Searching for the perfect Trimac

[DMD123]

For me the Trimac has been on my list of dream fish to own. I dont know exactly what it is but there is just a simplicity to this fish, no giant nuchal hump, no outrageous orange splash of color like my other amphilophus, just a big, powerful fish with a ton of attitude.

My search began when I was looking at an empty 75 gallon and wanted to get something to fill it. I contacted @lloyd378 who of course knew a guy who happened to be getting out of the hobby and who happened to have a trimac. This was the fish when it came to me around March of 2020 (Picture from @lloyd378)

While this grew to be quite a large, impressive fish... it turned out to be quite a problematic one too. Just too many weird quirky health issues. So I decided to part ways and actually @lloyd378 decided to take a crack at it and hope he can do something with it. But in its good period it was a looker



Tanks have been upgraded since and now I am using a 90 gallon with dual Aquaclear 110's on it. I will be able to open up two of my 90’s, one with a dark substrate and one light. I could also do a divider and raise 4 of the fish separately too. Will see how they are when they come in.

My current idea in the works is a group of six F1 Rio Niltepec from Max's Cichlids. They are paid for and the arrangement is that I pick them up at the airport this Sunday. He says he can sex 4” fish and is looking to get me six males. My hope is for that one perfect trimac with nice ‘flowers’ and hopefully the eye ‘teardrop’.

This is a pic from his email, if mine turn out anything like this, I will be happy


I will edit this post to add more stuff, like picture and what not... stay tuned.

 

[DMD123]

To get that "Perfect" fish can be a bit of a challenge. The Trimac is not often seen for sale in local fish shops so it requires on-line ordering or finding someone raising them. The catch locations can also have quite a bearing on how these fish look.

Rio Sarabia from what I gather are more elongated and may not have as much of the typical trimac 'flowers', I think they are more "predatory" looking but not what you expect to see in a true Trimac.

Not my pic but found here: https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/...trimac-6-45-fountain-valley-ca-pickup.679670/


Rio Naranga catch location that has the big bulky body and the bulldog jaw, generally this is what comes to mind as a true Trimac.
This pic is from my texts from @lloyd378, this is his prized Trimac. If I remember correctly is a Jeff Rapps Tangled up in Cichlids fish.

This is generally the ideal Trimac that most look for.

From what I gather from pics Ive seen of the Rio Niltepec, they should look very similar maybe not quite as tall bodied? Not sure since I really havent seen any pics of large full grown Rio Niltepec Trimacs.

These are more pictures from Max’s Cichlid of the Rio Niltepec



Rio Los Perros Trimac... cant find much info but some videos of these, this one has attitude!

Did find this of interest from an MFK member:
“To my knowledge the the zanotas from the rio de Los perro show more red on the top half of their body than some other variants.
They live side by side with Trimac cichlids in the river and astyanax tetras. I'm not 100% sure but I think poecilla Gillii can also be found there.”

Was just interesting that sometimes we dont really always put together what fishes are found together in nature.


Then there are “Pyro” Trimac, or “Pyro-Mac” which are said to get their intense red from line breeding but this is a highly debated subject as to whether these are Trimac. To me it seems more a flowerhorn and not 100% pure trimac. These get a mention (notice not honorable, lol) because they are out there and are being called Trimac. This is a radom internet pic of a “Pyro” Trimac

 

[DMD123]

A couple more pics found online of the Rio Niltepec Trimac



This one is a female Rio Niltepec that was bred with a Rio Sarabia Male

https://www.instagram.com/angermanagementcichlids/p/BiunxQeFFod/?hl=en

Another one from Max's website

 

[lloyd378]

My big male used to get confused with the pyro when he was younger..... he was so bright yellow bodied back then so I always had to tell them it was from rapps

here is an old pic of mine of course this old fixture was a color max setup so his colors really popped.

 

[lloyd378]

Here’s another old one

 

[DMD123]

@lloyd378, You can tell yours has the tall body and heavy jaw structure typical of the Rio Naranja (or Ive seen as Naranjo). Like Ive mentioned, I havent really seen any full grown pics of the Rio Niltepec to compare. But from sub-adult pics they seem just a little less bulky. Doesn't bother me, they seem to still look really good.

 

[bad-daddio]

The Niltepecs are my favorite trimac that is available these days. The bright olive greens going into an almost yellow. I just love them. And that first picture you showed (Richard Stratman's fish) is an absolute stunner too.

 

[DMD123]

The Niltepecs are my favorite trimac that is available these days. The bright olive greens going into an almost yellow. I just love them. And that first picture you showed (Richard Stratman's fish) is an absolute stunner too.

