Me and a couple other SOCAL MFKers got some of these little guys this week. Can anyone tell me anything on how fast or slow they grow??? They are 1-1.25'' right now and eating and as active as any fish Ive ever had....
Tapajos ''orangehead'' growth rates???
- Thread starter robmcd
- Start date
SWEET ROB, Finally got some!!! Hope your very patient, they are the slowest growing of all the Geophagus. Almost two years and they will look like the one in my avatar. It sucks but well worth it once they get their adult coloration.
I would suggest feeding Hikari "Cichlid Gold" on a regular basis. I feed it to my babies and adults. The Hikari really helps bring out the color in the adults and I have notice a good consistent growth rate with my baby red heads.
I'm glad you finally got some!!!
Jamie
I would suggest feeding Hikari "Cichlid Gold" on a regular basis. I feed it to my babies and adults. The Hikari really helps bring out the color in the adults and I have notice a good consistent growth rate with my baby red heads.
I'm glad you finally got some!!!
Jamie
^^ agreed with above.
they are great though once full size so it's worth the wait. I regret selling off my group.
they are great though once full size so it's worth the wait. I regret selling off my group.
Right on guys, thanks for the replies. They have been eating crushed flakes and frozen bloodworms. I tried the cichlid gold like you said Jaimie. I crushed it up and they went ape on it. The way that these guys eat its hard to believe that they grow so slow. Oh well. They are in my GFs planted discus tank for now. There is alot of vegetation and algea to forage on as well as tons of cherry red shrimp fry for them to gorge on.
I have 10 of them I got them 5 months ago at 2.5 in now they are 5 to 6 in. I feed them new Life Spectrum thats to bad about the slow growth others are having.This is my mated pair
i got mine at 1" - 1.25" and ive had em a year in a 90 gallon and theyre about 5 inches.. they grew slow, and i fed alot... 90G tank.
Check protein content on the foods you feed Rob.
Mine have shown some good growth already, keep nitrates under 20 ppm ect.
I'm feeding mine the New Life Spectrum Growth formula until I can find somthing with higher than a 58% protein content or whatever it's at.
They also like to snag the algae waefers from my cory cats and run off with em'.
From what I'm told, it takes 3 years for them to reach full adult size and for males to really develope their streamers, at around 1.5-2 years you'll start to see breeding activity ect.
I just power feed the crap out of my fish 5 days of the week, finish it off with a good helping of live blood worm to flush their guts out and then starve them for 2 days to make sure they don't develope bloat/dropsy from the overfeeding.
If you've got the time to do water changes and keep the nitrates low it does a lot for growth rates - I used to get my discus fry from wrigglers to 4" or so in just under 3 months using this method - though I fed a home made beef heart mix.
Mine have shown some good growth already, keep nitrates under 20 ppm ect.
I'm feeding mine the New Life Spectrum Growth formula until I can find somthing with higher than a 58% protein content or whatever it's at.
They also like to snag the algae waefers from my cory cats and run off with em'.
From what I'm told, it takes 3 years for them to reach full adult size and for males to really develope their streamers, at around 1.5-2 years you'll start to see breeding activity ect.
I just power feed the crap out of my fish 5 days of the week, finish it off with a good helping of live blood worm to flush their guts out and then starve them for 2 days to make sure they don't develope bloat/dropsy from the overfeeding.
If you've got the time to do water changes and keep the nitrates low it does a lot for growth rates - I used to get my discus fry from wrigglers to 4" or so in just under 3 months using this method - though I fed a home made beef heart mix.