Electric Blue Acara (EBA) interest?

I'm looking to see what interest there is for EBA. I have a pair that is breeding and rearing fry. The dad is doing such a great job. They are several months away until they get to an inch in size and I'd consider selling. I'll most likely have price brackets of 1 inch, 2 inches, 3 inches, etc. I'd sell singular fish, but will do groups too if interested in trying to breed yourself. The bigger they get, the more they'll eventually be. If you want breeding size fish, 3 inches is when it started for me. That will take until the fall at about 8 to 9 months from now. Prices will come once they are available.

 

Would you be willing to try to sell sexed ones? I have some males and would like to get them some lady friends eventually.

 

Would you be willing to try to sell sexed ones? I have some males and would like to get them some lady friends eventually.

Absolutely! I am trying to learn about sexing, but once these grow up and some pair off I would definitely get you some females. By then, I should know how to sex them too. Hopefully by the fall I will have some. If I know sooner, I'd let you know. Good thing they live 7+ years in captivity.

 

Sexing them is difficult but its possible if you know what to look for. i have a pair, and it took a lot of trial and error and giving away extra males until finally I bought a guaranteed female on ebay. The males have a more slanted higher forehead, where the female has the sloping forehead (like a christian symbol fish) darker overall coloration on males (less whitish), and the dorsal fin has a longer tip on males. Its difficult to sex them based on any one of these traits but if you see all 3 together you can pinpoint it. Also one great trait to nail is it that males will "shake" in front of females as a breeding lure. Mine also did "Lip locking" where they grab each others lips and do a tug of war but i heard males will do this to other males as a contest of whos stronger, AND females will do it to males to see if they are tough and good for breeding.
How did you get yours to breed? Mine have not bred yet even though they are full size. diet? Water changes?

 

I have an auto water change system that does a gallon per hour drip. I run it 4 times a day for 90 minutes each time. So 6 gallons of new water goes in daily in the 20g and 29g. Doesn't mean I really change 6 gallons of water, but I do get enough out as tank is stable. I feed lots of frozen brine shrimp and frozen blood worms. I also have something hard like a ceramic or slate pleco cave in there that has a flat edge. Mine paired off and I found out I had pairs when I saw the eggs and no one else was allowed near them. I was also given a breeding pair by jmaldo. Got all my EBA from him. Now I have fry about 5 weeks old give or take a day and they are growing fast. Getting them a bigger tank tomorrow for all 225+ of them. Also, I found that having a auto feeder saved them from starving since I could only feed 2 times a day with work and all. It feed them 2 more times while I was gone so they liked that.

I knew about the dorsal fin, but not the other two so thank you!

 

Determining gender is still a challenge for me, even after raising hundreds. Although one key for me was the size, males were almost always larger (length and girth). But mostly I just let them pair off naturally. My first pair were from coralbandit maybe he has some traits to share.
As mentioned I found the male shaking (vibrating, spasms) is normally to attract the female. It is really a sight to see the dance pre-spawn. Just need to be careful the males are vicious when it comes to claiming females and will fight, ended up with a juvenile male losing an eye.
As far as breeding, my pairs would spawn every few weeks if I kept them together. Flat rocks worked best for me but they have layed eggs on plant leaves. Water changes a few degrees cooler and feeding bloodworms seemed to spur breeding for me, but...
Most times I would separate them due to one or the other claiming parenting rights and attacking the other. When I wanted a spawn I would put them together and within days have eggs. I normally sold my EBA at 6-7 months in trios or 5 at a time and always ended up with at least a pair... Luck of the draw

Good Luck!

 

No clue sexing them at all.
They are tough on each other in grow outs .
Meaner then most to each other .I called them head hunters because they would strike each other from the top ..
They grow to 1 inch quick but slow down after that .could be over a year to see a female close to 2 1/2- 3 inches.
I still have 4 of my originals [all male ] in my 180 display tank .They must be 7+ years old ?
I found raising them to be more trouble then most other fish besides angels .

 

Wow! Tom, very surprised to hear. I found raising them enjoyable and easy..
The pair I got from you were prolific breeders. "Great" parents and their offspring were beautiful and personable, reminded me of puppies.

 

No clue sexing them at all.
They are tough on each other in grow outs .
Meaner then most to each other .I called them head hunters because they would strike each other from the top ..
They grow to 1 inch quick but slow down after that .could be over a year to see a female close to 2 1/2- 3 inches.
I still have 4 of my originals [all male ] in my 180 display tank .They must be 7+ years old ?
I found raising them to be more trouble then most other fish besides angels .

Can I ask why angels were trouble to breed? Mine fought a little and had some marks by their mouths, but they healed nicely.

 

The angels would fight amongst them selves .
Both the acara and angels require more then one large grow out .
I once grew both out together in 4x2 60 g and acaras whipped the angels .
Both were more effort and space then they earned ..

 

My EBA are now approaching the size of a dime. I finally was able to figure out the females and males of my breeding pairs so that's cool, but not I have to see why the eggs keep disappearing. I think my super red pleco female ate them in the one tank and in the other I am not sure what happened. It is weird because in tank #2, those are the parents that gave me the fry I am growing up now. I might just pull the eggs next time they are there as I want to have a continuous stream of these little dudes and dudettes haha.

