Red breasted acara

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

vaughan92

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Jul 12, 2020
Messages
1
Hi,

Myself and my partner are new to the fish keeping hobby and I have a couple of questions regards Red Breasted Acaras.

So we've had a pair for about 2 months now. 125L tank with just the acaras and 4 Amano shrimps and heavily planted.

We were quite shocked that after about a week and a half we had about 100 baby fish. We made two caves in the substrate with glasses dug in and hidden in with the plants and for the first week we didn't really see the acaras as they were always in the caves and then all of a sudden we had babies. Obviously pretty excited, however none survived. We had a few survive about 9 days or so then that was that.

So first question, if they breed again, what did we do wrong and how can we improve our chances of having survivors next time.

Next question, for the first 3 weeks or so we never saw the acaras eat or show any interest in food. We were feeding them pellets and frozen daphnia and they pretty much straight up ignored it. That's what we were told they ate in the fish shop. We have since gone back and bought frozen cichlid mix which is baby shrimp, bloodworm and daphnia and feed quarter of a block twice a day. They go mad for this and devour it especially the shrimp and bloodworm. Is this okay to use as an everyday food and is that an okay amount? Also could they have eaten their own babies previously when we were feeding them pellets they weren't interested in?

Next, the bloke at the shop told us to turn the temperate down to stimulate breeding again. However online it says raise the temperature for this species. We have the heater set to 25 degrees and the thermostat stick-on says its about 27 degrees. Is this okay for these and what is the actual best for breeding and for babies to survive?

Finally, we are doing water changes twice a week, roughly 30L of water each time. Again the bloke told us in the shop to cut that right down to maybe once a week or even once a fortnight if they have babies again. Annoyingly, online it says the opposite and to increase water changes to every other day. Can anyone provide extra clarity on this issue?

Thanks for any help in advance. We think they may be about to breed again as the male is constantly flared up purple and they are constantly circling and playing around after a week or so of not bothering with each other.

I shall throw some pictures up at some point :)
 
Hi, I can’t be much help but if the fry are in temperature too cold, they most likely won’t survive :)
 
Give them a couple tries. If you want to raise them you'll have to remove them and grow.out in a separate tank or breeder box.
 
1) Stop believing any LFS blokes. They NEVER give good info.

2). Increased water changes with fry are good for them. The problems arise IF your local water is treated heavily at the distribution point.

3) Your stick on thermometer is outside the aquarium, so it will give a mixed reading of the tank glass and ambient air, not your water column temps. Either way, those readings are fine for a Latifrons ��

Don't worry if they eat their young... Sometimes it takes a pair of fish several broods before they have success. Or, they may never get it right if one of them is forever compelled to eat them... But ask yourself. Are you TRYING to be a successful breeder? If so, you may need a second tank for the fry, and you'll remove either the parents or the fry at some point.
 
Back
Top Bottom