Blue Acara also known by its scientific name of Aequidens pulcher is a type of fish belonging to the Cichlidae family. The fish’s natural habitat is in the South American region centered about rivers across Colombia and Venezuela. Blue acara cichlids can be easily identified based on it magnificent iridescence blue color display that is simply stunning with specks of blue color spots distributed mainly on the fins and gills area.A full-grown fish has a relatively thick body and the mature size can easily reaches 5 to 6 inches in length. To ensure that they develop a nice beautiful body and form a successful breeding pair, one must ensure that they receive constant supply of live foods mixed with some green supplement such as algae wafer. The sexual morphology between the male and female blue acara can be hard to differentiate because they look almost the same. Seasoned fish breeders will tell you that the males have elongated tip starting from the dorsal up to anal fins but however, I find that this way of observation can be rather inaccurate.
In terms of environment adaptability, blue acara seems to prefer water temperature in the range of 72 to 79 degree Fahrenheit. In order to ensure that the fish is free of common aquarium disease, it is advisable that one should replace about one-third of the tank water with fresh treated water every 2 days depending on the age of aquarium. Established tank would generally be more stable and it is easier to maintain a crystal clear water condition even when you increase the quantity of food fed to your fish. In terms of pH and water hardness, so far there are no specific preferences but it would be better to control the water at close to neutral pH with the water slightly hard.
To bring out the color of your pet, one of the tricks is to enhance illumination of the tank using high-grade aquarium lighting. To provide the fish with natural habitat even in home aquariums, try to create a well-planted fish tank using rocks, pebbles and also driftwood arranged together with live aquatic plants as a perfect hiding spot. It is also recommended that the tank should also be covered at one side using an aquarium paper backdrop so that the fish will not get startled easily. There are different setups which you can choose to adopt and the number of options with different combination using different arrangements on the aquarium decorations can limitless.
More on the ways and techniques to decorate your fish tank.