Thanks for that info! Im super excited to get these guys in. My hope is that I find one that is my keeper... AND ONLY ONE, lol. I will have two 90's available so there is a chance that I could keep two of the six.

 

[lloyd378]

It wouldn’t be horrible if you got an accidental female... I think my big male would rather enjoy the company

 

[lloyd378]

@lloyd378, You can tell yours has the tall body and heavy jaw structure typical of the Rio Naranga (or Ive seen as Narango). Like Ive mentioned, I havent really seen any full grown pics of the Rio Niltepec to compare. But from sub-adult pics they seem just a little less bulky. Doesn't bother me, they seem to still look really good.

Never seen it spelled with a “g” at the end.... always have seen it with the “j”

 

[DMD123]

Never seen it spelled with a “g” at the end.... always have seen it with the “j”

That was my bad, I meant the “a” or “o” ending. I will edit that

 

[DMD123]

It wouldn’t be horrible if you got an accidental female... I think my big male would rather enjoy the company

lol, yeah that might be a reason to grow them out a bit but Max seemed pretty clear he could sex them. He does also sell females separately for just a bit more...

 

[lloyd378]

I know you want all males, but I’m secretly hoping. Haha

 

[DMD123]

I know you want all males, but I’m secretly hoping. Haha

Im not opposed to it... though there was some online discussion about mixing catch locations. I dont think that is that much of an issue.

Got my second Aquaclear 110 installed on the RTM tank. I am thinking about doing this one as the trimac growout. I want to see the fish on the lighter substrate.

 

[DMD123]

Im thinking he must have sexing down for these guys.

This is his price list for the fish, notice the females:

Amphilophus trimaculatus Rio Niltepec Mexico
F1 2” to 2 .5” $10
F1 3” to 4” $20
F1 Females 3” to 4” $30
F1 4 1/2” to 5 1/2” $40
F1 6” $60 air cargo only

Im ordering six of the $20, 3” to 4” and I specifically asked for males. He charges an additional $10 for females. Thinking its due to how the males tend to go through females.

 

[DMD123]

Im excited about the new fish coming in. Hopefully they get along for a little bit as they grow and I can spot my keeper. Im super curious as to how close to the 3-4" size category these are. I remember once I ordered 1 1/4" fish and they were only like 3/4"... fishermen and fish vendors have a different scale of measurement, lol

Im thinking at this size they probably look like bland fish without the trimac look really popping through yet. Since Ive never grown them out from this little, when should I expect to see the more typical pattern and color starting to come in?

 

[lloyd378]

Based on my previous experience with both TR and WC juvenile trimac, you can expect their base color to be there, though slightly muted and overlaid with some vertical barring. At about 4' you will notice the pink hues start to develop in the throat area. by 6' the barring will be gone and the throat color should be popping.

I will also add that the juvenile trimacs I had were on the picky side of accepting pellets.... It might be worth it to find out what the breeder was feeding them and have that on hand if they go on a hunger strike.

If I were you, I would also make sure you have room incase one starts to get picked on by the others. but also keep in mind, if for some reason the battle royale breaks out, if you need to, you could house a weak one in my 220g jewel tank (they are currently also 3-4' for a few weeks or a month (but honestly, you should be fine for a few months).

With that said, I remember when I ordered in 3 trimac with my chanco from Dan at cichlid's of america (no, i didn't keep any of those fish), the smallest trimac was killed within the first month (I have all five growing out in my 150g at the time). I can't say for sure if it was the other trimacs or the chanco, but definitely be prepared incase any violence erupts.

I look forward to progression videos / pics as they little ones become big ones!

 

[DMD123]

Thanks for the info @lloyd378. I was thinking of getting some of the lighting grid to make tank dividers, that way worst case I can split the 90 in half and raise 4 fish pretty easily. As of now I wanted to get some smaller clay pots to put in the growout to see if that cuts down on the violence a little.

Since these fish are being raise in outdoor vats, Im sure there is a lot of natural algae, insects and maybe even siblings that become food. Probably this is the challenge to feed them. I do have frozen foods on hand so transition might be easier. Besides if they are feeding pellets, with the high volume of fish Im thinking its probably a cheaper commercial grade food anyways. With my puffer ignoring the feeder guppies, I might just move those in with the trimac too.

 

[DMD123]

@lloyd, this was on Max's website... looks like a young trimac to me, what do you think?

If mine come in looking anything like that I would be thrilled!

 

[lloyd378]

Yes, nice looking little trimacs. You can see the base color with a little vertical stripe . I don’t see any color in the throat but that’s to be expected. I’m hopeful for you that they turn out amazingly