Vieja bifasciatum "Rio Chacamax"

So I have three of these guys growing out in my 210g. They came from The Wet Spot in Portland. Ive liked the look of the bifa ever since I saw the one madness was raising and knew I wanted to try some out in my tank. Interesting but one of the three is a much darker color than the others, makes me wonder...

So a lot of my info has been internet stuff like this: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

They call the "Rio Chacamax" bifa a "mellow", "community vieja", which I hope it turns out to be.

So any thought on this fish from those who have experience with it.

Mean and nasty.

They can be very aggressive, because of their shear size. I have had no issues with mine being overly aggressive. I have a 12" WC Bifa, and he has been awesome. Soon picking him up a WC female.

You will enjoy them. They can reach 16" long and are a very tall fish. They love spinach, and the spinach will help with their color.

Do you know what area your WC is from?
1) Rio Candeleria
2) Rio Chacamax
3) Rio Grijalva
4) Rio Carolina

The MFK post said that from most experiences the "Rio Chacamax" bifa were pretty mellow in comparison. I never thought to try spinach, do you blanch it first or serve full up raw?

I bought 1 of those veggie clips that stick to the inside of the tank and I put the spinach in that. I feed it raw.

I believe my bifa is a chacamax

Could the aggressive 'mean and nasty' behavior you spoke of be due to the fact there are female fish in with them? Not necessarily another female bifa but just another vieja type they got the hots for....

Right now mine bicker amongst themselves but show no aggression toward other fish. The Freddy has attitude and has his little territory so I see some potential trouble from him. The bleekeri is a hider and no one even looks at him.

DMD123 wrote: The bleekeri is a hider and no one even looks at him.

He will hide less when hes bigger don't worry!

how big is he now?

He is a wee little guy about 2". Was very light colored when I got him, almost white. With in 24hrs of being in my tank he was black. I guess he was stress in the little fish store tank. Im sure when he gets more comfortable he will be a monster.

Could very well be the presence of females in the tank, that cause the more aggression. Almost positive thats the reason.

I hope to have got males by choosing the biggest fish out of all the batches I picked from. I would have also bought three of the friedrichsthalii but only one stood out as bigger than its tank mates and he was double their size. The bleekeri were too expensive to get more than the one. The hoga Im pretty sure is male and at this point a perfect community fish. A little muscle flex when the new fish were introduced but no chasing or anything from him. So now time to grow out these little bifa and see what I got and how they get along.

They should get along nicely. And what you have is definitely a Hoga. I have 16 left, They are all Hoga off spring.

DMD123 wrote:Could the aggressive 'mean and nasty' behavior you spoke of be due to the fact there are female fish in with them? Not necessarily another female bifa but just another vieja type they got the hots for....

Right now mine bicker amongst themselves but show no aggression toward other fish. The Freddy has attitude and has his little territory so I see some potential trouble from him. The bleekeri is a hider and no one even looks at him.

I have a Bi fa that is 14.5" and comes from the Rio Chacamax. As Madness indicated, they can be mean and nasty and will definitely throw their weight around if given the chance. Mine through his shear size runs the tank but he doesn't mess with his tank mates that much. He loves Spinach as well as his equally large Bocourti tank mate. I will take a few pieces and put in a little water and heat it for a few seconds which softens it and then attach it to a veggie clip which they readily devour.

One thing I have noticed is that the three are constantly bickering amongst themselves. No aggression at all toward the other fish in their size bracket. They totally ignore the bleekeri and freddy. The hoga is twice their size so they give him a lot of space, even though he could care less about them.

I will need to try some spinach out for sure.

Any pics Drd62? I would love to see what I have to look forward to in a big beastly bifa.

If drd's is a chcamax then mine is a diff location. Drds is a much taller bodied bifa, like my p original male. This new guy is much more streamlined, he is reaching 13" and is not very tall. He is from a faster moving area.(water) not that i don't like the tall bodied bifa, but i think the streamlined one is a better looking fish.

The Rio Chacamax also seen to be a little bit different in coloration. The red in the head seems a bit different.

I know cavamart on MFK had the Rio Chacamax bifa and his look really different than the one madness has.
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Again this is not my fish or picture. It is from MFK and belongs to cavamart.

This one was from madness ( I belive a bifa)
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Different bifa?
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madness will have to step in here and tell us more about them....

Ya that is exactly my other male, not my new male.

Just did an edit on the post as you posted. Sorry

Could you give a bit of info on the new pictures posted?

