Geophagus

[Purple]

Just seen a Geophagus brazilliensis (earth eater) up for grabs not far from here. 8 inches long - no head hump - so I'm taking this to be a fully grown female.

Did some research on the net - and I'm coming up with conflicting answers as to suitable tank mates. Several sites suggest that Gb will be fine with most of the fish in my signature ('cept some of my Acara are too small to be safe with a full grown one like this) including the Oscars, so this opens up a lot of options....(If I do go for it - it's going to have to be another tank - the 2 in my sig are full).

The conflicting stuff is this......some say Gb will be fine with a Jack Dempsey (I happen to have one here somewhere) some say don't mix them. Also, I have 3 Oscars - an Albino who is peacefull - a Gold who's about average in temprement, and a Black who's a bit on the aggresive side (especially doesn't like strangers).

All a bit "pick and mix" - does anyone here have any experience of Gb's and how they behave towards other fish ?

 

[steve535]

you have alot of aggression rapped up in those oscars.big enough the geo's should not have a prob with them. they are calm fish that dont really bother much with other fish.balzanii to me are the most timid of the geos.if you con find a steindachneri that would stand a better chance with your tank mates.

ps. the geophagus just went through a name change.if you have had trouble doing research on them.sorry i dont have that info in front of me.

 

[yslexdia]

In my experience, Gb aren't very aggressive. However, they are large enough that they don't normally get picked on. I've never tried to mix one with an oscar, its always been the biggest fish in the tank. Incidentally, they don't have the mouth parts to enable them to fight back.

 

[wayne]

They're pretty steady, but you're way overcrowded anyway.

 

[Purple]

yeah - I know i'm pushing my 55's as is - but a lot of my fish are not fully grown yet (the Oscars for instance are only 6 - 7 inches), and I was looking at housing the Geo in a new tank, together with some of the other fish from my sig tanks to ease the load.

probably going to have to pass this one up - but one day I'd like to have a Geo or two..............

Thanks for the input folks........

 

[wayne]

It's not just the bioload, but that you're reaching the size when territorial instinct will kick in. This won't be helped by the face that your Mbuna and Haps treat territories totally differently to the S Americans.
S Americans protect permanat territories, the others don't.

 

[Purple]

yup - i've been moving fish around from tank to tank to keep things quiet, and providing lots of areas in each tank that can be "guarded" by individual fish.

If any of mine spawn then I'm really in "territorial" trouble - lol, but I think I'm going to have to thin out the population rather than keep adding tanks. Shouldn't be too hard to work out though - all I need to find out is what will go with this psychotic JD and we're away.............

 

[SoulFish]

Everyone says your tanks are already overcrowded, instead of looking for new fish to put in the tanks why not get more tanks first.

 

[Purple]

Just got a new 30 - trying to work out what will go in from the ones I have already, and was wondering if I could keep the Geo as well. Doesn't look like I'm going to be able to fit the Geo in with much else so I'm going to pass it up and populate the 30 with (some of) my existing fish.

If it was up to me I'd get 3 or 4 120 gal tanks in SoulFish - but my other half is growling at me already.

 

[wayne]

You have 6 severums, 4 blue acara, 3 oscars, 3 sailfin gibbys, a potentially colossal shovel nose, a BP and some random africans. I don't see how this can work in these 3 tanks - the 30 is so small as to be near irrelevant to most of these fish bar the acaras and BP. You'll always end up shuffling fish around, let alone territoriality problems. What on earth are you going to do if/when stuff starts pairing off? Also one of your 55's is a corner unit - hopeless for cichlids - it's the size of a territory for a single fish. A good rule of thumb is that an adult S American cichlid will want a territory 6 to 8 times it's lengh in diameter.
Sell some, or lots. Also you can get some variety as well then.

 

[TaffyFish]

one of your 55's is a corner unit - hopeless for cichlids

why is a corner tank hopeless?

 

[Purple]

Not enough ground space Taffy - lots of elbow room (for fish like Oscars), but limited floor space for territory. I get away with my mix because of their size, but as Wayne says, It'll never settle down because the fish are constantly growing and need more personal space.

As I got most of these fish with the tank, and I'm too attached to them to just give them up in whole groups, I prefer to struggle along - but yes - I'm as mad as my fish.

This whole Geo idea in the first place was to create a new tank, put the Jack in it (the Jack has now turned out to be a Texas), and give him something for company that was big enough to take care of itself. So far the Texas has tried to kill anything he's put in with, and I thought the Geo might make him think twice. Having learned how potentialy docile a Geo can be, I've decided this probably isn't a good idea after all. The Texas can have the new tank to himself, although I might experiment with a bit of reverse psycology, and try him with something that's too small and fast to catch.

As for thinning my stock - I've decided to get shot of the 3 yellow sevs which should settle one tank, not sure about the corner tank yet, but I usually manage to think of something..........

 

[UKSouth]

I know how you feel Purple, so many great fish out there and not enough room to keep em. I haven't bought a new fish for months, it can be quite frustrating especially when you see a great fish in the LFS which you would love to own.

I have resisited temptation on numerous occassions as I prefer to try and keep my tank understocked to keep disputes down to a minimum. I think we all need our own fish house, now there's a thought!

