Gymnogeophagus Question

[balton777]

Question...I keep a heater in my tank. Do I not need it? Room temp is 72F. Thanks.

 

[BigPic]

No need for a heater, but, it would help to drop the temps on the Gymnos below the 70's, even the most northern populations need a cool down to recharge and stay healthy. I would suggest a single male to about three females for one of the delayed mouth brooders, or a group of at least six to eight juvies if you can't sex them out before purchasing, on the other hand, I would get a group of six to eight of the substrate spawners (ex-Meridionalis/Rhabdotus) and let them sort it out. For a dither to add activity, a group of livebearer like swordtails (if you don't care about keeping all the fish from the same area). It's quite hard to find any of the fantastic tetras that come from Uruguay in the hobby, but, Serpae and black skirt tetras should do the trick.

 

[abarilot]

I keep all my Uruguayans in unheated tanks. I am probably going to be forced to add heaters to my tanks this summer because I haven't been able to get the water temp over the low 70s yet and I'm moving to a colder climate. If you do add a heater I'd only have it on for 3-4 months then back to room temp. Though there is debate over this, I would try to get your gymnos down into the low 60s this coming winter.

 

[hujetadiscus]

tip of

you know the South Pole gets pretty cold too



Yes the south pole is cold and so is the sothern tip of south america but they are mainly from uruguay. I do understand it gets pretty cold down there but for short periods of time.

 

[dogofwar]

No need for a heater unless there are wide temp swings in the tank on a daily basis.

I keep my Gymnos with goodeid livebearers, Buenos Aires tetras, bloodfins, etc...all of which don't mind cooler temps.

Matt

 

[balton777]

Thanks for sharing the knowledge

Since I got my geo's I've done some reading but there's conflicting information out there.