Electric Blue Acara

Electric Blue Acara

Electric Blue Acara is colorful fish, from the cichlid family of freshwater. They can live in both moving and standing water. They belong to the most violent fish families, but they are peaceful and tranquil to keep with other fish kinds. They do not require much care level and can live with multiple temperature ranges. Their diet pattern is so simple that they consume anything.

Electric Blue Acara

Electric blue acara is one of the famous pet fish. As their names indicate their presence, they have an electric exterior. Their body color is truly blue with dark pattern blue scales and, they also have yellowish, white, and black dots on the sides.

They usually have blue fins with orange endings. Their delight scales create a stunning, beautiful, and fairly discriminating cascade. 

History

Their scientific name is Aequidens Pulcher. Electric blue acara is innate to central or South America and found in slow-moving lakes and rivers.

These fish species are also found in Venezuela, Colombia, Trinidad, and Tobago. They are a sub kind of aequidens Pulcher fish. They are also known as Andinoscara Pulcher and Cychlasoma pulcher. Pulcher is a Latin word it means beautiful.

The form of this pet lives up to their name. The interbreeding of both electric blue ram and blue acara may result in predominant qualities of the acara. They are the alternative to blue acara and, they are a mixture of electric blue ram and blue acara.

They expose large anal fin, greater size, and spiky dorsal limb, and vibrant colors of the ram. It gives the bigger fish more stunning colors, making it a fascinating view in the tank. When you see them in water, electric blue acara just seems like glossy blue neon. 

.Electric Blue Acara Profile

Name Electric blue acara
Scientific name Aequidens pulcher
Habitat Multiple water ranges
Cost $7 or more
Diet Can eat anything
Size Almost 7 inches
Behavior Nonaggressive
Color pattern Blue or mixed
Family Cichlids
Life expectancy At least ten years
Compatibility with other fish Moderate
Care level Easy
Breeding Easy, egg layer
Activity Love to dig and burrow

Appearance

They are an unbelievable intense metallic blue. The blue color on their body is a light shade that declines in yellow on their front side of the figure.

Their dorsal fins have yellow or orange color from their edges top. They make their look more attractive and eye-catching.

They start roughly from the head and encompass the acara’s back and reach the caudal appendages that comprise a symmetrical appearance. Blue acara fish have dark gray color on the forehead that is distributed to their head.

Their blue hue vividness will dominate each scale on their body. They have a typical cichlid appearance with dorsal limbs.

Blue acara’s eyes

They have large eyes with a gloomy pupil and have an orange or reddish iris. Their heads hold protrude and, it is visible and able to see when you go near the fish.

A usually light black stripe runs throughout acara’s body and, they get this characteristic from their heritage. 

Size

The mature size of electric blue acara fish is about 6.5 to 7 inches in length. Their size is manageable and comfortable for keeping in an average aquarium. 

How long do they can live? 

They are considering the longest liver fish. On average, they can live about 9 to 10 years in the tank.

Their lifespan may increase if they get the right diet level, accurate water parameters, and proper care pattern. If they live in a natural environment, they can live up to 20 years.

Electric Blue Acara Male vs female

It is not hard to know about electric blue acara’s male and female. You can spend a few minutes to notice carefully and poster their changes. 

  • The male has more bright colors and a larger body than the female fish. The male has a rounded head as compared to other cichlids. Male fish are more dominant because of their caudal, long, and flowing fins. 
  • Male have both dorsal and anal fin more pointer and longer. Females have rounded and shorter fins.
  • Male blue acara have larger body sizes in contrast to the females. Male fish have bump across their forehead. 

The territory of electric blue acara

They are the species of slow-moving water sinks of South America. These streams or rivers are typically encompassing several plants.

They produce a habitat for them to protect against predators and increase offspring. They like to swim in that aquarium that has multiple plants.

It also contains a lot of substrates and has smaller fish and invertebrates for feeding. Plants are used o shelter them and work as a nutrition source. 

Water requirements

Every fish needs an appropriate water level minor changes in H20 temperature, hardness, or PH level can stress up the fish and, fatal for them. Fluctuating or inconsistent H20 conditions may stress these blue acara. It might lead to some diseases.

You should maintain the water parameters carefully because water is the core source of their living. The appropriate water temperature in which blue acara cans safely live is about 23° C to 28° C. They can tolerate too soft to severely hard water.

