What Is A 'geophagus'

[Red Betta]

in south africa there is a cichlid marketed as geophagus and i was trying to find out some information about it but if you type geophagus into google you just get all of these scientific names starting with geophagus, so what is a geophagus's scientific name and what actually are they? (semi aggressive , and they get about 8-11 centimeters )

 

[ZoddyZod]

geophagus is a genus of fish, not a single species, so it could be any number of specific fish.

have a look here to get an idea....

http/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geophagus

 

[Wills]

Geophagus is a family of fish so the fish you have seen will be a species of Geophagus. There are differences between all the species so we would need to know more about the one you have seen.

The main thing is that they get bigger than you say with most species getting upto about a foot but usually at least 7/8 inches. And they do best in groups.

Wills

 

[Red Betta]

what ?? that big are u sure?? mine is a young female she's a bit smaller than a fully grown blue ram at the moment i will be moving her to a bigger tank but at the moment she is in a 24 liter tank with a ph of 6.8 and it is extremely well planted

 

[Red Betta]

http/t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSgT2pLbiv79ZVrHlbXkspdAorNsytQ5EMdmaVt6O4ezUZhMEUR5khc6zlYVg looks like it

only it has bands not that spot thing

 

[StandbySetting]

Geophagus is latin for earth eater.

 

[Wills]

There are a lot of species if it looks like that that it could be can you take a picture? The bands are whats called stress bars and youngsters often show bars, stress bars show for lots of reasons however a 24 liter tank is way to small for it - they take a long time to grow to adult sizes and are stunted very easily if your not careful they are also highly susceptible to hole in the head and hole in the lateral line diseases so make sure you have a big tank as a back up.

"That spot thing" is its lateral line spot and is what it should be showing.

Wills

 

[Red Betta]

is 50L big enough?

 

[StandbySetting]

Only for a single Ram IMO.

 

[Wills]

is 50L big enough?

They are fish that grow to on average 8 inches but I will guess yours will be Geophagus Altifrons which gets to about 12 inches and they need to be kept in groups of 4 or more.... 50 liters is no where near big enough.

Wills

 

[Red Betta]

and just BTW i know what stress bars are

 

[balajake]

im hoping to upgrade to a 6ft tank this year and want to get some red headed geophagus's. stunning fish