Electric Blue Acara

Overview

• The electric blue acara is a captive-bred colour form of the blue acara, a sturdy cichlid whose wild ancestors come from Trinidad and coastal Venezuela.
• Its defining trait is an all-over iridescent powder-blue shimmer that the wild-type fish only hints at, usually paired with a dusky forehead and a yellow-orange edge along the dorsal fin.
• The morph exists only in the aquarium trade, and its exact ancestry is debated but has never been proven, with many breeders believing ram genes were crossed in early on.

• At 12-15cm it towers over this guide's dwarf cichlids and roughly matches a discus in body length, yet it is comfortably the easiest cichlid here.
• It tolerates the ordinary temperatures and moderately hard tap water that would slowly kill a German blue ram, and it lacks the spawning-season temper of an angelfish.
• Expect 8-10 years from a well-kept fish, so treat it as a long-term commitment rather than an impulse buy.

Housing

• Easy care does not mean a small tank, and this is where new keepers most often get it wrong.
• Provide at least 200L (55 US gallons) with a 4ft (120cm) footprint for one fish or a pair, because acaras are active swimmers that patrol the whole bottom half of the aquarium.
• Keep water at 22-27C (72-81F) with pH 6.5-8.0 and hardness anywhere up to about 18 dGH, and note that unlike rams or discus they genuinely do not need soft, acidic or very warm water.

• Use a sand substrate, because acaras dig constantly, taking mouthfuls and re-landscaping the floor, and coarse gravel can scrape their mouths.
• Anchor plants to wood and rock or keep them potted, since rooted stems will be dug up sooner or later.
• Add driftwood, a cave or two, and a few flat stones that a pair can adopt as spawning sites.

• Filter generously, as a meaty-fed 15cm cichlid produces far more waste than a shoal of tetras.
• The tank must be fully cycled before the fish arrives, with ammonia and nitrite at zero, and a 25-30% water change every week keeps nitrate down.

Diet

• Electric blue acaras are omnivores with a strong lean toward meaty foods.
• Build the diet around a quality sinking cichlid pellet, then rotate in frozen or live bloodworm, brine shrimp, krill and chopped earthworm two or three times a week.
• A little spirulina or blanched vegetable matter now and then rounds out the menu.

• Feed once or twice daily only what is eaten within a couple of minutes.
• They are enthusiastic, messy eaters that will beg convincingly, and overfeeding is the fastest route to fouled water in a cichlid tank.
• Varied, protein-rich feeding is also what keeps the electric blue shimmer bright rather than washed out.

Health

• The underlying blue acara is one of the toughest cichlids in the hobby, but the electric blue line is heavily line-bred and quality varies sharply between sources.
• Cheap batches can show bent spines, short gill covers and generally weaker constitutions, so inspect fish before buying and favour a breeder or shop that can say where its stock comes from.

• The main acquired problems are ich after stress or chilling, and hole-in-the-head disease, which in this species is strongly tied to old, nitrate-rich water and a monotonous diet, with the Hexamita parasite often implicated.
• Watch for pitting around the face and lateral line, faded colour, clamped fins and refusal of food.

• Quarantine newcomers for three to four weeks before adding them to the display.
• With clean water, varied food and honest tank space, a good-quality fish should sail past its fifth birthday without ever seeing medication.

Temperament

• This is the gentle exception among mid-sized cichlids, and that is exactly why it earns a beginner rating where the angelfish does not.
• An electric blue acara mostly ignores anything it cannot swallow, and even a pair guarding eggs only firmly pushes other fish away from its corner rather than hunting them down.
• It spends its day cruising and bulldozing sand rather than picking fights.

• Peaceful does not mean harmless, and the mouth is the measure.
• Neon-sized tetras and dwarf shrimp will eventually be eaten, so choose tankmates like black skirt tetras, larger rasboras, bronze corydoras, bristlenose plecos and medium rainbowfish.
• Keep one fish, or a proven pair, rather than several loose adults, because two unpaired acaras in a 55-gallon tank may bicker over the same patch of floor.