This morning I came into the office to find our pair of Herichthys carpintis, the Pearl Scale Cichlid or Green Texas Cichlid, had spawned in the 130 gallon aquarium. I wasn’t happy. Having seen them building a spawning pit, I’d planned today to clear a vat for them and move them to it for spawning. The aquarium is used to photograph fish for our website and for articles I write. It’s full of fish: livebearers, African cichlids, rainbowfish, barbs, etc. Now I’ll have to catch as many of these fish and temporarily house them in vats until the baby Pearl Scales are large enough to move. Since the tank is decorated with holy rock, it’s not easy to catch the fish. And, I have to do it in such a way as to not overly disturb the parents. They could have waited one more day and they would have had their own vat.
This pair of Pearl Scales is 3 generations from the fish we got originally from an aquarium maintenance customer, Blue Lagoon, in Victoria, Texas. This photo is of the pair guarding a clutch of eggs on the bottom of the tank and the surrounding rocks. The female is the smaller fish. She tends to hover over the eggs while the male cruises around chasing other fish away. Unfortunately, the glass in the front of the fish has algae on it blurring the photo a bit. I didn’t want to clean it and disturb the parents.
charles says
If I’m not mistaken, that is a Flowerhorn, which is a hybrid, not a species.