What's In A Name? - Satanoperca daemon

Satanoperca daemon is surprisingly peaceful for a fish that has both Satan and Demon in its scientific nomenclature. In fact, outside of spawning, they are pretty much model citizens in aquariums, showing little or no aggression to most fish; while being certainly capable of eating smaller fish, they seem to ignore all but the smallest prey options, a topic we will revisit. In English, Satanoperca daemon is more commonly called the Slender Earth Eater or Threespot Eartheater, a name it is also called in German. The Chinese name for it translates as “Mother of Pearl Cichlid.” However, not all languages have such a benign take on naming them; in Estonian the common name translates as “The Devil's Perch” and in Finnish they call it “A Devil Worshipper!”

The Three Spot Earth Eater is a larger-than-average Earth Eater Cichlid from South America's Amazon River Basin. There they come from areas that are slow or stagnant waters, often found in the pond sized puddles left behind after the rainy season subsides and the rivers recede back into their dry season courses. The record size is almost 12 inches long, but they are much more commonly seven to eight inches long as adults. When mature, they have 3 large vague black spots on their sides, over lighter colored small spots,and iridescent blue streaking; they have a deep red accents on some of their fins and some long flowing streamers on their dorsal and pectoral fins. These are gorgeous fish.

It is possible, but challenging and somewhat labor intensive to breed these fish and rear the fry in captivity and this translates to most of the fish being seen in the hobby being wild caught. The specimens here at Aquatropic now are sustainably harvested, wild-caught fish. As such, care must be taken to acclimate them to your display conditions carefully. While they can be kept in conditions that vary from this theme, it has been our experience that they do best long term in water that is mineral deficient (soft), acidic (think pH between 4 and 5) and ideally tea colored, though we've found the color of the water to be less impactful, especially if the display has relatively dim lighting. Many have reported that these fish are intolerant of hardly-noticable copper levels as well, though this has not been tested in controlled settings nor has it been verified by us. We do know that water quality is important with this fish, and they are intolerant of nutrient spikes. As a result, strong filtration, large total aquarium volumes, and very regular water changes are all important to the long term health of your fish.

In regards to the display you choose for your Threespot Eartheaters, it should be large. These fish like to be kept in groups. We suggest at least five as numbers less than that can result in the less dominant fish being picked on to their detriment. When small, they tightly associate, which looks amazing in the display. We suggest a tank that is six feet long for them at grow out though for the first couple years a four foot long aquarium would suffice. Like all Eartheaters, S. daemon spends its day taking mouthfuls of sand and filtering food out of it (hence the “Eartheater” name). A fine grain, soft sand over the whole aquarium is a requisite for keeping this fish happy long term. The display needn't have much else for cover in it, although driftwood is appropriate. Avoid any plants that aren't floating as they will be dug up in very short order.

Historically, Satanoperca daemon has a reputation for being one of the more touchy South American cichlids to keep. In our experience, where most people fail this fish is with food. It gets big, and thus people start feeding it big food, and this is a problem. The Threespot Eartheater lives on small stuff for its whole life. Most of its wild diet is made up of blood worms, chronomids and other aquatic and terrestrial insects, both larval and adult, there is also a significant portion that is made up of seeds and other small sized vegetation matter. As a result, focus should be put on making sure meals are small enough, and nutritionally broad in spectrum. Here we feed them small blood and black worms, finely chopped meaty foods and spirulina. They do learn to take both small pellets and flakes relatively quickly, which helps in making sure they get appropriately sized protein and enough vegetable matter. Resist the temptation to give them large bites, as they don't seem to process these foods well. We've found that when well fed, Satanoperca daemon is a robust fish.

Perhaps in part, this preferred small bite size helps protect the smaller fish in their displays. While they will consume very small fish, they don't seem interested in eating most fish other than the smallest tetras. Regardless of the reason, Satanoperca daemon is a peaceful fish that can be kept with a variety of fish as long as the other fish aren't overly aggressive. The Eartheaters will defend nests if they pair and breed, and this would change the nature of the display you have planned.

Satanoperca daemon is one of the most interesting freshwater fish you can keep, and is stunning to look at. They offer advanced hobbyists a challenge in attempting to breed them in captivity. If you have a suitable display, and want an incredibly beautiful and interesting group of fish to keep, a group of sustainably harvested Threespot Eartheater from Aquatropic should be on your radar. Have your Local Fish Store contact us to get you yours today!