 

[Purple]

Originally posted by UKSouth
I prefer to try and keep my tank understocked to keep disputes down to a minimum.

What you can't see from my sig tanks is that both are actualy relatively peacefull tanks. I don't have fights or territorial disputes, just the odd outbreak of attitude that results in posturing and the odd nudge. Any of my fish that show they will fight with another tankmate are moved to a tank where there is no conflict (it's usualy just a personality conflict). Two of my oscars won't get on with each other, and one of my parrots beats up on the other (which is why they are split up) - other than that all is well under control. I think most people take one look at my sig and imagine everything tearing each other apart.

Nope - other than this mad Tex, my only troubles are stocking levels, not fights.

*celebrate

 

[TaffyFish]

Not enough ground space? Pah! All things are relative.

 

[MrsPurple]

I am in agreement with Taffy.... I have seen tanks far more over stocked than ours are and with bad water and feeding and thats in a doctors and a hospital... at least we care enough to do our best for what we have... slow it might be and sometimes we get it wrong, but at the end of the day we do whats needed and thats a lot more than most even bother to try.

I see the tanks 1st hand and I remeber when I had my 4ft tank years ago... it was over stocked now I know what all of that bits about but it was healthy and I had nothing wrong with my fish/water (and that was without a fnacy testing kit) I was breading fish hand over fist and no fighting.

So sometimes its love that takes the tanks forward not the knowledge cos before this place was born we had only books to help us and not a lot of them where good at the info really needed for fish keeping.

Still I love the tanks... just dont see how a 30 is = to nothing and a corner tank = no good.... maybe its my blondness but sometimes I see a lot of snobs in the fish world.

Purple *hugs* at least your trying baby xxx very trying now stop nattering on here and get some work done LOL

Red

 

[wayne]

I'm not a snob. I probably run on more basic equipment than most people here. I simply have an opinion that as your fish grow you're going to find you are going to have ever increasing problems.
For a foot long territorial fish a 30 is nothing! I assume it's a 3 foot tank - what else is going to fit in there? What's a large oscar going to do - it can go forwards, it can go backwards. It might be able to turn round. Be realistic. It's a nice tank for the acara , or for other fish up to 6, maybe 8 inches, but beyond that I don't see it.
For cichlids, aggressive fish corner tanks are less useful than rectangles. I have a 160 litre tank - it's a metre long, thus the fish can get a good 80csm between them. How big is a corner unit 160 - not as long. Actually my maths isn't so good, it's almost the same distance between most distant points in the tank, but that's what you're after, most separation between fish. That's what stops fighting. Your tanks are pretty much the equivalent of living on a fully loaded tube train when all your fish hit max size.

 

[Purple]

Originally posted by wayne
Your tanks are pretty much the equivalent of living on a fully loaded tube train when all your fish hit max size.

Agreed - but as my fish are only half sized at the moment, it will do until either I thin my stock, or spread them to larger tanks. As I've said already, these fish came with the first tank, there were 30 of them in the corner 55 when it arrived (my first ever tank), and all I'm trying to do is to keep up with them as they grow.

The 30 will house the Texas and not much else, and even the Tex is still a 6" juve, so he'll be fine.

Advice and advance warnings are always welcome, and I do appreciate where my tanks are headed, but they'll be steered to safety long before they get into trouble (thanks to a lot of reading and the advice from this board).

Wayne - if you dig it now, you're going to love it when I get into salt water

 

[wayne]

It will be interesting. Wait till you get a few fish that grow an inch a month.

 

[MrsPurple]

Hmm we dont have a 3ft tank... do we ? the ones that are set up are 4ft and the corner tank oh and the baby tank in the bedroom... the corner tank I think is not that small I have seen bigger oscars in the LFS in the same sized tank.

Lucky for us and the fish we can and do grow the tank size with the fish ( unlike some) and we also care enough to do as much as we can as often as we can for ALL the fish... even down to going out and getting a tank just for 1 fish.

Most replies on here are only said with an outline of what someone has... no one really knows unless they go and see for themselves... one persons nightmare can be another persons peace tank and without seeing what someone has you really cant know the full outline.

As for you being a snob wayne... since when did I mention a name ????... take it from me people only react to what someone has to say if they have a chip on the shoulder or feel guilty to whats been said..... we dont have pot loads of money or space here but we do care so much for our pets... even down to spending out what we have not got to make sure they are all fit/well and happy.

I for 1 dont go onto a forum like this to constantly be reminded how many fish in how small a space we have......our fish are not full grown and it would be nice if people remebered this now and again... cos sometimes to have it said after every posting can be a little off putting.... now I am used to forums but what about those that are not... maybe it would be enough to make them leave/not bother posting or just not bother, sometimes we have to remember that we are not in control of what others do but a softly softly helping hand goes down much better than a big pill forced fed.

Now I dont have time to say all I was thinking cos unlike some I work and I have a ghosting to do tonight for a new job ( and all that after I have been to work all day).

Wayne try not to take whats said on here so hard and remeber not every one is a fool, I am nice... ask Taffy... Purple is nice but dont ask me cos hes threatend me with fish for Valentines and I want something romantic.

Red in a spin with the washing is outa here