Geophagus Info

[jojobda]

whats up people? 1st time poster to the site. i currently have a 70 gallon corner bow-front with some Africans in it. simply put, they are too aggressive for me and despite all the caves etc, i cant handle splashing as soon as the lights go out. so im in the process of re-homing them.

i have grown interested in the earth eater family and would like to go back to American cichlids. i would like to keep about 3 of them, 2 females and a male if possible. could anyone recommend a particular species that would fit comfortably in there? i know some get up to the size of 10 in+. and i would like something smaller, 6in range.

any advise that could point me in the right direction would be great.

thx

 

[hamfist]

Geo.steindachneri would fit the bill nicely.

They are a pretty small species, and are fairly easy to sex even when quite small, and you would want to avoid 2 males living together in a tank that sized. One male and two females would be perfect.

Some people might suggest Geo. sp "tapajos" orange heads. However, I'd say you would ideally need at least 5 of them to spread the inevitable aggression and bickering that you get with surinamensis complex geos. Might work as a 3, but more chance of one individual getting shut out and badly bullied. The tank would really be a bit small for more than 3 though.

 

[Liam50]

geophagus proximus are pretty nice gorw not too large and look great as adults.

 

[kaivalagi]

In a tank that size maybe going for as small a eartheater species as possible in higher numbers would make better sense....so rather than geophagus have you looked into biotodoma? This species used to be within geophagus but got moved out....examples are Cupid Cichlids or maybe Orinoco Eartheaters if you can find them. They can look stunning and you could up the numbers with those to spread out aggression very easily.....just a question of if you can find any really

Also I agree with the numbers required for Tapajos, I have 4 + 1 dicrozoster which grew up with them all thinking it was one of them and if there were one less there would be too many nasty squables I'm sure....they are gorgeous fish though, the finnage is sublime