Geo. "Red Head Tapajos" Behavior

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Big Jay

Big Jay

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Jul 3, 2008
412
39
61
Northeast
So I'm approaching the 8 month mark (if I recall correctly) on my 5 geo redheads. I purchased them last early summer as 1-1.5" juveniles from Imperial Tropicals. They've been doing great in their 55 gallon home. My plan is to finally settle on a pair to continually breed and see if I can sell the rest to an interested hobbyist. I've kept fish for the last 16 years but have never really had success breeding.

Anyway, as a group of 5 they've been doing spectacular. Couple things I'm noticing and maybe people can clarify:

- First off, they play VERY nice together when the lights are on. Quite awesome considering cichlids can be real nasty. Now when the lights go off, I notice some territorial behavior from (what I believe to be) the two males. Any input on this? Why when the lights are off and not on?

- Second, I noticed two of them are starting to REALLY color up. The two largest are forming really nice orange heads. They're only around the 3", maybe 3.5" mark. Adding the nighttime aggression and this fact together, could this be the beginning of "breeding activity?" I don't want to believe it's the case because they seem rather small.

- Lastly, in terms of breeding these, when should I expect to have to start looking for eggs and breeding?

Thanks in advance guys.
 
I have similar experience with other cichlids, not Geos. When I turned on the light, one fish will peck on another fish. When I turned off the light, the reverse pecking order happened instantly. I have no explanation on why I can turn on and off the pecking order of fish electrically.
 
I went down from 12 to 6 rh taps during my first stock thinning. So my numbers are close and similar. On top of that, I purchased mine from gunpowderaquatics around the end of January last year so I've had them for about 11 months.

Like you, I have several that have colored up nicely, presumably male, and 1 of them flares constantly with some gold/yellow cheeks with what I'm assuming to be a female, over a flat rock. His dancing is the highest form of aggression I have seen from them, though this is in a 125, with 7 heckelii and 2 blue acara right now. Plenty of places for fish to get out of line of sight of any aggressors. In fact I posted a video recently in my update thread showing some of this behaviour. When I turned the blue leds on in the evening hours before lights out they seem to settle down and everyone finds their 'bed'. Final lights out a few hours later and they seem to continue doing their thing.

So that's been pretty much it, in my experience.
 
Mine were over a year old before they started spawning. They may spawn earlier but I try to avoid that with cichlids because the females don't seem to grow as well once they start spawning. The orange heads are kind of slow growing anyway. Mine range from 2.5 - 4.5". I believe the smallest is stunted because she's been the same since the day I got her, but the rest have put on maybe 1 - 2.5" in a year.
 
If you got them at 1-1.5 inches 8 months ago they're probably close to a year old now, give or take, meaning they could start spawning anytime-- yours are a bit small (for their likely age) but not necessarily too small to spawn soon. Coloring up is a good sign, but will depend on tank, individuals, how they pair up, whether there's a spot to their liking (defendable, etc.), other fish in the tank that might eat the eggs, and similar factors.

IME they like a somewhat flat surface, slate rock or something similar they can clean easily, to lay eggs. Not necessarily a big deal if it's vertical or horizontal, though preference may vary with different pairs. They'll lay the eggs and it can be a few hours to a day, day and a half, or sometime on the second day that they'll take them up ime. Females, males, or both may hold eggs/wigglers/fry or they may pass them off between them. If the tank is not to their liking, such as not a good spot to spawn or defend eggs/wigglers, tank too crowded for their liking, etc. you may see courting behavior but not see an actual spawn or eggs will disappear quickly.

A pair may have some spats as part of the process of becoming a good pair and even then may be tight and cooperative at times and not so much other times. Depends on various factors, for example other distractions, such as too many eligible males/females competing for attention, or on the other hand a few other fish in the tank can give them reason to cooperate to protect a spawning site, etc. So there's not necessarily a simple, straightforward formula that 100% works or 100% doesn't work. But I prefer to have some driftwood and/or plants and/or rocks in the tank to create some structure in the tank, spots to defend, etc.

