I have had a G. "tapajos" male spawn with a G. Winemilleri female. No idea if they ever viable or not as I did not see any fry and the eggs were gone in a day or two. It was each of the fishes first time to spawn and I did have another four other orangeheads in the tank with three of them being female that had spawned before but I guess he was not interested in them. There was just one other winemilleri and I still do not know the sex of it. I can't say I was really disappointed as to the results as I had no intention of raising any hybrids.
Geophagus hybridizing? I'd never seen it before... until now.
- Thread starter ryansmith83
- Start date
These are the strangest geo fry I have ever raised. They've been free-swimming for about four days and they refuse to leave the surface of the tank. They bob around in the current of the sponge filter either completely upside down or hanging vertically with their head at the surface. At first when I saw this I thought they were dying, but if I scare them they all swim to the bottom and go horizontal like typical cichlid fry. But as soon as I walk away it's back to the surface, frantically bobbing and darting around in the current.
I started feeding them newly hatched BBS the day they went free swimming and for two days they refused to eat it. They would dart after it, bite it, and then immediately spit it out. They appear to be eating now but the odd surface-hanging behavior is bugging me. I had to put them back in a net breeder because when I released them into the 20 gallon tank they were just drifting wildly all over the surface in the current. I was afraid they'd exhaust themselves and die.
Has anyone ever had geo fry that were taken away from their parents act this way? I have raised tons of G. parnaibae fry that I've stripped from their parents and none of them acted this way, but this is my first time raising orange heads. I was thinking maybe it had something to do with the fact that most orange head pairs would still be mouthbrooding them for several hours a day at this age. Maybe they don't know what to do?
I started feeding them newly hatched BBS the day they went free swimming and for two days they refused to eat it. They would dart after it, bite it, and then immediately spit it out. They appear to be eating now but the odd surface-hanging behavior is bugging me. I had to put them back in a net breeder because when I released them into the 20 gallon tank they were just drifting wildly all over the surface in the current. I was afraid they'd exhaust themselves and die.
Has anyone ever had geo fry that were taken away from their parents act this way? I have raised tons of G. parnaibae fry that I've stripped from their parents and none of them acted this way, but this is my first time raising orange heads. I was thinking maybe it had something to do with the fact that most orange head pairs would still be mouthbrooding them for several hours a day at this age. Maybe they don't know what to do?
Weird. My orange head fry never acted anything like that, even if I strip them after a few days of free swimming. Mine tend to stay near the bottom for a while until after a while they've grown a bit, become stronger swimmers, started looking for food higher in the water column when I feed, etc. Plus the tanks mine go in have power filters (with a sponge over the intake) or a canister, so there's always a fair amount of filter outlet current.
I just stocked my geophagus tank with x4 F0 Tapajós, x5 Altifrons type (unsure of species, sold as "surinamensis") and x3 heckelii
I was going to make a thread and ask if Interbreeding was an option, all the information I could find on Geos warns against housing similar species because of the chance of crossbreeding, some googling led me to literally find no evidence of crosses, All I found was a 4 year old thread here of arguments. I was going to ask on here and bam I just saw this haha
Any chance you can take another video of the fry so we can observe the strange behaviour? Young chocolate cichlids tend to hang vertically as a general behaviour, it may be possible that other species of cichlid fry have the same mechanism. You could try putting an air stone into the aquarium as they may be hanging at the top because the oxygen level is lower than they would like. But hey youre an experienced breeder and raiser of Geophagus so I know you are more than capable of knowing their environment is perfect.
I can`t wait to see more of this as they grow
I was going to make a thread and ask if Interbreeding was an option, all the information I could find on Geos warns against housing similar species because of the chance of crossbreeding, some googling led me to literally find no evidence of crosses, All I found was a 4 year old thread here of arguments. I was going to ask on here and bam I just saw this haha
Any chance you can take another video of the fry so we can observe the strange behaviour? Young chocolate cichlids tend to hang vertically as a general behaviour, it may be possible that other species of cichlid fry have the same mechanism. You could try putting an air stone into the aquarium as they may be hanging at the top because the oxygen level is lower than they would like. But hey youre an experienced breeder and raiser of Geophagus so I know you are more than capable of knowing their environment is perfect.
I can`t wait to see more of this as they grow
I do plan to make another video soon. I'll try to get one tonight at their next feeding. Not sure how well the phone will focus on them now that they move a lot, but we'll see.
I honestly never thought interbreeding would be an issue. There are even old threads where I tell people I'm pretty sure it won't happen, because up until now I have always kept geos in mixed-species tanks and this is a first. But that's why I'm here in this hobby -- to be proven wrong.
I honestly never thought interbreeding would be an issue. There are even old threads where I tell people I'm pretty sure it won't happen, because up until now I have always kept geos in mixed-species tanks and this is a first. But that's why I'm here in this hobby -- to be proven wrong.
I took an underwater video inside the net breeder but it's really out of focus. The camera is just too close to the fry. Here is a video from outside the tank. You can see through the net breeder that most of them swim with their heads pointed upward and their bellies pressed against the side of the net breeder. They also constantly dart for the surface. I thought maybe they were going after brine that were near the surface, but I looked and don't see any brine there. I also thought it was the aquarium light attracting them, but I left it off all day and just use ambient room lighting and they still did this.
As you can see, they're developing normally. Full bellies and the fry are taking shape. I don't think they're unhealthy, just... odd.
[video=youtube_share;HAREhVq6o_Q]http://youtu.be/HAREhVq6o_Q[/video]
As you can see, they're developing normally. Full bellies and the fry are taking shape. I don't think they're unhealthy, just... odd.
[video=youtube_share;HAREhVq6o_Q]http://youtu.be/HAREhVq6o_Q[/video]
Today marks two weeks free-swimming. They look like little Geophagus now, and the finally learned to swim like geos, too. The pictures and video wash it out, but they have little cream colored stripes. I have no idea what to expect in terms of body shape or coloration.
[video=youtube;TNk34PGRbQM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNk34PGRbQM[/video]
[video=youtube;TNk34PGRbQM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNk34PGRbQM[/video]
Ryan, this is an awesome story! Thanks for sharing this with us. Keep this thread going, would love to see how this turns out. Awesome husbandry too, btw!
It's been exactly six weeks since the pair spawned and I now have little miniature Geophagus juvies, complete with midlateral spots. There's not much color to speak of yet but they do have that shiny blue-purple iridescence that's common to little geos. Everyone is eating micropellets and freeze-dried blackworms exclusively. I'll try to make video later but here are some pictures:
