheepish and timid, they don`t grout, and they don`t attack the plants (if they are fed with vegetal food). They need large aquariums. They are sensitive to old water, that`s why we have to change the water regularly. For reproduction, it`s better to let them pair themselves. In order to do that, there has to be more youngsters in the aquarium. One of the maturity signs is the red iris, as for scalars. The fry hatch after 48 hours and swim free after 8 days. When they swim free we`ll feed them with Artemia salina, micro worms or small daphnia. The fry grow quite fast.