These fish come from South America; Bolivia and Brazil, in the Rio
Mamoré near the mouth of the Rio Guaporé at Trinidad, the Guaporé Basin
at Santa Cruz, the Rio Quizer at San Ramón, flood plains below Todos
Santos, and the mouth of the Igarapé at Guajara-Mirim. Founded in 1984
by H. Linke and W. Staeck.
I am a bit ashamed sometimes when it comes to talking
about these pretty dwarf cichlids. I had placed a pair of the M.
altispinosa in a 20-gallon tank containing soft water (10ppm) on
the top shelf of a fish tank rack. I was using straight RO water. The
temperature is kept at 76°F. My hardness was around 7.2. They did not
have much light. The only lighting they received was from the window
that was somewhat blocked to them by another stand with two 55-gallon
tanks stacked one above the other. I had placed a Hydro-Sponge®
filter in the tank with a four inch clay flower pot and a two inch layer
of fine sand. I did not give the tank much notice for several weeks
except to feed the pair live adult brine, frozen brine, live tubifex
(once a week), and sometimes newly hatched brine shrimp. The tank apparently
was getting enough light because the tank glass was covered in algae.
I decided it was time to check out the fish to see if they still existed.
I
got my foot stool and slowly stepped up to where I could see into the
tank. I was amazed. Toward the back of the tank to the right I could
see a circular depression in the sand and they were fanning some opaque
eggs! I couldn't believe they had spawned. I cleaned the algae off the
front tank glass, cleaned the sand a bit and did a 50% water change
with straight RO water. I then proceeded to keep an eye on the tank
more closely for the next couple of weeks.
The eggs hatched three days later. The parents
constantly moved the fry by mouth fulls to other depressions they had
made in the sand. Sometimes the pair would have troubles trying to
decide which hole to put their young. The male would move the fry to
one depression while the female would start moving them to a completely
different hole. After a while the pair would finally settle on one
depression for the fry. After another 7 days the fry were free
swimming.
That was in 1993. Now it's 1998.
I set up a pair of M. altispinosa, adults from
the fry from 1993. I put them in a 20-gallon tank with a Hydro-Sponge®
filter, a real log and a three inch flower pot. I was hoping to get
eggs so I could collect them and take pictures of the eggs and developing
embryo. To my surprise, on January 21, 1998, when I checked the tank
to see how the pair was doing, there were free swimming fry! Now I will
have to wait awhile before I get the eggs I was hoping to get for photographing.
The one thing I am finding in these altispinosa's
is they like low light. When I had this pair in a 20-gallon on the top
row with a light right over the tank they were not interested in
spawning. Once moved to a tank with low light, they were quite happy
and made a family, several times.
These fish are very beautiful. They have a
yellowish coloration under the pectoral fins and a black vertical band
that goes through the eye to the bottom of their mouth. The
dorsal and tail fin have a fine red line outlining the fins. The
ventral fin is red with some light blue speckling and the anal fin was
red with a few red dots. (Reminding me of the 'egg spots' on mouth
brooding cichlids.) There is a black spot in the middle of the body.
Some dark vertical banding when stressed. When ready to spawn, the
yellow and red areas intensify. For several years I had troubles sexing
these fish. In 1998, I was watching the group of altispinosa in a 55-gallon community tank. After a few hours of just watching the fish in the tank I was able to sex the altispinosa!
The markings are so much a like on both sexes but the main difference
was with the dorsal fin. Like in most cichlid species the dorsal on the
males are more pointed and elongated. The dorsal of the females are
rounded. My fish were equal in size. Observation of their parents, the
female was slightly smaller than the male.
These are very peaceful fish and can be included in
a community tank with fish of the same personalities □