Myers' caquetaia

Care at a glance

Overview

Myers' caquetaia is a golden, medium-large predator with an extendable mouth, best kept alone or as a single pair. It hangs near the bottom and among wood, waiting to ambush prey, and it is aggressive enough that tankmates must be picked with care: keep it only with fish more than half its own length, ideally about the same size, so nothing becomes a meal. Feed meaty foods such as prawn, mussel, earthworms and large sinking pellets. It is a big eater that makes a lot of waste, so stay on top of filtration and water changes. Give it a tank of at least 450 liters with driftwood, stones and sturdy plants for cover.

In the wild

Caquetaia myersi comes from the foothill rivers of the upper Amazon where the Andes meet the lowlands, in Colombia and Ecuador. It likes warm, soft to neutral water: a temperature range of 23–28 C and a pH of 6.0–7.5. Give it a sandy floor, plenty of driftwood and sturdy stones, and calm, well-planted or shaded corners where an ambush hunter can lie in wait for passing fish.

Good to know

Caquetaia myersi belongs to the cichlid family and reaches about 23 centimeters, dressed in butter gold with darker tiger bars along the flank. It is a member of the basketmouth group, ambush predators of quiet water. It is a biparental substrate spawner that cleans a surface, lays its eggs there and guards the eggs and fry, so breeding is of moderate difficulty rather than hard.

Did you know

When it feeds, the jaws slide forward in an instant to form a wide tube, letting the fish inhale prey from a distance; the basketmouth cichlids have some of the most extreme extendable mouths in the family.

Common questions

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