Talk to me about gymnogeophagus balzani

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Tripping Willow 91 said:
Haha yer that's true, maybe one day I'll have a tank that makes my 65 look tiny but for now it's my monster.

So far I've found a couple sites that's sell balzani, I've never ordered fish online and it's not really the way I'd like to do it. I will ring around the lfs but I have a feeling I won't find any that stock them. I've never kept cichlids before, I've recently been in to heavily planted tanks lightly stocked with tiny fish but I fancied a change to bigger fish without the hassle of plants and cichlids seemed like the perfect candidate.

I think maybe I'm underestimating the size they'll get, I've never been one for a heavily stocked tank but I'm also thinking without having a tonne of plants the tank will look very empty. Bigger fish and plantless tanks are both new for me. I personally didn't think a 4ft tank with 4-6 balzani, 10 tetra and 6 cories would look heavily stocked but as I said its all new to me and perhaps I'm underestimating the size they'll get.

I've always been particularly keen on bloodfin tetras and in my last tank it was a toss up between bloodfin and glowlight danios, I decided on the danios so this time around I'd definitely be happy with bloodfin, I wasn't sure if they'd be too small but obviously not. I've always been keen on Endlers but if balzani don't predate the fry I wouldn't want to end up overrun with them. The thing that attracts me to corydoras is just that I think they'd look good sifting through the sand alongside the balzani but if the balzani spend most of there time on the bottom then it might be too much going on down there.

The tera are to act as a dither plus for some movement higher up in the water, the idea of 2 males was for displaying purposes and I assumed the dominant male would colour/size up better with a rival in the tank? But as you say perhaps it's a little too small for 2 males.

What do you think to 1m 3f with 12 bloodfin and 1 albino bristlenose (the missus wants a catfish of some sort), do you think this would be a heavily stocked tank? I picture this as being quite lightly stocked but with enough activity to make a nice feature tank in my living room
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I would add a hoplo before I added a pleco.
 
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Megalechis thoracata (marble hoplo) or Dianema urostriatum (flagtail hoplo/porthole). Both stay under 6in.
 
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To help gauge growth.
I first got my balzani in Jan 2013, the largest were approximately an inch, give or take.
Below is one of the males, (according to dates on the photos), Jan 2014 (maybe 4-5")
I think 1 male and 2 or 3 females would work for at least a year
Blood fin tetras may also reach 5", although I believe that growth will take longer
 
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Tripping Willow 91 said:
Bet she'd love a hoplo but I'm thinking it might be a bit big for the tank and a pleco would occupy a different area of the tank (stuck to the hardscape and glass) to the balzani
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duanes said:
To help gauge growth.
I first got my balzani in Jan 2013, the largest were approximately an inch, give or take.
Below is one of the males, (according to dates on the photos), Jan 2014 (maybe 4-5")
I think 1 male and 2 or 3 females would work for at least a year
Blood fin tetras may also reach 5", although I believe that growth will take longer
Click to expand...
Ah ok I was under the impression they'd be good for life in there, I don't want anything that will need to be moved to a larger tank in the future as unless I kick the missus n the kids out I'm not gonna have the room. I guess I'm going to have to rethink my stock again ?. Do bloodfins really get 5"! I thought they maxed out around 2"?
 
Some of the other species of Gymnogeophagus stay a tad smaller, in that they don't get as tall or bulky.
Below Gymnogeophagus sp Paso Pache
Below Gym. quilero (AKA Rio Yerbalito)
And these are able to take even lower temps.
Mine took temps down to about 50'F, they are also not piscavorine.
A female "yerbaito" with fry below
 
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duanes said:
Some of the other species of Gymnogeophagus stay a tad smaller, in that they don't get as tall or bulky.
Below Gymnogeophagus sp Paso Pache
Below Gym. quilero (AKA Rio Yerbalito)
And these are able to take even lower temps.
Mine took temps down to about 50'F, they are also not piscavorine.
A female "yerbaito" with fry below
Click to expand...
The only gymnogeophagus that seems to be available online in the UK is the balzani so I'm not sure I'd be able to get hold of any of these others. This cichlid stocking is a lot trickier than I was expecting, I'm now thinking my original idea of a lone male sajica might be the way to go but are there any other little cichlids that could go along with it? What would everyone suggest to go with a lone sajica in my 4ft tank? Maybe I should start another thread for this
 
Rams, Herotilapia multispinosa, Bolivian rams, Lake Tanganyika cichlids.
 
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