Don't know what it is, I've raised multiple spawns to a year or older, but always seem to be a few that stay small, few males, especially, but can also include one or two females, that outgrow the others and color earlier, etc. My explanation would be if your group is small and you happen to get individuals programmed to grow slower they can seem to grow slow, but on average in a large enough sample size not all of them are slow growers... or at least that's my experience.
 
Wait so at 3.5" - 4" they are around 1 year old?

I picked up 4 of them a few weeks ago that are wild caught, Largest male is about 4" and has very nice color, another 2 are 3.5" ( I think either 2 females or 1 male 1 female) and I have a smaller 2.5" one I havent sexed.

I was under the impression they were a lot younger, I had no idea it took these fish 8 months or more to grow to this size.
 
Rafini said:
Wait so at 3.5" - 4" they are around 1 year old?

I picked up 4 of them a few weeks ago that are wild caught, Largest male is about 4" and has very nice color, another 2 are 3.5" ( I think either 2 females or 1 male 1 female) and I have a smaller 2.5" one I havent sexed.

I was under the impression they were a lot younger, I had no idea it took these fish 8 months or more to grow to this size.
Click to expand...
Not necessarily, but adding the 8 months the OP says he's had them after they were already 1-1.5 inches would put them close ime. For me they're slow getting to 1-2 inches, then growth picks up the next 6 months or so, then slows down again. I have no idea about growth rate in the wild for OH tapajos, so I wouldn't guess on yours, although some fish grow slower in the wild than in a tank.

Like I said, my experience raising OH tapajos is some grow faster than others out of the same spawn. Some out of a group grow slowly and stay smallish for quite a while. But generally some get between 4-5 inches in a year and put on another inch, inch and a half, two inches over the next year to 18 months or so. Mature (full grown) adult males can vary ime, from 6 inches to 7, 7.5 or a bit more (total length). Not that I'm an expert on these particular fish (though I have years of overall cichlid breeding), just my experience with them after keeping them a few years and growing out a few spawns.
 
Wow, thanks for all the info. I looked again yesterday and the largest male (presumably) is about 3.5". I'd say if I had to recall specifically I acquired them last June. My feeding schedule is twice daily, small amounts. I also bumped my water changes up to 40% bi-weekly and turned the heat up a little to 80 degrees. Once I did this, I noticed the males started really coloring. Before that it was 40% once a month and the temp was 78. I run about 1000gph filtration on the tank with a wet/dry and canister. Currently I have some flat slate rocks and shale in there on the one side. Once again, today I noticed them "posting" up in different sections of the tank with the lights off. All picked their little spots and seemed to defend them. Like I said though, when the lights come on, everyone plays nicely.

Really hope this continues to go well and I manage to get a spawn. It would be my first in 16 years of fish keeping!
 
Interestingly enough, I found out a few weeks ago that my largest and most colorful in the group was a female. So you may be seeing a female coloring up. They usually come into spawning condition earlier than the males, at least from a fertility standpoint. I had no idea until I saw the breeding tubes on the fish. But then again, I think my group of 4 is all females.

You'll know the orangeheads are spawning when they start doing the circle dance. The pair will swim in a rapid, tight circle around each other. It looks like they're chasing each others' tails. This happens in short bursts during courting and then gets more frequent and frantic as they get closer to actually spawning. A day or two before, the female (usually) will start cleaning off a spawning site. In my case she chose a flowerpot because I didn't have any flat stones. She spent three days digging and spitting sand out of the pot until it was completely clean.

Keep in mind that orangeheads usually max out around 6". Some people have gotten "jumbo" wild males at 7 - 8" but those could have been older, dominant fish. It's rare to see them that large in aquariums. So the perceived slow growth may just be all relative to their adult size. I've found it usually takes 18 - 24 months for SA cichlids to reach their overall max size, so orangeheads making it to approx. 3 - 4" in a year would be about right. The same was true of my Geophagus parnaibae, which are also small compared to the rest of the geo species.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom