Geophagus parnaibae breeding?

[ryansmith83]

Maybe someone who has worked with this fish can give me some answers...

Last summer I bought four of these from Jeff Rapps and they came in pretty tiny, 1" at the most. They've been very slow-growing, only about 3 - 4" now. I have them in my 150 gallon with some severums, Krobia, and keyholes. I lost one mysteriously around Thanksgiving and the other three are fairly shy. They eat well and constantly chase and harass each other (probably because there are only three ) but hide when I'm in front of the tank.

Today at feeding time I noticed that one of the fish already had a mouthful of something before I dropped in any pellets. When I dumped the food in, he swam over and acted like he wanted to eat, but he never actually picked anything up. He's been this way all day. He swims around with the other two and otherwise looks and acts normally, but with a bulging throat. He's constantly chewing.

Is this fish holding? If so, isn't it a bit small to be spawning? I know that the G. parnaibae stay on the small side, but sexual maturity at 3 - 4"?

Can anyone tell me if they hold the eggs, or do they wait until the eggs hatch and just pick up fry? Also, is it possible that he's holding something else? It seems that he'd spit out anything other than fry when food was offered.

I'm only calling it a "he" because it's one of the bigger and more aggressive of the three. At this point I honestly don't know which are male or female. They all three look identical.

 

[ryansmith83]

For comparison, here are a few pictures.

Fish in question:

"Normal" tankmate:

Apologies for the crap pictures... there's no light on this tank so I have to use flash.

 

[darth pike]

I haven't heard/read anything about someone breeding them, but I thought Rapps were F1's ... not sure though, it was a while ago.

They would deffinately be mature at that size, it's listed as their max size in the wild in several places, though like most fish it gets larger in the aquarium. I'll let those that bred the mouthbrooding Geo species speak up as to weither or not it's holding. It would appear to be to me, but I haven't kept the mouth brooders (outside of Red Humps).

 

[ryansmith83]

They were F1s from Rapps; they came from Europe, I believe. I probably got them in May 2009, and I would assume they were 2 - 3 months old when I got them... so they're probably just at a year old or so.

 

[peathenster]

Definitely looks like he's holding - congrats!

I'd strip him, but wet your hands first and be gentle.

 

[ryansmith83]

Update: They're definitely holding. I fed them today and found fry scurrying all over the sand bottom. The problem is that the tank is a 150g with lots of driftwood and hiding places, and I cannot for the life of me catch the parents. I'm afraid of stressing them out too much and I don't want to manually strip the fry. I have no idea how else to get them. I think once the male releases them, they'll end up being quick food for the sevs and psittacus.

I was kind of amazed at how developed the fry were. They had orange bellies like they'd been eating and they were scooting around really fast. Do Geo fry have large yolk sacs or is it possible they were eating something in the tank? Even though the belly was round, it didn't affect their swimming at all (unlike sevs and whatnot, whose fry absorb the yolk sac before they go free-swimming).

 

[peathenster]

Update: They're definitely holding. I fed them today and found fry scurrying all over the sand bottom. The problem is that the tank is a 150g with lots of driftwood and hiding places, and I cannot for the life of me catch the parents. I'm afraid of stressing them out too much and I don't want to manually strip the fry. I have no idea how else to get them. I think once the male releases them, they'll end up being quick food for the sevs and psittacus.

I was kind of amazed at how developed the fry were. They had orange bellies like they'd been eating and they were scooting around really fast. Do Geo fry have large yolk sacs or is it possible they were eating something in the tank? Even though the belly was round, it didn't affect their swimming at all (unlike sevs and whatnot, whose fry absorb the yolk sac before they go free-swimming).

congrats Ryan!!

I usually get them when they are sleeping. Turn off the lights for half an hour at night and sneak up on them with a flash light. They are sitting ducks and you can almost scoop them up with bare hands.

 

[ryansmith83]

It's been over a year but I decided to bump this thread instead of starting a new one.

After two years, I finally got fry from my F1 G. parnaibae. It took a long time for all of us to get out acts together and do it the right way.

I read an article about these guys on cichlidae.com and it appears to be wrong, based on my observations with this fish. The article states:

Breeding: Geophagus parnaibae is a larvophile primitive mouthbrooder and practices biparental custodial care of the eggs and the fry (Stawikowski & Werner, 2004). Like several of its congeners this species starts reproduction like as a substratum spawner, but switches over to mouthbrooding as soon as the larvae hatch (Staeck & Schindler, 2006).

In all the times my fish have spawned, the eggs are picked up as soon as they're laid. They spawn at night and the male has a mouthful the next day. Also, he never shares this responsibility with the female while he's holding. He has spawned with both females (I have a trio) a week apart, but it's always the male who holds. The females go about their business and ignore him. Even when I've let him carry the wrigglers without stripping him, he never hands them over to the female.

Is this an unusual case, or do you think the article is incorrect?