hey guys, so a buddy of mine just hooked me up with a nice looking 4" male brasiliensis. Its hanging out in my 30 gal quarantine tank for the time being and i must say it seems like a feisty little guy. He flares at his reflection if i hold a mirror up and he was chasing around a 4" hemichromis bimaculatus that was also in the QT tank so i had to take the hemi out. Im curious about other peoples experiences with these fish and how their temperament has been. My end goal here is to put him in my 90 gallon tank which is where i have my 6 silver dollars and a group of rose line sharks(denison barbs). Will the brasiliensis be able to live with these fish or will he rip them up as he grows?
How Aggressive Are Geo. Brasiliensis?
- Thread starter MonsterCichlids75
- Start date
I had one for a little while that was quite aggressive I had it in the tank with Severum and Honduran red Points. The Geo label and quick research on my phone tricked my into thinking semi aggressive. I have a thread on my experience here http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...15-Conflicting-info-on-geophagus-brasiliensis
cool, thanks for the link. i guess ill just have to give it a shot and put him in after quarantine. Good thing is he's only 4" right now and I'm hoping that he'll not be interested in the tetras and barbs like he was in the jewel cichlid. the denison barbs are all 4-5" and the silver dollars are all about 4" right now so certainly too big to get eaten by the geo. ill monitor closely and if i see any get killed then time to rethink what I'm going to do lol
I have a single 6" female G. brasiliensis in a 120 gal with some small Cryptoheros panamensis and P. breidohri growouts. Not the slightest problem. As with most cichlids, personality matters. Also, G. brasiliensis is likely a species complex, so it may be difficult to generalize regarding temperament. I'd give your 90mgal setup a try, but keep your eye on it. The 30 gallon holding tank is small, so you can understand why he'd be feisty with a rival for limited space.
Ok gotcha, yeah i can see why the tempers are hot in the QT tank, Ive experienced a few times having larger more aggressive cichilids as a single cichlid in a tank along with larger dithers "silver dollars, larger barbs, ect." And the lone cichlid tends to leave them alone because it can't eat them cause of their size and it doesn't view them as a threat for territory as opposed to other cichlids which it would view as competition. Example, I had a NASTY 8-9" male salvini in a 75 at one point that eventually killed the big male convict and severely injured a 6" firemouth and they had all grown up fine together. Had i not removed the firemouth in time it would have been killed too. Anything i tried to put in with this particular Sal after he killed and injured his tank mates was immediately viewed as a threat and attacked. Then i tried moving a group of Silver Dollars into his tank that were in the 5" range and oddly enough, there they lived together for the next 9 months or so till i sold the Sal. its like they just weren't viewed as a threat like other cichlids were. Maybe that will be the case with the Geo? Not sure if that even makes sense but I've had that experience a few times now. I've even kept silver dollars with my ridiculous Midevil that i couldn't keep anything else with! I'll tell ya silver dollars are awesome haha.
Geo braziliensus comes from southern Brazil, where waters can be slightly cooler than where many truly tropical species reside.
I found mine would be less aggressive if kept at temps between 68'F and 72'F, which is room temp, so no heater in their tank for me.
Kept some outside in summer where night time water temps dipped even lower, yet they spawned in those conditions.
I found mine would be less aggressive if kept at temps between 68'F and 72'F, which is room temp, so no heater in their tank for me.
Kept some outside in summer where night time water temps dipped even lower, yet they spawned in those conditions.
