Orange chromide

Etroplus maculatus

FreshwaterBrackishFish

Care at a glance

Temperature: 68–82°F (20–28°C)
pH: 7.0–8.0
Adult size: 3.9 in (10 cm)
Minimum tank: 55 gal (210 L)
Temperament: Peaceful
Social behavior: Schooling
Swim level: Middle
Difficulty: Difficult
Breeding: Hard
Rarity: Very rare
Origin: Sri Lanka, India
Family: Cichlidae

Overview

The orange chromide is a small, peaceful cichlid that does best in a group of six or more, from which pairs will form naturally at breeding time. It is gentle and a little shy, so keep it with other calm brackish tolerant tankmates and avoid anything pushy. A group is comfortable in a tank of at least 210 liters with a sand bed, rocks, roots, and some hardy or artificial plants for cover. It picks at small invertebrates, algae, and plant matter in the wild, so offer a varied diet of frozen and live foods such as brine shrimp, bloodworm, and daphnia along with a quality flake or micro pellet. Acclimate it carefully and keep the water hard and alkaline, never soft and acidic.

In the wild

Etroplus maculatus, now often placed in the genus Pseudetroplus, comes from the coastal lagoons, estuaries, and lower river reaches of Sri Lanka and southern India. It handles a range of salinities and can be kept in hard alkaline fresh water or in brackish water, though it should never be kept in soft, acidic conditions. Aim for a temperature of 20 to 28 degrees Celsius and a pH from 7 to 8, with moderately hard, alkaline water and a little marine salt if you want to mirror its native estuaries. A sandy bed with rocks, roots, and shaded cover completes a natural setup.

Good to know

A member of the cichlid family, Cichlidae, the orange chromide reaches about 10 centimeters and is the smallest of the chromides. It is a biparental substrate spawner. A pair cleans a solid surface, lays a couple of hundred adhesive eggs, and both parents guard the eggs and fry together. Getting a compatible pair to settle and raising the slow growing, sensitive fry in stable water make it a demanding fish to breed well, even though spawning itself can happen readily once a pair has bonded.

Did you know

In their first days the fry feed on a mucus coating on their parents' bodies, much like young discus do, nipping at the adults' skin for nourishment while the parents' mucus production rises to meet the demand.