There is no doubt that the Green Terror (Andinoacara rivulets) is a Cichlid that is much admired by Cichlid enthusiasts.
It has stunning good looks, beautiful coloring and definitely makes an impact in any tropical freshwater tank.
But this fish is not for the faint of heart! It is an aggressive fish, like its name suggests, and is not ideal for anyone without extensive experience dealing with these types of behaviors.
This fish is a ray-finned fish that may also be known as a White or Gold Saum fish. They love to jump and are renowned for it, so planning your tank setup is essential if you decide to take on this interesting species.
Native to the rivers of Peru and Ecuador in South America, it inhabits both freshwater and brackish waters of slow or non-moving waters in these regions.
Their popularity is due to their brilliant coloration and patterns, along with some interesting behaviors and a huge amount of personality. However, they are easy to care for in terms of water parameters, but not so easy in terms of dealing with an aggressive species of fish.
Green Terrors have quite the overwhelming name for a fish, but rest assured, if you have the right information base, they can be taken care of with relative ease if you take the right precautions before you acquire them.
Green Terror Cichlid Behavior
With a name that includes the word terror, you could expect that these fish might bully and harass other fish in your community. So having smaller or peaceful fish is not ideal if you want to have a happy tank life.
Having a decent amount of space as well as food supply can help limit the aggressive behavior of these fish as they are extremely territorial.
In fact, most of their aggression is down to territorial issues, and you need to provide them with ample space as well as decor that they can claim as their own turf.
Green Terrors do not have a particular fondness for any specific layer of the water column in your tank. That is to say that they are happy to swim from top to bottom layers of the tank at will, which is another reason that they can affect other members of your tank community who might normally be at peace in their own little world.
This can make choosing tank mates difficult because usually, you have fish who enjoy inhabiting certain layers of the tank, and having a benthopelagic fish means that all bets are off when it comes to keeping some members of your community separate.
Green Terrors enjoy exploring the entire tank and every nook and cranny.
In terms of aggression levels for tropical freshwater fish, these guys have the name that says it all. They are on the highest end of the aggression scale, and interestingly, females are more aggressive than males in this case. They even get more aggressive with age!
What is also interesting is that they tend to calm down when breeding in an unusual flip of events in the fish world. However, immediately after spawning, their aggression levels tend to be even worse afterward.
As a notable Cichlid, you can expect Green Terrors to root in their substrate and dig up your tank like champions. They will do their worst on rearranging plant life and decor as they decide how they would like their habitat to look.
You might arrange things as you like, but Green Terrors will likely let you know pretty quickly if it doesn’t suit them to their liking. Expect some design changes if you take on these pretty fish.
Green Terror Cichlid Lifespan
If you cater to the needs of your Green Terror Cichlid, you could expect them to live for around 7 – 10 years. The quality of their tank conditions will impact their lifespan, as always, so you can expect a longer life if you meet their requirements meticulously.
We will discuss more on tank requirements a little later in this article.
Green Terror Cichlid Appearance
A Green Terror has a slim profile and can grow on average up to 8 inches in length. So these are not small fish, and with their aggressive personality, they can take some experience to deal with correctly. In larger tanks, they can even reach around 10 inches, so buyer beware!
Despite having the name green in their name, they have multiple varieties when it comes to appearance. The metallic shades can vary, so it is also possible to find electric blue, red, and pick variations.
More typically, males and females have a greenish-blue metallic appearance on their scales, and they possess an orange stripe on the trim of their caudal and dorsal fins that accentuates that coloring brilliantly.
Some Green Terrors do not have the orange trim on their fins because there is a diverse number of varieties in their appearance, although the classic look is the one most often sold with stockists.
The dorsal fin begins just behind the head of the fish and extends almost to the start of the caudal fin. It starts off short and lengthens like a sail on the top of this fish.
The caudal fin is a classic fan shape, and the anal fin is equally flowy, starting from the midsection of the fish on the ventral side and mirroring the sail shape of the dorsal fin from below but without the orange trim typically seen.
Another point to note is that males develop a hump on their head, which appears during the breeding season. While this is only apparent in the while during breeding, it can actually be a permanent development while in captivity, which makes sexing some of the fish really easy.
Green Terror Cichlid Habitat And Tank Requirements
We ideally want to achieve optimum health for fish we keep in captivity by closely mimicking their natural habitat. Their wild origins are the rivers and slow or non-moving waters of South America in Peru and Ecuador.
Let’s look at some specifics that are needed to provide these fish with a great quality of life that best suits them for optimum health.
Tank Conditions
Green Terrors do love to be in sandy substrates in the wild, where they can root around and poke into the river bottom without damaging their scales as they search for food.
Avoid gravel or anything sharp with Cichlids as always, as their rooting behaviors will make them susceptible to injury and disease from any scrapes and grazes as a result of swimming into or around sharp objects.
