Keeping several GT's together?

[cichlid2006]

But Gold Seam ARE stlll Aequidens Rivulatus regardless of colour or how they've been selectively bred. My understanding is that 'true' wild Aequidens Rivulatus are the same species as gold/white seam which are just domesticated variants similar to the Wild Jack Dempsey / Electric blue Dempsey situation. am I wrong?

I think that needs a separate thread of it's own!!

Aequidens Rivulatus are true GT's and the saums are Aequidens sp. they are related but are not the same species as far as i am aware. contrary to some info ive seen scattered across the net the silver saum is not the "true" GT but just a different colour saum.
regular or wild demspey are the same fish as electric blues, the electric blues are the offspring of regular dempseys, both with the recessive blue gene.

as for your original question. I dont see any reason it wont work unless you get an absolute psycho GT. multiples have been done with far more aggressive and territorial species such as the amphilophus (sp?) family. just make sure you give plenty of tank space as with any aggressive fish and tankmates.

 

[Trimax]

Hey no worries. I'm starting a GT tank too and contemplating the same thing. Guess the common perception is that if you start with a young group, there's a better chance that you'd get compatible adults. But in my case it's not possible - already have an adult male.... was planning to throw in a female, watch closely, and hope for the best, but now that you brought it up, maybe I should try to throw in a few adults to get a pair formed? Sounds a bit awful...but it might work...

I am in the same situation, I have a young adult 8 inch male. I know there is a theory that if you add say 2 or 3 males of the same aggressive American cichlid species in a large tank they will fight( That much is fact).

The theory part is that if you were to add several more, to the point where it was no longer possible for a cichlid to take individual territory then there is nothing to fight over. They will develop a heirarchy and live in relative peace.

 

[Trimax]

Aequidens Rivulatus are true GT's and the saums are Aequidens sp. they are related but are not the same species as far as i am aware. contrary to some info ive seen scattered across the net the silver saum is not the "true" GT but just a different colour saum.
regular or wild demspey are the same fish as electric blues, the electric blues are the offspring of regular dempseys, both with the recessive blue gene.

as for your original question. I dont see any reason it wont work unless you get an absolute psycho GT. multiples have been done with far more aggressive and territorial species such as the amphilophus (sp?) family. just make sure you give plenty of tank space as with any aggressive fish and tankmates.

Hey thanks for the info. I Know The JD's are same species I was just using it as an example of how I perceive gt variants.

Maybe I am wrong but According to my German Aqualog book by Ulrich Glaser sen. , Frank Schäfer and Wolfgang Glaser ( some of The ppl responsible for the gt's other names gold suam and esmeralda cichlid) the Gold Suam is aeqidens Rivulatus, and all variants are aeqidens Rivulatus aswell. Being the same species. I think the internet rumour of 'true' and 'false' GT have gotten out of hand, none of them site scientific basis. I will go with the scientific statement over rumour.

GT is aeqidens Rivulatus regardless of morph IMO unless scientific data says otherwise. Colour is nothing to go on in identifying cichlids, there is too much variation amongst conspecifics. Science uses head shape, scale/ray counts and black/white barring common amongst conspecifics as well as autopsy's and more modern DNA samplings to determine species regardless of colour. Any veija keepers will tell you this. I have yet to see evidence indicative of GT and Gold Suam being anything other than the same species showing different colour, maybe localised races of the same species are the reason for the huge colour differences.

 

[cichlid2006]

there are a lot of rumours like you say but read the stuff here including the links. http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94265 there are a lot of people who have lots of cichlid experience who say that they are different. email vendors here and ask them, its their trade after all so if anyone is gonna know they should.

im not an expert on stuff like this but there are tell tale markers that show true rivulatuis and saums are different, related but different. the green shine on the scale is in a different position, saums get larger, saums have either bright orange/yellow/silver on their fins, saums are not as aggressive when mature. im also pretty sure they are caught in different places. true rivulatus are hard to come by because of their collection point being in a drug hotspot so shipments were halted in the war on drugs or so ive read.
just look at pictures to see they are different species.
you wouldnt try to say a blue acara and saum are the same fish despite some of similarities.

 

[Trimax]

Interesting stuff and good point. I know other popular CA/SA cichlids have regional variants that look very different but are the same species such as the Jags - Managuense, the south mexico jags are very different looking to the Costa Rica Jags but are recognised as the same species. So different species or different race of aequidens Rivulatus I guess we will never know for sure untill some scientific surveys are done, which is unlikely being that 'true' aequidens Rivulatus are found in these drug baron run areas.

I suppose I share this confusion with every other GT keeper!

 

[Trimax]

I am moving to my own apartment soon and was gonna get an 800l but I decided to get 2 400l instead. One of which is gonna be stocked with 10 Adult GT's and watched very closely for fights. I will post results and pics when that happens! I live in Ireland and used to work in the trade ordering 1000's of fish a week from EU and Asia. White Suams are not available over here at all Just Gold Suams.

 

[cichlid2006]

I am moving to my own apartment soon and was gonna get an 800l but I decided to get 2 400l instead. One of which is gonna be stocked with 10 Adult GT's and watched very closely for fights. I will post results and pics when that happens! I live in Ireland and used to work in the trade ordering 1000's of fish a week from EU and Asia. White Suams are not available over here at all Just Gold Suams.

well good luck. im interested to see if it works in the long term.

 

[Casper2000]

Isn't 400l about 100G only? You're kinda pushing it with 10 fully grown GT's bro (unless 10 is just the temporary number). I'd be more worried about filtration with that kind of bio load, unless you're gonna go tokyo style (or w/e they call it) and have the tank seriously over filtered. Best of luck though, I know how cool single species comms look.

 

[TrikkyMakk]

But Gold Seam ARE stlll Aequidens Rivulatus regardless of colour or how they've been selectively bred. My understanding is that 'true' wild Aequidens Rivulatus are the same species as gold/white seam which are just domesticated variants similar to the Wild Jack Dempsey / Electric blue Dempsey situation. am I wrong?

I think that needs a separate thread of it's own!!

THere have been lots of threads on this topic. Rivulatus and the saums are physically different.

 

[Trimax]

Isn't 400l about 100G only? You're kinda pushing it with 10 fully grown GT's bro (unless 10 is just the temporary number). I'd be more worried about filtration with that kind of bio load, unless you're gonna go tokyo style (or w/e they call it) and have the tank seriously over filtered. Best of luck though, I know how cool single species comms look.

10 is only while there juvenile to make sure they dont take territory, I will remove as they grow till I am left with 6 or so. I have 2 externals and 1 large internal with 2 airstones for max oxygen supply. works out at 800l worth of filtration.