Keyhole Cichlids

[GrayLadyPat]

A friend of mine asked me the other day where he might find keyhole cichlids that are young enough not to have formed a pair bond yet. I was skeptical about his reasoning, until he told me that keyholes are one of the fish that form life-long pairs, and they do it when they are fairly young.

So, since I couldn't get any results with general search criteria, I thought I would ask y'all, since you all have so many more resources than I do.

Any ideas?

[Second Hand Pat]

Aquabid but research the seller.

http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwcichlids&1365629744

[Ryan]

Keyholes are no different than other South American cichlid in terms of pair bonding. Like discus, angels, or any other cichlid, pairs are not set in stone. Yes, if you leave them together, chances are they will continue spawning together. However, if you split the pair up or one of the fish dies, they will find new mates. Also, sometimes you have pairs who turn on each other. This is a pretty common thing among cichlids. Keyholes are pretty passive so they tend not to do much damage to each other, but anything is possible.

It's actually pretty hard to find paired keyholes. There aren't many people spawning them to my knowledge. The ones that are offered for sale are usually farm-raised (I rarely see wilds imported anymore) and sold as juveniles.

Wet Spot has them right now -- you can use the link Pat posted above but I would contact them directly and place an order: http://www.wetspottropicalfish.com. They have small 1.5" juvies listed for $5.00 each. Like discus, I buy them in groups of 6.

I also see them listed pretty frequently on Jeff Rapps' site. You will have the best luck finding them on stocklists under their scientific name, Cleithracara maronii.

[John_Nicholson]

A friend of mine asked me the other day where he might find keyhole cichlids that are young enough not to have formed a pair bond yet. I was skeptical about his reasoning, until he told me that keyholes are one of the fish that form life-long pairs, and they do it when they are fairly young.

So, since I couldn't get any results with general search criteria, I thought I would ask y'all, since you all have so many more resources than I do.

Any ideas?


I have not owned them in years but your friend is incorrect on the bonding for life.

-john

[MaiaDee]

I love those! Looks like a less colorful ram.

Have to move; bigger house, bigger tank = more fish!

These guys bumped their way to the top of the "next fish" list.

[Ryan]

My only word of warning on keyholes is that they are already a chunky little fish, and a discus diet definitely makes them overweight fast! They are perfect discus tankmates in terms of water parameters and disposition -- they are shy, peaceful, lower-level-dwelling cichlids that love slightly warm water and low nitrates. I was keeping them with discus and they kept getting bigger... and bigger... and bigger... and not length-wise! Eventually they all looked like they had bloat. High protein foods fed often (as we do with discus) lead to obese keyholes really quickly.

Most of the keyholes you find are a brown color, ranging from light tan/beige to a cinnamon color. Google Images will show you some beautiful whitish-silver fish with dramatic black markings, but these are often breeding colors and I haven't seen the silver/grey form of keyholes in a long time. :( They were my favorite. So just know that while they're cute fish, they can be pretty drab in the color department. Here are a few of mine:

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/ryansmith83/IMG_6959_zpse9316a04.jpg

Something about their chubby little faces and their shy personality is really endearing, though. They're a long-time favorite of mine.

[MaiaDee]

My only word of warning on keyholes is that they are already a chunky little fish, and a discus diet definitely makes them overweight fast!

Wait, fish CAN actually be "overweight"?? I had no idea.

Yours are adorable. I love how they *look* shy. So cute.

[Ryan]

I was going to show you a video and then I realized they always end up in the background of my community tank videos. So yes, they tend to be pretty shy. If you walk into a room and scare them they will dash toward the bottom and bury themselves in the sand.

Cichlids can definitely be overweight. ;) If you only do one or two daily feedings on your adult discus, keyholes would probably be fine with them. But if you're feeding juvies multiple times a day, probably best to avoid them in the same tank...

I've had the same problems with festivums (Mesonauta sp.) in the past. In the wild they are omnivorous but supposedly eat a ton of vegetation. In tanks they'll gladly devour worms and beefheart, which leads to chunky festivums pretty quickly. They're meant to be thin and streamlined like angelfish and discus but they don't stay that way on a high protein diet.

[MaiaDee]

I appreciate the pic you posted. I don't have room for any more fish right now. Hopefully will be moving in about a year and will up-size the tank after that. That's when I'll seriously think about these guys, but I look forward to maybe in the future. Neat little fish.

Pat, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hijack your thread.

[GrayLadyPat]

Hijacking welcome! I love to hear about what other people are doing.

Thanks for all the responses. I have seen them before, and I know that they get relatively large for "dwarf" cichlids (about 4 or 5 inches, if I remember right.)

They are really cute. Brown coloring and all.

I passed the links on to my friend.

Thanks again!

[star rider]

I've had keyholes(maronii) off and on for years..I find they are extremely shy and peaceful..mine in a gravel bottom would make little piles of rocks.. in my sand bottom tank they seem to like to make a burrow in the sand.

they do tend to stay in the back ground but will come to the front at feeding.. I have a single in a tank with Bolivian rams.
I've had them with Discus with no issues. I do tend to add a bit more spirulina flake in their tank tho..they are fed twice daily in the tank (small feedings)