Gymnogeophagus Labiatus

[Liam50]

i stumbled across this fantastic cichlid, and after a bit of research it sounds like they are pretty hard to find and pretty expensive can any one back this up?

 

[Wills]

Gymnogeophagus are a fantastic family of fish but they have one major draw back that makes them quite unsuitable for a community tank. They need a cooling period of about 3-4 months a year, this isnt just for breeding its for their health, I looked into these pretty in depth for my tank as they are basically a small geophagus which would mean people with 3-4ft tanks would be able to have them which is something I wanted but when I found out about the cooling I just couldnt have the tank set up properly to keep them.

The way I have seen people keeping them is having them in a show tank at normal tropical temperatures for 9 months of the year but then put them in their own tank for three months and let the temperature match the requirements I cant remember which way round it is but there are northern and southern species and one needs it lower than the other. The temp tank is, depending on species and numbers a long 20g tank.

As with all geos sand substrate is a must.

Have to admit not seen much of these in the shops of any species only seen G.Meridionalis recently. You might have to hunt around for them on specialist forums - I believe there is a geophagus forum somewhere that is based in the UK but cant remember the site name, might be able to find a private breeder.

Just a story to back up the need for cooling period - the store I saw the G.Meridonalis in the owner is a fantastic fish keeper and he had had these in his collection once and his were one of his prize fish for 18 months until one day they all started to die off over the course of a week. I found a lot of other reports of similar things happening to others as well, it really does seem that they change from tropical to coldwater fish very quickly and then just as quick back.

If you can do the cooling period I would go for it, tough to keep but very very amazing fish.

Wills

 

[Liam50]

thanks! would not be suitable for my cichlid tank. thanks tho interesting read.

 

[england]

A stunning cichlid from Uruguay, ive never seen these around and are ment to be very dificult to locate, Very informative write up there will i have read up on these but thats as far as ive ever got

 

[Wills]

Cool glad I could help It really is a shame the family has such specialist needs otherwise undoubtedly they would be a very popular family of fish.

 

[Sporkuser]

A friend of my girlfriend and I just got back from a fish collecting trip in Uruguay and brought us back a pair of these. They are a fantastic pair. The female is showing signs that she is ready to breed. We are excited to see what happens. They really are pretty fish and can't wait to see what happens with them. We also have 8 Gymnogeophagus Balzani that are growing out to move to a 125. Might need to put them all together to see what happens.

 

[Wills]

Oh wow would love to see photos of these!! How are you going to deal with the cool period? Are they in a tank by them selves or do they have tank mates? Did your friend mention which other fish were native to their lake? Just wondering what you could put in a biotope with them.

 

[Sporkuser]

He did not collect them in a lake. He collected them in a small stream. There was massive flooding before he got there so the fish were not where they would normally be. He said that it was the most rain that they had gotten in 50 years. The only other tank mate that is in there at this time is a 2 inch Ancistrus. The nice thing about the cool period is that we can just move them to a 55 that my GF has in her garage in the fall or early winter to reduce their temp. The other thing that we have thought about is just removing the heaters in the tanks for a period of time and setting up a small chiller. Labiatus and Balzanii do not really need heaters in their tanks due to the temps they can handle. When they get into the 125 I will take pictures but it is going to be a few months as we have to build a stand for the tank and get it cycled. Its going to take a while to cycle the tank. I will keep you posted. We have 135 fish that we have to move around to larger tanks and shut down other as the power bill is getting a little high in the winter running the heaters. This project starts this weekend.

We also have some Geophagus Altamira that we are trying to relocate to other homes within our club as they are dumb as dirt and cant compete for food in the tank that they are in. Lovely fish, just slow and dumb. Hell even the Discus beat them to the food.

 

[Wills]

Wow you sound like a proper hardcore fish keeper would love to see your tanks. Where abouts are you from you mentioned a club and I would love to get to a decent one if its near me all the ones within a decent drive just banter on about guppies and platies which arent really my thing