The 1980s and 1990s were the high times of traveling aquarists who wanted to shed light on Central American cichlids. And this succeeded more than satisfactorily! One of these amateur researchers in the best sense of the word was Hans-Günther Breidohr (1938-2017). In his honor Uwe Werner and Rainer Stawikowski named a cichlid Paratheraps breidohri, which was discovered on such trips and recognized as a new species due to the subsequent aquarium care. Today it is – research progresses – placed in the genus Vieja, so it is called Vieja breidohri.
We are very happy that this cichlid, which is apparently very rarely found in the wild – it is only known from a reservoir in Chiapas, Mexico – has been included in the program of Southeast Asian breeders. Right now we have juveniles from Indonesia in the stock. The animals are still somewhat inconspicuous in color. Thankfully, Uwe Werner, one of the discoverers of the species, has allowed us to use his pictures of adult specimens for this post.
Vieja breidohri grows 25-30 cm long, so it belongs to the large cichlids. You only need to offer them enough space, then you can enjoy these character fish for many years. They are – as usual in the Cichlasoma relatives – open breeders with parent family. It is strongly discouraged to combine different Vieja species with each other, as they can hybridize. The days when it was so easy to take research trips and bring back fish are, unfortunately, long gone. This is very much to the detriment of nature, but the ignorant bureaucracy is not expected to change this situation in the foreseeable future. That is why we have to take care to keep the existing strains pure in conservation breeding.
For our customers: the animals have code 688521 (3-4 cm) and 688523 (6-8 cm) on our stocklist. Please note that we supply exclusively to wholesalers.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