They are not fond of currents as they live in almost stagnant waters in the river basins. Driftwood, rocks, and caves are ideal for these fish to suit their needs.
Although these fish enjoy swimming on all layers of the tank, be advised that they enjoy a lot of free and open swimming. So you will need to keep vegetation arranged in a way that enables this.
When it comes to vegetation, try including floating plant options like Water Wisteria and plant things like Anubias Nana and Java Fern on the substrate that can handle the uprooting and relocation by these fish with ease.
Floating plants will undoubtedly make your life easier, though.
Ideally, you will want to use an external filter that is powerful to extract the amount of waste for these fish but avoiding extra water movement.
Water changes need to be weekly and at least 15 – 20% changed over for optimum water quality.
Water conditions should be noted and maintained as follows:
- pH of 6.5 – 8.0
- Water hardness between 5 – 20 dGH
- Temperature between 68 – 77ºF (20 – 25ºC)
- Lighting conditions should be low as they don’t experience much direct sunlight in the murky river water
Tank Size
The minimum tank size for a single Green Terror Cichlid is ideally 50 gallons, and for a pair, you would need 75 gallons.
However, this is the minimum, so getting something closer to 100 gallons for a pair is even better.
In terms of shape, you’ll want something long and rectangular that will allow them plenty of active swimming areas.
Choosing Tank Mates For Green Terror Cichlids
When it comes to finding species appropriate for your Green Terror Cichlids, you need to consider things carefully, given their behavior and propensity for aggression.
You’ll want to keep sizes of tank mates relative and with an equal propensity for an aggressive nature.
Keep in mind that it’s possible to house other fish with this species as long as you have enough room to allow for the territorial behaviors and you avoid putting anything too small that will be seen as a food supply for your Green Terrors.
We also would advise that keeping Green Terrors in a pair works best if they are a bonded breeding pair.
Some excellent tank mate pairings that would work well include:
- Firemouth Cichlids
- Silver Dollar Fish
- Bristlenose Pleco
- Clown Pleco
- Jack Dempsey Cichlids
- Flowerhorn Cichlids
- Convict Cichlids
- Gars
- Picus
- Striped Raphael Catfish
- Tetras
- Oscar Fish
What you should avoid is anything like African Cichlids, Mollies, Guppies, and Corydoras.
It’s worth noting that you should keep an eye on any Cichlids in the mix around spawning periods as they can become more aggressive and may need to be separated in breeding tanks for a spell.
Especially since we are recommending keeping a bonded pair, you should remove them from the tank community when breeding season arrives to avoid excessively aggressive actions on the part of the mating pair.
Notes On Feeding Green Terror Cichlids
Green Terrors are omnivorous but get the majority of their diet from carnivorous items like worms, insects, and crustaceans in the wild.
At home, they are not finicky and will eat just about anything you propose to them.
Frozen and live proteins are recommended to keep these large fish in optimum health, but that doesn’t need to be daily.
Pellet and flaked foods are fine as a base, but you will need to supplement with frozen or live food sources like bloodworms, shrimp, tubifex, insects, and other large worms.
It’s important to remove any uneaten foods soon after feeding time to avoid water fouling, so ensure you have a suction vacuum to pick up any leftovers if necessary.
Breeding Green Terror Cichlids
Green Terror Cichlids will happily breed in captivity and are fairly easy to encourage.
Since most are bought as a breeding pair at the same time, it should be fairly easy to spot when spawning is about to take place.
You can identify when breeding is on the cards as males will develop a hump on their heads. Their coloring will also brighten. Nature’s way of telling you the hobbyist to get your breeding tank ready!
It’s important to separate your Green Terrors when breeding approaches as they will often kill other fish in the tank during the process. The males protect the spawning site while the female cares for the fertilized eggs.
The breeding tank should be shallower and a few degrees warmer. Use a sandy substrate and some flat rock formations, which will allow the female to lay eggs, and then the male will fertilize in the open.
Fry will then be moved to pits in the substrate and hatch as free swimmers in around 10 days.
Unusually, it’s best to leave the parents with the eggs and fry as they are good parents!
Are Green Terror Cichlids A Good Fit For Your Tank Community?
Well, it depends on your ability to deal with aggressive fish and manage their behaviors in the tank.
They are not straightforward, although managing their habitat is easy enough even for a new hobbyist.
The possibility of their aggression affecting other fish in your tank (and their lifespan!), especially when it comes to the breeding season, means that you must have a separate tank or can provide a divider that sections off your tank to potential fisticuffs.
If you can manage this, then these stunning, gorgeous fish with animated personalities will provide you with hours of endless entertainment.
Let the Green Terror into your life and never be fearful of being in the house alone again!
