The Nicaraguan Cichlid is from Central America and is one of the most colorful fish in the hobby. Nicaraguan cichlids have such a nice blend of yellow, red and blues that they even have the common name of the Macaw cichlid. One interesting note about the Macaw cichlid, is that the female actually has more color than males typically. The photo below is a female Nicaraguan cichlid, which has some bright blue around the head and fins, and usually has nice pinkish red along the side.
Males will stay a bit more yellowish orange, and will also develop a nuchal hump. Males also have spotting or spangling on their dorsal and caudal fins, while the females do not. The males can reach up to 9-10 inches in length, while the females stay about 7 inches in max length.
Tank Setup
Due to their size, I would recommend keeping them in a 55 gallon tank or larger. If you’re going to have tank mates, I would say a 75 gallon minimum. They should really be kept alone, in pairs, or with similar sized central and south American cichlids.
Tank Mates
Some tank mate options that I would recommend with a large enough tank would be the Jack Dempsey, Firemouth cichlid, Convict cichlid, the Green Terror cichlid could possibly work, rainbow cichlids would be great options. A few South American cichlids would work well including the Severum, the Uaru, and even some larger tetras or barbs. I would stay away from any small community fish like neon or cardinal tetras, as they would likely be eaten eventually.
Because of the compatibility with some common cichlids like the Jack Dempsey and Convict, along with its great color and temperament, I’m surprised the macaw is not more popular or widespread in the hobby today.
When it comes to temperament I would label them somewhere between peaceful and semi aggressive.
Like most cichlids, Nicaraguan cichlids can be territorial. Nicaraguans cichlids especially seem to defend one area of the tank as theirs, but as long as you have a large enough tank, it shouldn’t be an issue.
Breeding
They will usually get more aggressive when breeding, and this territorial behavior will usually increase. Nicaraguans are pit spawners, meaning they will lay eggs in a small pit or hole. Another interesting fact about them, is that their eggs are non-adhesive, which means they won’t stick eggs up against décor or glass.
In the wild, they dig large pits out of the sand and river banks to lay the eggs. Due to this, they will definitely dig up mounds of sand in your tank. I’m constantly leveling out my sand in this tank so that she’s not piling up a huge mound up to my heater or filter.
Tank Setup
For the tank setup, I would recommend sand, driftwood, and rocks, giving them plenty of hiding spots and area to claim as their territory. Some live plants will be okay, but they will eat or nibble at plants on occasion.
When it comes to water parameters, they do well in wide range of PH around 6-8, alkaline water and tropical temps. This mimics their natural habitat in Central America, although I wouldn’t recommend chasing parameters and rather keeping things consistent and they’ll do just fine.
Their diet is pretty straightforward – they are omnimores and will readily accepts flakes, pellets and its always good to mix in some frozen foods on occasion.
Summary
Nicaraguan cichlids are very hardy, but as always, try to give them the best care as possible – and if you follow some of the details in this post, they’ll be a great cichlid for you to keep. I highly recommend them!
