Gymnogeophagus Question

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Aqualoon

Aqualoon

Piranha
MFK Member
Jul 8, 2009
1,787
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Minnesota
I have a spare 55g sitting around with sand and an AC110 and I figured might as well put it to some use!

I was looking at a species only tank of Gymnogeophagus, but wasn't sure if a 55g could house them for life or not. If so should I look into getting a trio or a pair? I will probably be getting the meridionalis since Rapps has them in stock right now and I love their coloration.
 
a 55g should be great for a trio of gymnos, they dont get as large as geos do, and you should def have at least 2 females, if not more... that will be cool tank though and then you could even do a big school of cooler water tetras of some sort to add more movement to the tank
 
Great choice, a 55g should be sufficient for life. I'm pretty sure you could do only a pair but if the female isn't ready to breed, the male might stress her to death chasing her around. I'd recommend getting your male a harem, I wish I had gotten several females for my male when they were available.
 
Great thanks guys, the Gymno that I'm interested maxes out around 4-5" so thinking a male then 2-3 females if they are sexable. If not I'll get a small group (5 or so) and hope for a good ratio.

I figure I should run this tank without a heater as well (of course I'll be monitoring it) but in the summer I try to keep the house right around 75F then in the winter around 70F
 
Yeah, then I'm good without a heater then lol.

I'm really excited as I couldn't for the life of me figure out what to do with a 55 gallon tank. Seems that these guys only really work in a species only tank because of the water temperature parameters too.
 
The meridionalis are substrate spawners, so they breed in pairs...not harems (like G. labiatus, gymnogenys and tiriparae).

That said, I'd get a group to let them form a pair naturally.

A 55g is PLENTY big for a pair of Gymnos.

Matt
 
Thanks guys for the info. I'll get my 55g up and running next week (this weekend being Father's Day and all) and speed cycle the tank and hopefully be ready for fish the week after that!
 
hujetadiscus said:
Get a heater just in case. They are from South America and it isn't that cold down there.
Click to expand...

you know the South Pole gets pretty cold too :)

dogofwar said:
The meridionalis are substrate spawners, so they breed in pairs...not harems (like G. labiatus, gymnogenys and tiriparae).

That said, I'd get a group to let them form a pair naturally.

A 55g is PLENTY big for a pair of Gymnos.

Matt
Click to expand...

Great advice. The rhabdotus group are quite different from the gymnogenys group. Gymno. meridionalis would do well in pairs.
 
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