Dwarf pike cichlid

Care at a glance

Overview

Keep them as a single fish, a proven compatible pair, or a large female-skewed group of ten or more to spread out aggression, since random pairs of their own kind turn territorial. This is a bottom-dwelling predator, mostly peaceful for a pike but still happy to eat anything small enough to swallow, so skip nano fish and dwarf shrimp. Pick robust softwater tankmates of similar or larger size that hold the upper levels. Run the tank warm at 24 to 28 C with a pH of 6 to 7.2 in soft water, in a tank of 150 liters or more. Feed meaty foods like frozen and live items, and wean them onto quality pellets where you can.

In the wild

Dwarf pike cichlids come from the Amazon basin in Brazil, in the Trombetas and Tapajos rivers and their tributaries. These are soft, slightly acidic blackwater habitats, stained brown with tannins and full of submerged wood and leaf cover along the bottom. To match that, give them a long tank of at least 150 liters with a soft sand substrate, plenty of caves, driftwood, rockwork, and a few PVC tubes for cover. Keep the water warm at 24 to 28 C, the pH between 6 and 7.2, and the hardness low, up to about 10 to 12 dGH. They show their best color under dim lighting with lots of places to hide.

Good to know

This is Crenicichla regani, a dwarf pike cichlid in the family Cichlidae. Males reach about 12 to 15 cm and females stay smaller at around 8 to 10 cm. It is a cave-spawner with biparental brood care, where both parents guard the eggs and fry. Despite the modest size, it needs more floor space than its length suggests, so a footprint near 100 cm long is the practical target.

Did you know

Regani is the most peaceful of the dwarf pike cichlids, which makes it one of the easier members of the group to keep, but the predator instinct never switches off. A pike will sit tucked in a cave or among the wood, holding still, then dart out to grab any small fish or shrimp that wanders too close. The small adult size fools a lot of people into pairing them with nano fish, and those tankmates tend to disappear.

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