I saw three medium Geophagus Brazilensis today and wanted to get them. I allready would have if I had money lol. What can you guys tell me about them? They acted peaceful with one another at the LFS and were beautifully coloured up. Should I do back and get them?
Brazilensis
- Thread starter Eric A
- Start date
Quite aggressive for what is currently described as an Eartheater, though will almost certainly be reclassified to another Genus (probably its own) in an upcoming revision.
Large and quite boisterous, I personally wouldn't keep them with other Eartheaters. Do well with larger semi-aggressive South and Central Americans such as Oscars, Severum, possibly even Vieja/Paratheraps species and many of the fish currently un-classified as exCichlasoma (Bocourti, Pearsei, etc.).
They get big, around the 12" mark, and males will generally develop prominent nuchal humps.
Large and quite boisterous, I personally wouldn't keep them with other Eartheaters. Do well with larger semi-aggressive South and Central Americans such as Oscars, Severum, possibly even Vieja/Paratheraps species and many of the fish currently un-classified as exCichlasoma (Bocourti, Pearsei, etc.).
They get big, around the 12" mark, and males will generally develop prominent nuchal humps.
Eric A;3006152; said:
The trust from the "cichla kings" doesn't equate to anything, you need to decide what you want to do, and make sure that when you do you can accommodate that.
In the last fortnight the tanks gone from being a South American 'biotope' with Angelfish, to Pikes, back to Angels with Eartheaters, then to a Cichlid mix, now to Cichla. Next week you might want Stingrays, and then a tank full of Walrus.
As already stated in both threads, a 6x2 footprint isn't big enough a couple of Cichla, for any more than a couple of years. These fish are very active open water water predators and require much more tank space than your regular large Central American Guapotes and Cichlids. They also require plenty of filtration. In a couple of years these fish would do nicely in an 8x2.5', 8x3' or larger setup, which of course would require more filtration and a lot more floorspace, which leads me onto my point.
From the way you present yourself on the forums, although pretending to know a lot more than you actually do, you seem like a smart enough kid that you'll be completing high school and probably attending a tertiary establishment, which means that you won't be working full time, and unless your parents can fork out the floorspace and the cost of a huge tank upgrade, you're going to be cramping up these beautiful active fish - or selling them - at some stage down the track.
You've made it clear to me that you're not really sure what you want to keep, and you're at the point now where you can either choose a selection of fish that can live happily in that sized tank for life, or choose the P. Bass, be happy for 6 months, realise that your tank isn't as big as you thought it was, and have it in the back of your mind that you need an upgrade by this point in time, or you need to sell the fish and start over.
I made that mistake, but I was fortunate enough at the time to be in a financial situation to get myself out of it.