 

Over the years at times I have had pairs eat the eggs. Not sure why,.. especially young pairs. I eventually found keeping them in a Planted tank by themselves was best. With one pair I would need to remove one or the other otherwise they would fight over parenting rights.

Good Luck!

 

Any tips for raising fry? I'm not sure if the eggs will be fertile but I just had my first batch laid What is odd is that the "pair" is my biggest 5" fish and a juvenile that finally got to barely 2", and I really thought they were the same gender but now they are guarding eggs together. I kind of think I have 2 males and 2 females based on shape and assertiveness, a pair each of the big and the small, so it is weird to see what I thought were the same sex pair up despite the size difference. I guess they're better at telling than I am, haha. Do females ever train younger females or co-parent?
And did you notice if the male or the female stayed with the eggs more? I guess I have at least 1 of each but am still trying to figure out which is which since I missed them spawning while I was at work.

 

Any tips for raising fry? I'm not sure if the eggs will be fertile but I just had my first batch laid What is odd is that the "pair" is my biggest 5" fish and a juvenile that finally got to barely 2", and I really thought they were the same gender but now they are guarding eggs together. I kind of think I have 2 males and 2 females based on shape and assertiveness, a pair each of the big and the small, so it is weird to see what I thought were the same sex pair up despite the size difference. I guess they're better at telling than I am, haha. Do females ever train younger females or co-parent?
And did you notice if the male or the female stayed with the eggs more? I guess I have at least 1 of each but am still trying to figure out which is which since I missed them spawning while I was at work.

Once I saw a pair guarding the eggs, I removed the other EBA to a new tank. So I have never seen any co-parenting. My males are always bigger and their dorsal fin is longer with a pointed end that stretches towards their caudal fin. I have seen my male and female protect the eggs. To raise the fry, I used a turkey baster and got about 95% of the fry out of the tank. I left about 10 with the parents and counted roughly 225-250 fry. When I redid my shelf, I loved them from their half of a 20g long to a 40g breeder by themselves except for some ramshorn and rogue cull orange shrimp. They have an auto feeder that I rotate manually 2x per day and it feeds by itself 2x per day. I just fill it with Repashy powder and they love it. They also eat NLS Algaemax wafers for the snails and shrimp. I'm slowly working up to some Omega One micro O.5mm pellets, but in the meantime, I'll feed Omega One flakes for color. I crush them when I feed them. I estimate I still have over 200+ from a picture I took and counted. If I had a green water tank, life would have been real easy for the first month. They could have done well on that too. I hope this helps. Oh and I have auto water change system that does 3g per our changes. I run mine 3x per day for 105 mins so 1.75 hours. Each day is 15.75g changed or 110.25 per week. Granted not all the old gets out....some new gets sucked out too even though my flow into the tank is on the opposite end from the flow out of the tank. Point is, water changes help them feel faster along with many feedings per day. Good luck!

 

Thank you so much! Unfortunately, this batch of eggs got eaten sometime during the second day. If I see eggs again, I think I'm going to move them to a new tank. In the meantime, I'm going to order an auto feeder and look into getting some better food for fry.

 

Any tips for raising fry?

I have raised hundreds, here is the procedure I use with "Good" success.
My pairs breed in a tank all to themselves. Once hatched, I leave one or both of the parents with the kids. As mentioned feedings 3-4x per day along with 50% water changes 2-3x per week. Once the wigglers have become free swimming they are feed freshly hatched brine shrimp. It is a sight to see their pink bellies. After a week or so I start adding small pinches of "Golden Pearls" or finely ground-up fish bites along with the shrimp. This helps them recognize other food to slowly ween them off the shrimp. I continue with this mix for a few more weeks with less and less brine shrimp. As they grow I will move batches to other tanks to continue growing. Normally sell them after 5-7 months.

Big "Thanks" to coralbandit
Could not have done it without his patient guidance when I first started.

I have moved on to African cichlids and have passed the EBA baton to Pwilly07
Good Luck!

 

I have raised hundreds, here is the procedure I use with "Good" success.
My pairs breed in a tank all to themselves. Once hatched, I leave one or both of the parents with the kids. As mentioned feedings 3-4x per day along with 50% water changes 2-3x per week. Once the wigglers have become free swimming they are feed freshly hatched brine shrimp. It is a sight to see their pink bellies. After a week or so I start adding small pinches of "Golden Pearls" or finely ground-up fish bites along with the shrimp. This helps them recognize other food to slowly ween them off the shrimp. I continue with this mix for a few more weeks with less and less brine shrimp. As they grow I will move batches to other tanks to continue growing. Normally sell them after 5-7 months.

Big "Thanks" to coralbandit
Could not have done it without his patient guidance when I first started.

I have moved on to African cichlids and have passed the EBA baton to Pwilly07
Good Luck!

Here's an update on their growth! I'm happy that they are progressing albeit a little slow in my opinion.

 

Hmm... How old are they?

 

Hmm... How old are they?

3 months and 6 days old

 

Okay for the size then, I thought they were from an earlier batch...
Your on your way.... Continue with the feedings and water changes...

Good Luck!

 

I always thought they took a long time to grow out to saleable size ..

 

I always thought they took a long time to grow out to saleable size ..

Okay, good. For some reason, I thought I've had them longer than I realized and I guess I better get another batch working so I can have a steady line of fish coming out.

 

My smallest EBA are approaching 2 inches with many at 2+ inches. Exciting to see them grow!