The Rio Madeira is a right tributary of the Amazon River and is considered the largest tributary in the world. Its origin is in Bolivia where it is formed from the confluence of the Rio Beni and the Rio Marmoré. It flows into the Amazon in Brazil at Itacoatiara. The Rio Madeira is a white water river, purely from a geographical point of view one would expect the Heros species H. efasciatus, H. severus and H. spurius there. Concerning the dark body bands H. sp. Madeira corresponds most closely to H. efasciatus, but the coloration deviates quite considerably from the known color forms of this species. Such a pigeon blue ground color, which is already shown by juveniles and which becomes more and more intense with age, is not shown by any other Heros species known so far.
Like all Heros species this one grows well over 15 cm long, in large aquariums you can expect 5 cm more with these long-lived animals. There are known to be two brood care strategies in Heros, mouth brooding and open brooding. H. sp. Madeira is an open brooder, both parents care together for the extensive brood. In sexually mature animals, the sexes can be easily distinguished by the different facial markings; in juveniles, sex differentiation is not possible. Heros sp. Madeira originally came to Germany on private initiative; our animals are German offspring.
For our customers: the animals have code 682969 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply to wholesalers.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
