Hypselecara temporalis aka the Chocolate Cichlid

Last month (which kinda seemed like it was a long, long, long time ago) I went to the LFS near my office with the innocent intention of buying feeder goldfish for my Aba Aba.

Due to the lingering Tokay Gecko craze that hit the island not long ago, I had to wait, 10 long minutes just to buy RM1 worth of goldfish!

So being some one who has never succumbed to the temptation of impulse buying (just the fish that I forget to plan to get) I browsed around the shop and I must say, I browsed with non-interested eyes.

I know most of the bread and butter fish species at the shop. The usual neons, barbs, danios, platies, guppies, suckers, corys and cichlids...

Then I saw... They're something similar to the Indian Leaf Fish, Pristolepis marginata.

The beautiful Pristolepis marginata, locally known as "Ikan Patung". They are rarely seen but they do occur in the wild in Malaysia. Caught a huge number of them (piring/small plate-size) in Tasik Banding.

Then I looked again and then I remembered back in 1989, I think, I've kept this species before. Bought a 4" specimen for less than five ringgit from San Sui Aquarium in SP and the shop owner told me it was called "ikan sultan".

Yeah, what ever. Common names can be misleading... So lets call this by the proper scientific name then. It is Hypselecara temporalis, the Chocolate Cichlid.

It can change its color from brown-deep red-green-silver and back. Being young at the time, I then released this fish where it lived a very long life in my fathers telaga (in case you don't know, telaga=well) at his Durian orchard.

The next time I saw this species was back in 1996, just before the Ayam Serama aka the Bantam Chicken and the Lou Han / Flowerhorn / Amphilopus labiatus / Amphilopus trimaculatus hybrid hit Malaysia. Then almost every aquarium fish shop sell nothing but Flowerhorn!

They were 6-8 of them the size of a small plate and they were very beautiful and they were labelled "Lion King, NOT FOR SALE".

Amphilopus labiatus aka the Red Devil Cichlid, the great grand daddy of the Flowerhorn.

Amphilopus trimaculatus, the Trimac Cichlid, the other great grand daddy of the Flowerhorn.

Anyway, fast forward to some time in April 2011, I saw the lfs had 6 of them at RM15 a piece. I just had to have them! So here they are... In Aizzats' 3' aquarium for the time being...

They're about 3" long.


Shoaling close together minutes after release.

Getting bolder, exploring the new aquarium (new as is been running for 2 months without any fish, just a few hillstream shrimps in the tank for cycling).

I know they're not much to look at, at the moment except for the romantic swimming style (head pointing to the surface, swimming ala2 malas... I like!!!) but they'll grow and turn into these in a few months time... Behold!

Adult Hypselecara temporalis.

Here's an update of my Aba Aba, it kinda grew big and fast and getting more "finger-friendly"!

Buntet IV