DeanAsploded

How aggressive are geophagus cichlids?
Will this aggression heighten if they try to spawn?
Have they been known to kill other fish while they have eggs?

Shawnie

ive never kept them before but ive heard males are meanies if there are gals in the tank and the gals are more passive....they like a few girlies per male....

DeanAsploded

Thanks for the tip. I, too, have heard that the males like quite a few females to, erh, 'play' with. =]

DRock914

What type of geophagus? The bolivian rams (mikrogeophagus) are not aggressive except maybe when mating where as the earth eater (geophagus jurupari) can be more aggressive.

Shawnie

I was referring to the red hump earth eater...if you meant the others, (didnt know rams were called that also thanks drock!) oops

DeanAsploded

Ooh, bolivians are geophagus too? Sorry, but thanks for the heads up! Useful information. Glad I came to this forum first! =]

I'm leaning towards the Red-Humps. Much less chance they'll get eaten in the tank they're going to. Bolivians are far too small.

By the way, are there any Geophagus kinds that are bigger than Red Humps?
Really, the bigger the better, as long as it's not immensely aggressive (aggressive during spawning/brooding/etc would be fine, though.)

DRock914

I don't know how well you can trust this but here's a list on wikipedia. Look them up and see which are suitable for you. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geophagus. I really don't know a lot about them outside of the rams and red-humps so I can't answer that for you.

DeanAsploded

Took a look at Geophagus Altifrons. I haven't found anything stating aggression, has anyone else ever heard or experienced different?

DRock914

According to thatfishplace.com "This species can be mildly aggressive and will probably eat small fish if they can, so consider tankmates carefully. Keep them in a very large tank with other decent size South American cichlids that won't nip fins." Sounds like its similar to the others. Good luck finding one, I don't think I have ever seen any in stores.

btate617

What size tank and what are the other fish in there?

Brian

DeanAsploded

500 long.

Numbers aren't set in stone yet, but other likely species in the tank include Sorubim Limas, Orinoco (sp?) catfish, and pseudohemiodon laticeps (giant whiptail.)