Recommend eartheaters for a 150 gallon SA community?

[ryansmith83]

Hey everyone,

I have a 150 gallon SA community with a couple severums, festivums, and four Peruvian scalare angels. They're not touching my sand at all the way I thought they would. Maybe it's because they're small. In the past, my larger severums were constantly moving sand and gravel.

I was hoping to add a cool, peaceful eartheater on the smaller side (6" or so) that would get along with my tankmates and also keep the sand sifted. I've been trying to do it manually during water changes but I've only been doing those weekly.

I have a $50 credit for TUIC after winning Jeff's monthly contest, so is there anything on his list that looks good?

I forgot to mention that I keep the tank at 82F. I've read that some eartheaters prefer cooler water but I'm really not even sure where to start with them. This will be my first time keeping them.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Ryan

 

[darth pike]

Out of the ones listed atm, the Geopahgus parnaibae are the only ones that stay in the 6" range. The Biotodoma wavrini are a close realative and also stay at the 6" mark but won't sift as much as the Geophagus.

The Gymnogeophus stay smaller than the 6" and will sift, but they are the genus that prefers the cooler water with an even cooler wintering period.

The Satanoperca sift well, but both species listed get about 10" SL. And remember all these prefer to be in groups of 5+, so a group would crowd out your other cichlids. Plus the S. daemon are touchy fish.

I'd vote for the G. parnaibae myself, they are one of the smallest in the genus and rather pretty and would sift well. Second would be the B. wavrini though they won't color up until near adult size but don't expect as much sifting.

 

[abarilot]

G. parnaiba is probably your best bet for reasons stated above. But what I've learn recently is you can have the gymnogeophagus species in tropical conditions year round but they wont breed. I would still go with the parnaiba cuz if your severums or festivums become lightly aggressive then they should handle it better than the gymnos list on the site.

 

[ryansmith83]

Are the parnaibae best kept in small groups like festivums or can you have one or two per tank? As a discus and angel keeper, I almost always buy all of my cichlids in groups of six, but as you can imagine that's going to fill up my 150 really quickly. I guess I could always grow out a small group and then just move them around as they mature and pair. It's what I'll be doing with the festivums.

Thanks for the suggestions!