What should I expect?

[Frank Castle]

A large percentage of geophagus are mouth brooders, as are satanoperca, gymnogeophagus,some acara species are.
I have read reports that some apistogramma occasionally mouth brood.There are also mouth brooding severum.
There may be more,can't think off the top of my head.

Uh-oh....I have a Geophagus Braziliensis and a Gymnogeophagus Balzanii.....now what do I do?...


....and how the heck do you even tell the 2 species apart??? I thought I was getting a PAIR of Balzaniis but today I was at the LFS w/ the "fish-girl" comparing pics online of the 2 and I realized I had 2 different species, not sexes.....well, maybe sexes.

How do I sex AND tell the 2 species apart? It's not easy , at least for me being new to the species. I only ever had 1 Red-stripe Earth-eater before, now I got like 4 different species cuz they were the nicest Cichlids I could find locally.

 

[duanes]

Here is balzani
2 females

a mature male

Here is one of the Geophagus braziliensus clade

Both prefer cooler water than many cichlids because they are from farther south in South America (although maybe not cold, like some of the other Gymnogeophagus). Temps around 70 work well. In fact mine were kept in unheated tanks, and spawned in the lower temps.

 

[tlindsey]

What species of fish are they? I thought only African (and Gunther's) were Mouth-brooders?

Geophagus Redhead Tapojos

 

[Frank Castle]

Here is balzani
2 females

a mature male

Here is one of the Geophagus braziliensus clade

Both prefer cooler water than many cichlids because they are from farther south in South America (although maybe not cold, like some of the other Gymnogeophagus). Temps around 70 work well. In fact mine were kept in unheated tanks, and spawned in the lower temps.

Thank you Duane, you ROCK! I have both of mine at 80F....too hot?

How do I tell my Balzanii and Brasiliensis male from female if they don't have humps and at what size do males GET humps?? The Balzanii is about 3" but stocky, do the eye-stripes mean anything? The Braziliensis is about 4" and stocky too, but lots and LOTS more blue especially in the face and gill plate than these pics.....aggression levels are about what you would expect between 2 CIchlids with an inch size-difference.

 

[smitty03281964]

I generally tend to let nature somewhat take its course. So what I do is get a visual on the number of fry providing the eggs hatch and leave them with the parents. If I start to see the number of fry dwindling then I remove them.