– South American Dwarf Cichlids

It was many years ago when I got into cichlids. There were two types of cichlid that hit me just about the same time, my pet store got some gold and blue rams (Apistogramma ramirez) into the tanks I was keeping for them. They fascinated me. So colourful and quiet. Those little guys were a passion right from the start. Any time I have needed a “handle” for CB, e-mail and such, I have accorded their beauty honour by using the blue ram as my pseudonym.

Right about that me I also got into other cichlid tpoyes as well. South American cichlids like the Jack Dempsey and Oscars held much interest for a while, the aggressivenature of the firemouth also was intersting to watch, but in the long runm, the introduction of African Cichlids took the fun out of the larger South American Cichlids.

But not the dwarfs, I still am facinated by them and willbe putting a tank up for them quite soon. The dwarf cichlid is not restricted to just one type of fish, although I am fondest of the classic Blue Ram, with the absolutely stunning colours they sport when in full colour. There are a whole bunch of other varieties now available, and trying to keep them apart can be difficult. I am lucky, I have a local pet stpore that seems to enjoy specializing in them so the choicew is wide.

As time has gone by, the little blue ram has changed names a few times, to Microgeophagus and back. And the number of colour varieties has multipled with the names as well. I started in the 70′s with the blue and gold ram as the only choice. they are deliate, so require lots more care than most of the small community fish commonly kept. Theyt require acid water to be happy, so that is a major challwenge in Montreal, where the water tends to sit around 7.4 – 7.8.

This blog will be documenting the set-up and operaton of a small tank, a beginning aquarium, specially devoted for them. The tank is a 10 Gallon silver framed Elite tank with a Hush filter. The heater will be one of the new Fluval E heaters so it can keep the temperature steady and slightly higher than ordinary. I will be using this blog to document the way things go.