Heroina isonycterina, a rare little "mini-severum" type cichlid from Colombia

[Ryan]

My discus hobby comes and goes. During my "down time" I tend to play around with other South American cichlids. I have always been a huge fan of the acaras and the heroine types -- severums, chocolate cichlids, port cichlids, true parrot cichlids, Aequidens, Uaru, etc. I've kept and bred every kind of severum I can get my hands on. They're one of my very favorite fish. Then, about three years ago, I learned about a relatively unknown and hard-to-find cichlid called Heroina isonycterina, a small severum-like cichlid with a similar genus name that was only formally described in 1996. These little fish are found in Colombia and Ecuador. A group of wild fish was brought back to Europe several years ago and tank-raised fish were occasionally available there. Eventually the line was weakened due to inbreeding and they became scarce again.

After harassing every importer I could find contact info for over the course of three years, two different vendors were able to bring in shipments of these fish from Colombia in May 2012. I purchased a small group from Dan-Ye Jennings at American Cichlids and a second, larger group from Jeff Rapps at Tangled Up In Cichlids.

The fish have an understated beauty to them. They're mostly a tan or copper color with bright red eyes (like pigeon bloods) and beautiful blue iridescence in the fins. The females will sometimes develop a blue face like severums and certain discus do. Both sexes can also develop red lines on their flanks. Males tend to carry small black flecks or dots all over their bodies. They have large folds under their gills which they flare like firemouths or bettas. It's fun to watch them fight and posture.

These are not a demanding little fish. They settled right in for me and began eating everything. I received the fish in late April/early May at 1.5 - 4" in size. By late September they were 5 - 6" and spawning. I now have literally thousands of F1 fry all over my house. Out of my remaining nine adults there are three confirmed pairs.

One thing I noted is that they're very feisty and pushy for their small size. I have seen my 5" pairs attack 12" mouthbrooding severums without thinking twice. They can also be particularly rough on one another at a small size. This actually seemed to improve as they grew and paired off, but as juveniles they spent all day attacking and chasing each other. I would say their attitude is more similar to Australoheros (chanchitos) or Cryptoheros.

Because of their relative scarcity in the hobby and the little information you can find on the web, I decided to share them here.

Two weeks in quarantine, May 2012

[Ryan]

Spawning starts, September/October 2012

[Ryan]

A pair finally gets it right!

[Ryan]

Now I have three tanks with grow-outs, and two pairs with free-swimmers again. I think I may have to let my dwarf pikes have these new free-swimming fry because I have nowhere to put more.

[plecocicho]

Interesting little bastards, i didnt know of their existence prior to this week. Loks like another fine cichlid for those who seek more than just coulours in their cichlids.

[Second Hand Pat]

I like these guys but seems they are not a good match with disucs.

[Larry Bugg]

I would love to get some and introduce them into our club here in Atlanta. We have a BAP (breeders award program) so we are always looking for new fish. Would you sell and ship some to me? We are close enough to each other that they should ship well in a priority box with styro.

[Ryan]

They're about 1" now and are about ready for new homes. The only thing I worry about is the cold -- I don't usually ship in the winter. Maybe if I use a small enough box with the heat packs it'll keep the warmth in.

[Discus Origins]

These guys are so cool....settled right in and already attacking the glass for food when someone gets close

[Ryan]

Unfortunately I had to cull most of my fry due to fin defects. This has never happened before in any batch of cichlids I've raised, so Al is attempting to help me isolate the problem. I'm trying a multi-level approach that includes boosting the mineral content of the water, filtering with carbon (I've been having weird issues with my tap water for several months now), and switching to higher protein foods for the fry. Maybe between the three changes I will have a better batch.

In the meantime, I did manage to save 14 with no defects from a January spawn. They're just a bit over a month old now and turning out to be cute little carbon copies of their parents. How can you resist those faces?











Notice in the video that they're already attacking each other constantly -- this is something I've seen in the wild fish since I got them last year and it never stops. They chase and fight all day. Apparently it's a behavior that starts very early. (Sorry for the blurry video; still using my 10 year old Canon camera. Gotta update that soon!)

[Larry Bugg]

Those guys are looking good Ryan. Hope you can get the water issue figured out.

[Ryan]

Fingers crossed, Larry! It's hard to cull two batches of 100+ fry. The first batch was 1", this last one was about 1/2". All that was wrong were the pectoral fins; everything else looked great. But I can't risk sending a bunch of genetically defective fish into the hobby, so I need to make sure it's truly environmental and not genetic. I just got a batch of wrigglers that hatched tonight so I should know in a month or two...

[brewmaster15]

Cute Little Buggers Ryan. You always find these rarities to work with. I am really hoping that we can peg the problem and solve it..I think we are on the right track. Fingers crossed on the most recent batch!

-al

[Ryan]

I should start some threads here on the more rare cichlids I'm working with. There are a few uncommon gems out there, some compatible with discus and some not. As much as I love discus, it's always nice to take a break and try a new challenge.

[Discus Origins]

The fry look great, just like smaller copies of their parents It is interesting to read about the fin defects...that's a lot of fry to have the same defect from wild parents, usually never the case with unrelated gene pools. So I'm leaning towards environmental effects, kind of like calcium/magnesium deficiencies with gill plates in discus fry.