All eartheater species will sift through the sand, it's how they maintain their food most of the time. They will eat pellets floating down, but most of the time sift.
I had a Geophagus Abalios for a couple years, as a single eartheater species. He was fine, and could hold his ground in my ca/sa cichlid community. After learning more about these species, and the other tankmates getting bigger/more aggressive, I decided to start an eartheater tank. Right now I have him in ith a Heckelii, and a Leucosticta, and they seem to be doing fine together. All 3 kinda push eachother around from time to time, but no aggression issues really. Their also housed with a huge Chocolate cichlid, with no problems there either.
Also make sure to go with a finer substrate, instead of the normal gravel you would buy. Fine gravel, and sand, are easier for them to sift through, and doesn't get caught in their mouths like gravel can.
As far as the Surinamensis - mostly all the species you see labeled like this are not going to be a "true" Surinamensis, as they are pretty hard to obtain. I purchased my Abalios as a Suri, and after maturing, have noticed that me, along with a bunch of other members on this site, have gotten a different species just labeled as a Surinamensis for easy reference.
And yes your picture posted is of a Geophagus Altifrons, one of the larger growing Geo species.
