How's it going Matt?
My braziliensus actually bred in the pond a few summers ago, and the pond barely gets above the low 70s in Aug and Sept, much lower in June and July.
If I still had them, I keep them in an unheated tank.
Hum. So you guys hypothesize that at lower temps, brasiliensis are more docile. That's interesting. I know another MFKer here in Colorado who seems to have had now problems with them. That could be because of the lower temps out here.
I don't currently have Brasiliensis but I do have Geo. sp. Bahia Red and Bahia Blue. Both also seem to prefer cooler temps.
Matt
duanes;3684386; said:
How's it going Matt?
My braziliensus actually bred in the pond a few summers ago, and the pond barely gets above the low 70s in Aug and Sept, much lower in June and July.
If I still had them, I keep them in an unheated tank.
I believe the agression can be tempered a bit with lower temps, but, if the fish you keep with it, look similar all bets are off.
A fish with a similar shape and color patteren, such as a Dempsey or green terror type, will be looked at as competition for food or breeding sites no matter what temp you have.
Whereas a pike cichlid or a nicaraguense "might" be ignored.
I don't have any at the moment either, but come late spring, might find some to drop in the pond.
I've found them to be especially brutal on females. I've grown out a group to get a pair, sold off the spares... and had the male kill the female on more than one occasion...
My female G. Brasiliensis grew 4" in a year. She was housed with fine/medium gravel and spent all day digging huge holes and making very large piles of gravel. She also dug up all my plants and and made a right mess of the tank. She was very territorial although not aggressive as such, as she never killed anything but to be honest I dont think the other fish wanted to take the chance of having to stand up to her.
I wouldnt get another one and that is mainly because she made such a mess of the tank!
My female G. Brasiliensis grew 4" in a year. She was housed with fine/medium gravel and spent all day digging huge holes and making very large piles of gravel. She also dug up all my plants and and made a right mess of the tank. She was very territorial although not aggressive as such, as she never killed anything but to be honest I dont think the other fish wanted to take the chance of having to stand up to her.
I wouldnt get another one and that is mainly because she made such a mess of the tank!
Hmm, I agree on the aggression part, mine hasn't killed any other fish (to my knowledge) but he did batter the heck out of a tilapia that was about twice his size. Unfortunately he lost his mate, and he's been even more irritable since. He mostly seems to be territorial rather than general aggressive though.
I will say he's a very active sand sifter though. He's constantly sifting the sand in his tank, if he isn't digging a breeding pit in a cave or chasing other fish from around it.
In my tank there's sand as substrate and the Geophagus moved it a lot - especially when they bred. They were very agressive during the breeding period and even scared the heck out of my map turtles which were kept in the same tank. Since I have separated the Geos from the turtles, the female is much calmer, but the male (which is roughly 6") still bullies his tankmate, a full grown fire mouth cichlid.
I like the species very much because they are very hardy and agressionwise they are much calmer than any JD, GT, or some other central american. But for south Americans they can be real a**holes...
