Care
The Chocolate Cichlid has a wide area of distribution and is known from the Solima´es-Amazon River and Oyapock River basin in Brazil, the Amazonas drainage in Colombia, and the Rio Ucayali drainage in Peru. Here, this gentle giant is most commonly found in calm pools and the slower flowing sections of turbid rivers. The aquarium should be spacious, with a soft sand substrate and plenty of hiding places/visual barriers created using driftwood, rocky caves, and robust planting such as Java Fern or Anubias sp. tied to the decor. Filtration should be efficient but water movement not too vigorous, and small frequent water changes will help keep nitrate to a minimum. Chocolate Cichlids are fairly easy-going for a cichlid of this size, and as such can be kept alongside other fish of similar size and temperament that enjoy warm, soft water. Good companions could include Uaru, Angelfish, Severums, silver dollars, and large armoured catfish. Chocolate Cichlids are mildly aggressive towards conspecifics and as such are best maintained singly or as a compatible pair. However, if a pair choose to spawn in a community setting, they will become much more aggressive towards the other fish, but this should not present too much of a problem in voluminous aquaria. May also be seen on sale as the Emerald Cichlid.
Feeding
Omnivorous and will accept most aquarium foods offered. Try to keep it varied with good quality carnivore and herbivore flakes, sinking pellets/sticks, and a mixture of frozen foods such as white mosquito larvae, bloodworm, vitamin-enriched brineshrimp, Mysis, krill, and chopped prawns, along with some fresh vegetable matter.
Breeding
Substrate spawner. Courtship displays can be very elaborate, with intensified colours and much shimmying, fin-flashing, gill-flaring, and lip-locking. The fish will clean a suitable spawning site (usually an upright piece of slate) and excavate a few pits in the substrate. When ready, the female will swim over the spawning site in a series of "dry runs", after which she will begin depositing eggs in small batches. The male immediately follows behind her and fertilises them, and this is repeated until several hundred eggs are laid/fertilised. The act of spawning has been known to continue for well over an hour in some cases, after which time, the parents will guard the eggs diligently, hovering above and fanning them with their pectoral fins. After a couple of days, both parents will move the eggs to a pre-dug pit in the substrate and resume sentry duty once more. The eggs should hatch after a couple more days, and the young should be free-swimming after a further 3 days. At this point they can be offered baby brineshrimp (Artemia nauplii) and crushed flake foods. Both fish provide excellent parental care, collecting any fry that swim too far from the brood, and bringing them back to the nest site. Brood care continues for a further 2-3 weeks.
