Geo. Red Head Tapajos - When do they start to color up? (image heavy)

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Aqualoon

Aqualoon

Piranha
MFK Member
Jul 8, 2009
1,787
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81
Minnesota
Got 9 when they were .5-1.0" and while I can see some faint coloration in the head, the fins still aren't showing much. I looked at this thread here (link) and my group isn't that much smaller yet there is quite the difference in coloration.

Tank is the one is my sig, the only fish that aren't in the tank yet are the Saums - waiting for the Geos to grow to a decent size before adding 2" Saums.

Disclaimer: Pictures taken below were taken with my phone so the quality isn't the greatest. Also the blue glare in the background is my PC monitor (watching Shark Week on Netflix). I took so many pictures so people could get a good idea of the over all group and lack of color.

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Thanks all for the replies, I think I'm going to up the water changes to every other day and start feeding smaller but throughout the day and see if that helps with a growth spurt.
 
IMO it's little to do with physical size and more to do with age. Sizes range with tank size, amount of food, water quality, and stress. I can sell 20 fry from the same batch to four different people and they will all see growth rates vary based on their care of the fish. Don't fret too much if someone says your fish should color up at 3" and you don't see much color yet -- 3" is an approximation, assuming that all 3" fish are roughly the same age, but it could happen later if your fish grew faster.

A few years ago I bought a group of tiny orange head fry at 1" or so, and found out that they were actually several months old. They should have been much larger. As a result, the fish ended up stunted, so I had fully-colored mature adults at 3". The fin trailers also grew out at this size and then the fish never got any larger. So it varies.
 
ryansmith83 said:
IMO it's little to do with physical size and more to do with age. Sizes range with tank size, amount of food, water quality, and stress. I can sell 20 fry from the same batch to four different people and they will all see growth rates vary based on their care of the fish. Don't fret too much if someone says your fish should color up at 3" and you don't see much color yet -- 3" is an approximation, assuming that all 3" fish are roughly the same age, but it could happen later if your fish grew faster.

A few years ago I bought a group of tiny orange head fry at 1" or so, and found out that they were actually several months old. They should have been much larger. As a result, the fish ended up stunted, so I had fully-colored mature adults at 3". The fin trailers also grew out at this size and then the fish never got any larger. So it varies.
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I agree with you Ryan. One of my buddy recently purchased some 1.5"ers and they started breeding when they were around 2.5" I never seen anything like it lol. But we then found out that they were a year old or so. His are maxed out at 2.5", its a shame they were stunted. so everyone be aware of vendors stock lists and if you see small juvis 1.5" or so and they still have them 6 or 7 months down the road and they are around the same size, then they will be stunted.
 
Agreed with above...age is the more important factor. As I usually only deal in wilds they start coloring up after 3" but there's no stunting in the wild ;)
 
Hmm, interesting.

I did buy from an online vendor and they came in right around the 1" mark (some smaller) in September and right now they vary in size but the biggest is right around 2-2.5". I know Geos are slow growers, but never housing them before I don't have anything to compare them to. Does 1-1.5" in two months sound like normal growth?
 
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