A Central American Eartheater

Astatoheros altifrons is a stunning cichlid from Central America.
Fairly uncommon it is a good representative of the Central American family of eartheaters - the Astatoheroines. A good example of covergent evolution - these fish greatly resemble the Satanoperca of Amazonia. Although these families are not closely related. They are ideally huilt for their lifestyle having a long snout with eyes set far back. To feed they seem to hover above the substrate and then divebomb so their snout is buried to the eye - hence having them set far back on the head.
For Central American cichlids these are very peaceful and often fair poorly alongside boisterous tankmates. They are tricky to breed but follow the general process for breeding Central American cichlids.

Etroplus suratensis - The Marine Cichlid

India and Sri Lanka are home to three cichlid fish from the Etropline family. This grouping apso contains eleven or more species from Madagascar.
These cichlids are unique in the fact they don't look very cichlid like bearing more of a resemblance to the marine damselfish.
These cichlids have evolved in isolation from other cichlids since the break up of Gondwanaland.
The green chromide is a stunning fish. Growing to more than a foot long it is a bssic green/grey colouration overlaid with blue, red and silver spots.
Unique to the family Cichlidae this fish can live in fresh, brackish and marine conditions. Indeed and transplanted population live in the seas around Indonesia.
For the longest life they do best gradually being moved to marine conditions as they grow.
These fish are rarely spawned though as you can see from the picture, I have managed this! They lay approximately 300 eggs which are green and in the wild these are laid on underwater plants where they are well camoflaged as they closely resemble the nodules of plants.
The eggs have a long filament and sway in the current.
Once hatched the young are hard to raise and grow very slowly.
All in all these are fascinating beautiful species which is well worth keeping!