Eartheaters/Geophagus For A Roma 240

[Wills]

Hi there I am desparatly looking for an eartheater for my new 240 I was looking for Geophagus Pindare but it is proving very hard and I am having to look to importers and its starting to sound expensive..... So anyone else got any ideas of what I could do? My plan was to have 3 of the G.Pindare which get to about 6 inches. But Im not sure what alternatives I have? I like the redheads but have seen people advising away from keeping these in anything less than a 75g? Could I get away with a larger species as a duo? Say G.Surimensis? or similar.. The other cichlids in the tank are a pair of HRP and an A.Diadema which will be joining the new tank later on (he is doing much better now )

So yeah any ideas? Or alternative suggestions for cichlids?

Wills

 

[jb12288]

Why not jurupari, leucosticta, steindachneri, daemon, pelegrini, abalios, altifrons. Or you could do gymnos.

 

[dave_oddballs]

g.surinamensis get far too big for a 240 litre roma, plus they are only happy in groups, so ultimately a very large aquarium would be needed. i used to keep a small grop of brasiliensis in my roma 240 but eventually they would have needed a much larger aquarium. most geophagus species will outgrow your tank so maybe looking outside of the species to something saller would be more suitable. maybe one of the mikrogeophagus species??

 

[Wills]

Thanks guys! I was actually thinking of the smaller ones similar to G.Pindare so like the tapajos? I looked at the Gymno's but I cant give them the cool period as I dont have room and the other fish cant handle it. With the Mikrogeophagus, are they not just rams? Not sure rams could handle HRPs?

Thanks Wills

 

[minxfishy]

I personally see no problem with tapajos, max out around 8" (females 6"), two of them, also to my knowledge, Surinamensis reach around the same size, as I said in a previous post, I kept two Suri in a 240, one being more dominant than the other, I dont see a problem with keeping two 8" fish in a 63g tank.

Jurupari do need to be in groups and if you go for these species be aware of their preferred water conditions, they are more sensitive than other Geo species.

 

[Wills]

Thanks minxy I think I might keep an eye out for the tapajos now. As I always dream of them for the big future tank but wasnt sure if they would work this tank. I'll give it a go though..

Thanks Wills

 

[Wills]

Well bad news and good new odd dave sent me a PM about some Pindare on fishfinder but they are a bit out my price range (nearly double what I was expecting ) So after a bit of reading I am fairly confident that red heads will work in my 60g with a view to a 6 foot tank in the future. These are generaly a lot more easy to find and so should have a lower price tag ! Think theres a chap in my area selling 2 inch juvis at the moment as well so might get 5 to start with and see how they grow, would rather have females to males what do you think? So the full cichlid list to start would be

2 HRP
1 A.Diadema
5 Red heads - then thin them down to 3 to get the best pick of females as they grow.

What do you think?

Wills

 

[minxfishy]

LMAO @ odd Dave

Sounds good to me, the males are more colourful when adult though, but the females are still nice