Breeding Andinoacara is not simply a matter of putting a male and female together. A compatible pair needs room to form a territory, clean and stable water and somewhere safe to lay its eggs. Once spawning begins, the keeper’s job is mostly to keep the aquarium stable and let the parents work.

All Andinoacara follow the same substrate-spawning process and can be bred under the same practical conditions. The timings below use published observations of Andinoacara rivulatus to put approximate hours and days against that shared process. Temperature and the individual pair still affect the speed of development, so watch the fish rather than the calendar. The photograph above shows Andinoacara latifrons fry.

Before the fish spawn

Start with a pair that has chosen one another. Two adult fish sold as a male and female are not automatically compatible, and a fish that cannot escape an aggressive partner can be badly injured. Give the pair enough floor space to hold a territory, break up sight lines with wood or rocks and make sure each fish has somewhere to retreat.

The breeding aquarium should include:

  • the same clean, stable water in which the healthy adults are already being kept
  • a flat stone, slate or other firm surface that can be cleaned by the pair
  • fine sand or gravel, which the parents may dig into shallow nursery pits
  • gentle filtration with the intake protected from newly free-swimming fry
  • easy access for small water changes without dismantling the territory

Condition the adults with a varied diet, but do not try to force a spawn with sudden changes in temperature or water chemistry. Stable, clean water is more useful than chasing a number. The setup and breeding process are the same across the genus.

It is also worth making a plan for the fry before eggs appear. A successful pair can produce several hundred young, and they soon need more water volume, more food and somewhere suitable to go.

Courtship and spawning

A pair preparing to spawn becomes much more interested in one part of the aquarium. Both fish may clean a stone repeatedly, dig around it and drive every other fish away. In a controlled study of A. rivulatus, pairs cleaned the spawning surface for four to twelve hours before laying.

The female passes over the cleaned surface and lays adhesive eggs in rows. The male follows and fertilises them. This is repeated until the clutch is complete. The same study recorded between 545 and 1,230 eggs from A. rivulatus, but clutch size varies with the size and condition of the female and should not be treated as a target.

After spawning, the parents fan the clutch with their fins. This keeps oxygenated water moving across the eggs. One fish may stay close to the clutch while the other patrols the territory, although the division of work varies between pairs.

Eggs laid by wild-caught Andinoacara sp. Cauca parents on a firm surface
Eggs from wild-caught Andinoacara sp. “Cauca” parents. Photograph © James Studdart.

Egg development

Fresh A. rivulatus eggs have been described as transparent with a yellow-beige colour. As a fertile egg develops, the embryo becomes easier to see. Eye pigment and movement appear before hatching. Eggs that turn solid white are usually not developing, although a few white eggs in a large clutch are not a reason to disturb the whole spawn.

At approximately 25 to 26°C, two studies recorded A. rivulatus hatching after about three to four days. One measured an average incubation time of 75.5 hours. A later study saw the first larvae at 87 hours and the complete clutch hatched by 95 hours. Cooler water normally slows development; warmer water speeds it up, but raising the temperature beyond the species’ normal range is not good husbandry.

The practical sequence is:

  1. The pair cleans a site and lays the eggs.
  2. The eggs remain attached while the embryos develop.
  3. Developing eyes and movement become visible in the eggs.
  4. The larvae hatch but remain on the bottom or in a nursery pit.
  5. The yolk sac shrinks and the fry become free swimming.

Avoid moving the stone or changing the water conditions during development unless the eggs are in immediate danger. Large changes in temperature, hardness or pH can turn a good clutch into a failed one very quickly.

The wriggler stage

Newly hatched larvae are often called wrigglers. They can move, but they cannot yet swim and feed like fry. Their yolk sac provides the food they need during this stage. The parents may collect the larvae in their mouths and move them from the spawning surface to one or more shallow pits in the substrate. This is normal parental care, not the parents eating the brood.

There is little value in adding fry food while the larvae are still living from their yolk sacs. It will settle around them, spoil the water and create more work for the parents. Wait until the group rises from the nursery pit and begins to swim together.

In the published A. rivulatus observations, the larvae began trying to swim and feed around five to six days after hatching, with the yolk sac absorbed and the fry free swimming at about seven days. Treat this as a useful window rather than an appointment.

Feeding free-swimming fry

The first food must be small enough to take, nutritious and available throughout the group. Newly hatched brine shrimp are a dependable first food for Andinoacara fry and make it easy to see which fish have eaten because the belly takes on an orange colour.

Offer several small feeds instead of one large one. The aim is to give the whole school a chance to feed without leaving a layer of food on the bottom. A fine prepared fry food can be introduced alongside live food once the fry are feeding confidently. In one study of A. rivulatus, powdered food was added alongside brine shrimp when the fry were two weeks old.

As the fry grow, increase the food size gradually. Newly hatched brine shrimp can give way to larger live or frozen foods and a good-quality crushed cichlid food. Watch the smallest fry: if only the largest fish have full bellies, the food is too large, too concentrated in one area or not being offered often enough.

Water quality and early care

Growing fry turn food into waste very quickly. Feed well, but keep the bottom clean. Use a length of airline tubing for careful siphoning and replace small amounts of water with water of the same temperature and chemistry. A protected sponge filter gives biological filtration without pulling fry into an intake.

Do not clean everything at once. The useful bacteria in the filter and on the aquarium surfaces are part of what keeps the water stable. Remove uneaten food and obvious waste, keep an eye on ammonia and nitrite, and increase the frequency of small water changes as the fry grow.

The parents usually defend the school strongly. Tank mates are a distraction and may be injured, so a breeding pair is best managed without other fish in its territory. Watch the pair as well as the fry. If one adult is being driven relentlessly into a corner, use a divider or move the threatened fish rather than waiting for the aggression to stop by itself.

Fry can remain with good parents while they are being guarded, but circumstances change. Separate them if the adults start another spawning cycle, the parents begin attacking the older fry, or size differences within the brood lead to persistent losses. Move fry into water that matches the breeding tank and use a mature filter.

Parent-raised or artificially raised?

Parent raising is the natural first choice. The adults fan the eggs, remove failed eggs, move the larvae and keep the fry together. It is also the best way to observe the behaviour that makes these cichlids so interesting.

Artificially raising a clutch can be useful if a pair repeatedly eats viable eggs or the brood is at risk, but it adds responsibility. The egg surface needs a gentle flow of clean, oxygenated water, failed eggs must be removed promptly and the temperature and chemistry must match the spawning aquarium. Moving eggs simply because the parents are inexperienced can create more problems than it solves. First spawns sometimes fail; a settled pair often improves with experience.

Keep the identity with the fish

Do not mix fry from different species or locality forms. Record the parents, the working name or collection locality, the spawn date and any uncertainty about identification. Never distribute a hybrid as a pure species. Accurate records are particularly important in Andinoacara, where similar-looking species and undescribed forms are already confused in the aquarium trade.

Breeding records in this collection

Research behind the timings

The detailed timings come from work on A. rivulatus at approximately 25 to 26°C. They put a useful timetable against the breeding process shared across the genus, although an individual clutch may develop a little faster or slower.

Have photographs of your own fish breeding or raising fry? Offer your photographs for the collection, with the species name and any observations you can share.