The water hardness for electric blue acara should about 5dH to 20dH. The PH level for them should range from 6.6 to 8.0. The water should contain a faintly alkaline and slightly acidic range.

These water requirements are significant for your fish to thrive. If you are unable to provide, it will cause critical health complications.

Aquarium Requirements

The tank should resemble its natural environment. You have to add sandy and soft substrate because it prevents the fish from getting bruised while swimming all around in the tank. The aquarium should equip with a lot of potted or moving plants.

Your aquarium should also contain caves, driftwoods, and flat rocks, and these play a role in offering them hiding or playing places. You should integrate a powerhead or canister filter; it assists the water ventilated and bears a robust water flow.

You can use other devices or tools like an ammonia tester, thermometer, and pH meter to maintain the needed water chemistry. Avoid adding too much lighting; they should be ranges from typical to modest levels.

You would not place the aquarium with direct sunlight diffusion. The plants and lighting are used to decor the aquarium. As well as they also save the fish from sun exposure. Make sure to sustain a robust ratio between free moving space and decorations.

You should replace about 20 to 25% of aquarium water weekly. While doing water altering should use gravel cleaner to remove all the spoiling organic matter from the tank. You need to add these things in your electric blue acara’s aquarium: 

  • Substrate
  • Plants
  • Lighting unit
  • Caves
  • Filtration system
  • Driftwood
  • Heater
  • Rocks
  • Tank thermometer 
Tank setup Planted, Natural, and freshwater fish.
Water region Tolerate any
Types of substrate Sandy
Water flow Robust
Lighting requirements regular to a moderate level and limited sunlight
Brackish or salinity They can bear around  9% of salt but not entirely.
Temperature 23 C to 28 C
Water hardness 4dH to 20dH
Breeding temperature 75.5 to 76.0 F
Optical PH 6.6 to 8.0
Water replacement weekly
Aquarium size At least 20 gallons for one fish

Tank size

The perfect size of tank for them is at least 30 gallons. The tank size should large as it provides enough space to swim freely and fish remain active, healthy, and sharp.

If you want to keep various electric blue acara in one tank, you will require adding 15 gallons for each new fish. For example, if you add two cichlids, the tank needs 45 gallons of water and, if you add three cichlids, you need 60 gallons. 

Electric Blue Acara Diet

They are not too selective feeders. They are mostly omnivores and can eat anything that catches in their tanks.

They are highly proteinous in nutrition. You can add their food with vegetables such as cabbage, peace, and spinach cucumber 4 to 5 nips in a day.

Keep in your mind that remaining or uneaten food should eradicate quickly from the water as soon as possible. Their food should be varied as it helps them to get all nourishment they required.

You can also purchase a specific premade fish diet that comes in grants and pellets. Be sure that any variety of food you are offering them must comprise a plant-based type of stuff. You can give them 

  • meaty foods
  • leafy diet
  • crustaceans
  • pellets
  • tubifex 
  • cyclops
  • flakes
  • white worm 
  • Blanched cabbage
  • tubifex
  • brine shrimp
  • bloodworms 
  • tiny mussel 
  • Boiled peace
  • insects
  • earthworm
  • Boiled spinach
  • chopped prawn 
  • Larvae.

Here is the table that will provide a thorough guideline about their diet and how often we can offer them specific nutrition.

Nutrition Omnivores
Feeding rate Several times throughout the day
Flake diet Yes suitable
Meaty diet Can give half of their food
Tablets or supplement Yes can offer
Live foods like worms, insects, fish, and worms Can provide half of their food
Vegetable and plants Half of food

It is most vital to prevent your acara from overfeeding may seem compound. Do not surpass two meals per day.

You should also give them a moderate quantity of diet that they ingest within 2 to 3 minutes. This type of diet can provide them 2 to 3 times a day. It will help to adjust the nitrate and ammonia nitrite level and also prevent them from overfeeding. 

Behavior and characteristics

Cichlids are famous for their violent behavior. Blue acara is the colleague of the most hostile assembly. Despite this, they have never shown a high degree of aggression. They become popular with enthusiasts and breeders due to their decline nature.

They seem aggressive only when breeding. So during the breeding process, you should separate them into the smaller aquarium. Preserves them in this tank until the breeding period is finished.

They love to dig; you should add decorations, plants at the lowermost of the aquarium may become extricated. They also like hiding places and also want when they want to live alone.  

Which fish can live with Electric Blue Acara?