Same location, Cavamart has some awesome equipment and picture taking ability, he its able to capture the reds. Mine do have more yellowish/orange in the body, but same fish. When i get home i will take a picture of my new male.

This my new male Bifa, as you can see, he is considerably more streamlined. And IMO, a much better looking Bifa.

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Same fish, different angle and lighting.
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Nice looking fish... but I like the big, fat, tall ones better.

The big fat tall ones are ugly as sin. your just saying that cause that's the one you have.

They are soooo cooooool!!!!!! Im glad thats the one I have.

I like my fish big and fat like this:
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In fact I think I might just have to switch to goldfish.

That is a cute little guy.

It would fit in nicely.

Sorry, I couldnt look at that thing.

I wish the original MFK post I had put up actually was able to follow up with what the bifa from the different regions look like. We might be able to start something here. Could you possibly get info on your male as to location?

Already have word into Gage. As soon as he gets there tomorrow, he will let me know.

DMD123 wrote:Nice looking fish... but I like the big, fat, tall ones better.

I think they're both nice. One is a Riverine BiFa which Madness has hence the more narrower streamlined body. Madness, you wouldn't be a little biased, would you?
Personally I like both types and their coloration. Great fish to have IMO.

No not really, i have both, just think the streamlined one looks nicer.

i think a lot of the shape has to do with being wild caught or not and at which size they were removed from the wild. if im not mistaken the streamlined bifa was a larger wc fish and it seems that larger wc fish seem to be a little more streamlined espescially in vieja/paratheraps/paraneetroplus fish lol i do like that wc streamilined look much more

A little follow up on the three bifa that I am currently raising.

I tried spinach and was surprised how the little guys tore it up. They were going at it like they were starving. I did not see the large dominant one eat it, I dont really worry about him since he eats and is growing. The other two smaller ones seem more interested in the spinach and ate it with gusto. This makes me happy since they are the ones that always have a thin appearance and really show no interest in the prepared foods I had been offering. Out of the 6-7 different combos of foods they peck at a bit of Omega One Marine Flake w/garlic and love frozen bloodworms. Most of the other fish in the tank eat anything and everything when it comes to prepared foods.

I still see no real aggression from these guys yet. They have a little pecking order but no danger at this point of any one being picked on. It will be hard to decide which I will keep when the time comes because they are all starting to color up and look good.

Never seen an elongated bifa before Madness's pics. Pretty cool!

As for the Chacamax. I have one pushing 6" from Wet Spot and a friend with one too. Ours are round shaped and like the ones from the Cavamart pic. Only difference is my bifa is darker tone up on the top half, with the horizontal line always showing.

So spinach.... really got them munching on the greens, getting them to eat their veggies.

No one warned me of the scary spinach poo! The long stringy parts that they could not digest came out and I thought there was something majorly wrong at first. I guess its like when we eat corn....

So not the greatest pic, just a quick, blury snapshot of the bifa I decided to keep.
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The next one down in size I thought actually had a better pattern but this one Im sure is male and as time goes on I think the red and yellow should intensify and it should look pretty good. As for personality, it is a very mellow fish and gets along great with everyone. I guess what they say about this variety being the best "community" bifa is true.

Very nice D.

Thanks, the picture makes it look bigger than it really is. Its really only about 4 1/2" to 5".

Quick update for DMD, the two smaller bifs i got from you are definitely enjoying being at the top of the pyramid in my tank and their colors are coming out great to prove it.... the larger one (your middle sized one) has actually been displaying two black horizontal lines down it's body, with some really cool carmel colored spots throughout the yellow. The smallest one is really starting to display a redish color from his lips to right past his gills..... I am glad you talked me into them!

The bifa are stunning fish when older. Would look good with a zo from madness.....

What are the differences between the vieja bifas and the paratheraps bifas. I have heard a number of people discuss bifas with the two different names, and though the paratheraps appear to be a bit redder, I do not see too much difference. Is there any?

Its the same fish. They are just changing the classification. Now it is actually known as the paraneetropolus Bifa. Go figure.

Iamma get a pic of my male on hear for you guys, or look at my avatar!! He is a stunning fish and mean as shit!!

We need a good pic of your boy on here. Your avatar does not do that thing justice. Has to be one of the all time best bifa Ive seen.

This video has one of the largest males with a hump head Ive seen: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] They use the common name of the fish, Red head monk cichlid.

Thanks dmd, yeah I need a better lic for sure!! Wow those are sum big bifa's, hope mine gets that big