The Acquisition
Roughly four years ago, I had acquired a
juvenile P. dovii that was between 3 and 3½
inches. I was unable to sex the individual at
the time, but I knew that I was purchasing
a very aggressive cichlid, as it was chasing
around a 5-inch Midas cichlid Amphilophus
citrinellus. As my P. dovii grew over time, it
became obvious that it was a female. Every
friend and family member who took a look
at my 125-gallon cichlid tank would ask
questions or make comments: “What is
that one?” “Wow that one is mean!” “Dang,
that one has a lot of color!” They were, of
course, all referring to my female P. dovii,
which was turning out to have spectacular
coloration and an attitude to match.
About a year ago, I told myself that if a
quality male P. dovii came through any of
the local fish stores in my area, I would
purchase it. Five months ago, I received
a call from a friend who is the aquatics
manager at a local fish store where I
occasionally pick up part-time work by
handling livestock shipments.
Chris, the manager, told me that a guy
had brought in to the store a large male
jaguar cichlid P. managuensis because
it was beating up his piranha, and he
wanted me to take a look at it. Chris
did not have the time to look at this fish
very carefully, as it had been acclimated
and placed in a large sump under one of
the store’s acrylic display systems, which
holds well over 200 gallons of water.
My heart sank as I expected to lift the
lid off of the sump and look down at a
tattered and torn P. managuensis missing
finnage—and possibly missing parts of its
mouth from living with and battling the
unidentified piranha.
Not only was I surprised to see that
everything was intact with the large
cichlid in regard to its fins and mouth, but
the fish was also showing a lot of green
and purple iridescence. The gentleman
who brought this fish in to the local fish
shop did not realize what he had in his
possession—it was a male P. dovii Upon
closer examination, the specimen had a
nearly immaculate appearance—no hole
in the head, nor any other visible signs of
disease. My only concern was that he was
pretty skinny, which can indicate internal
parasites. I spoke for the male P. dovii but
decided to leave him in the store for an
extended period of time to monitor his
food intake and determine if there were any
unforeseen problems.
Chris Lue Shing
Parachromis dovii, a young adult male at approximately 11 to 12 inches.
Chris Lue Shing
Parachromis dovii, male in foreground and young female behind, clearing out the gravel to prepare
for spawning.
A New Home
I moved most of the specimens from my
125-gallon tank to my newly acquired 240-
gallon tank, leaving only the female P. dovii,
two 8-inch pictus catfish, and an 11-inch
common plecostomus in the 125-gallon
tank. I went out and purchased a massive
flowerpot which I placed on one end of the
tank and constructed a sturdy divider out
of PVC piping and egg crating. I had very
strong doubts that the two P. dovii would
breed when put in the same tank together;
my female was 11 inches in length and the
male at the store was about 14 inches. I
considered dividing the fish right from the
beginning to see how they would react on
opposite sides of the divider, because I did
not want to lose my 11-inch female that I
had raised for 4 years.
Against all of my better judgment, I added
the male to the tank without the divider
and decided that I would sit in front of it,
monitoring the aggression and intervene if
needed. Interestingly, as the male prowled
his new quarters, the female followed him
around, flashing and displaying her colors,
but not in an overly aggressive manner. The
female would constantly retire to the large
pot in the tank and the male would hover
outside of it, flaring his gills and displaying
his colors. At certain moments, the male
would hover in front of the opening of
the pot with his fins erect and gills flared,
yet he would allow the female to push on
the broad side of his body with her open
mouth. Since the male is 3 inches longer
and has substantially more body mass
than the female, I was quite surprised at