Choosing appropriate tank buddies for your fish is the means to give them a long and healthy life. Be sure you are not keeping its fish with huge aggressive tank mates because they are harmful or dangerous for acaras.

Here is a chart that will describe electric blue acara’s compatibility with other fish.

Behavior Semi- aggressive and during breeding becomes too aggressive
Same fish kinds Yes
Plants inoffensive, or safe
Calm fish species Monitor
Snails, Crabs, and shrimps Might violent
Semi hostile fish Monitor
Slow eaters and movers Monitor
Aggressive species Monitor
Big violent or greedy fish Danger
Large semi-hostile Monitor

Names of fish that can live with Electric Blue Acara:

  • Pearl cichlid
  • Rainbowfish
  • Zebra cichlid
  • Pictus catfish
  • Angelfish
  • Corydoras
  • Moga cichlid
  • Discus
  • Bristlenose pleco
  • Velvet cichlid
  • Gourami

Tankmates to avoid

You should not combine them with the most aggressive and large fish as dwarf cichlids and green terror cichlids.

Small invertebrates should also avoid because they can feed or harass by blue acara. 

Can electric blue acara live together? 

Yes, this fish can live happily with the same species. It is better to place blue acaras in couples or a minimum group of six fish. Keeping electric acara fish together is the best option to provide them, tank mates.

They want equal water parameters, tank condition, and diet. Keep in your mind that the fish quantity dividable by two. For example, you can combine fish quantities such as 2, 4, 6, etc.

Common diseases

There are few health complaints of blue acara fish. These ailments needed to cure on time, you should follow some suggestions. These illnesses are: 

Possible health complaints Indications and causes Treatment
Ich It is also known as white spot disease that began by ichthyophthirius multifiliis and protozoan parasite. The common symptoms of ich are rapid breathing, produces white dots rash on fins, gills, and throughout the body, and inflammation. Ich parasites mostly occur in aquarium water, so you should quarantine the affected fish and increase the temperature by about 80° F.
Fungal infections They have snowy cotton alike evolution. Use antifungal therapy and quarantine that fish.
Malawi bloat It is popular among cichlids that are triggered by difficile bacteria, improper diet, and dirty water. Their body gets swelling, ulcers on the body, loss of diet, fast breathing, stringy, lesions and discolored stool due to this disease. Give them antibiotics like metronidazole and octozin and separate fish from others.
Gill and skin flukes They are small bugs that surround their gills and body. Fish have indications such as labored respirations, have reddish gills and epidermis, rubbing on objects in the tank, and have excessive saliva Prevent overcrowding and give medications.
Bacterial or viral infections They have some signs like blurry or cloudy eyes, skin sores, and a red membrane. Give them anti-bacterial medication and keep them in the isolated tank.

Electric Blue Acara Breeding

You should prepare and manage the tank before breeding. At first, you should make pairs of male and female electric blue acaras. You should make a set of 2 female fish and one male fish because they have the fish possibility of a compatible breeding couple.

After this, you should separate both couples. Divide the breeding jar into two compartments and place each pair in one section apiece.

You should raise the tank temperature for breeding from about 23° C to 24° C each day. The pH level should about 6.6 to 7.1 and should alter 31% of tank water every week. It helps to uphold moral hygiene in the aquarium.

You should give them live foods like chopped earthworms. You have to feed them these foods regularly around three times a day for 14 to 21 days.

Prepare the tank entirely and add flat rock, grained sand, substrate, and gravels in their breeding tank. Make sure not to add a power filter in their tank because it can pull up the fry. Their tank should have fewer plantations in contrast to the main tank.

Now remove the partition from the breeding tank. They are one of the coolest cichlids to breed. It is delightful to see that fish pair first clean the tank floor and, the fish begins digging to finding the suitable space for breeding.

Their mating application help to release the eggs and, eggs are enriched by male sperm. Female blue acara can lie between 150 to 250 eggs through a spawning session.

They get prepared to rebreed after almost two weeks. Male blue acara take the responsibility to guard or protect the young. Their incubation period mainly lasts around 2 to 3 days.

Cost

Fish species, their price also depends on their size, color, and store to store. The average cost of electric blue acara fish is almost $ 7 to $ 15.

Their size and age play a role in defining their cost. Younger and tiny fish can purchase at a low rate. Usually, most pet stores give their customers several packages. Most stores offer but five fish and get one fish.

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