as much info as possible on Geophagus steindachneri

[Dragon_Lord_Tia]

ive got a pair of Geophagus steindachneri in a 2ft tank for the time being i have no idea what their requirments are ive fond close to nothing on the net. im planing on moving them into a 4ft tank with a baby oscar with the ph around 7.5 would this be ok or will the oscar pick on the geos???

[peifc]

I hope this help.

http://www.sydneycichlid.com/geophagus.html#C

[mogurnda]

I have kept several pairs over the years, and like them quite a bit. The male is generally significantly larger than the female, with the pronounced red hump. My males never got more than 5 inches, and the females never more than about 3. They are classic geophagus, constantly rooting through the gravel.

They spawn very regularly, and are not shy at all about it. Only mouthbrooder where I could watch the female release the eggs and pick them up in the middle of a well-lit living room. The females are excellent parents, and one problem I had was finding homes for all the kids. Another problem I had is that the males tend to breed the females to death. Since they are mouthbrooders, rearing young takes quite a bit out of the females, while the males are always ready. I would suggest several females, and even better, a separate tank to fatten up the female after the brood is taken away.

I have never kept oscars, but I figure the redhumps can take care of themselves. They are generally peaceful, though, and work well in a mixed tank with larger fish. HTH.

[wayne]

Go to cichlidae.com and have a look there, then follow the link to Alf Stahlsbergs page - he's a bit of a geophagine god

[AikidoGuy]

I used to have a breeding pair of Wild adult steindachneri. my male was actually beat up by the smaller female quite often. They dont get very large as stated above, my male was about 5" and the female around 3". I gave my pair to a friend and he has them in a 6' 100gal with a severum and a convict pair and all is well. I currently have a single F1 adult female that is 3" she is in a 150 with a pair of the recently discovered gold sajica, a Honduran red-fin (Blue convict) and an F1 centrarchus. everyone gets along just fine.

[Tiger15]

I tried them before. They are cute fish that constantly pick up and spit gravel and very colorful fish for a Geophagus species. But I don't have luck with them because I keep them in an African tank at slightly alkaline water. They got bloat and died one by one. I guess for them to do well you have to maintain soft acid water.

[Dragon_Lord_Tia]

thanks people

[gregga]

I have kept several over the years. I agree with everything above.....I wanna add that, IMO, the Redhumps are the most aggressive of all the geophagus species. My large male killed at least 3 females over a few month time period. But those alpha males with the large humps are beautiful fish.............Gregg

[Kit Walker]

Hi DragonLord,
I guess the previous posts have said it all quite well. I have been a big eartheater fan for years currently breeding steindachneri, surinamensis, jurapari, brasiliensis and balzani. I just thought I'd let you know that if you ever become really interested in the eartheaters then try getting your hands on "South American Eartheaters" written by Thomas Weidner. It is one of the best books I own.

I don't see any problems with raising your steindachneri with a juvenile oscar. However I would replace the oscar with more eartheaters. They are a very social cichlid preferring to be in groups of 6 or more eartheaters or other south americans (such as blue acara). Given the amount of waste the oscar will produce, you may be better off keeping more eartheaters instead, unless of course you really like your oscar. Welcome to eartheaters and hope you become a big fan of them!

[Dragon_Lord_Tia]

oh my earth eater kicks *** he loves frozen brine shrimp and live and froven blood worms but i want to keep him in the oscar tank as long as i can till they are both fully grown if possible would that be ok

also how big do they get ive read up tp 10cm then on an other site i read 20cm+ what do u think kit???

[Tiger15]

A hobbyist's experience on G. steindachneri:

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/geophagus_steindachneri.php

and a generic article for those who are interested in keeping Geophagus species:

http://www.mn-aquarium.org/masart27.htm

[Kit Walker]

I think you may just have to see how they go. Sometimes fish do the opposite behaviour to what one would expect. If your steindachneri's are a pair then they will terrorize the oscar when they are breeding. Amongst similar sized eartheaters the squabbles don't last too long, but I've seen pairs corner single large fish and terrorize it until it stops eating. One large brasiliensis I had really damaged a pair of oscars I was growing out in it's tank.

I would give it a go, you can always use the 2ft tank as a backup if they need to be seperated. But if they squabble with the oscar I would advise against it, because I've found oscars are very sulky and when constantly upset will stop eating and deteriorate.
Hope it all works out, and let us know how they get along in the future.

[Kit Walker]

...oh and when feeding your frozen bloodworms I try and get the worms to scatter around all parts of the tank. This gives my eartheaters hours of activity as they will sift out almost the entire substrate trying to hunt all those worms on the substrate!
(They should eject the substrate via their gills. If they are spitting all of it out of their mouth then your substrate is too coarse)

[Dragon_Lord_Tia]

i have rounded small pebbles as subtrate i find wiht eartheaters the filter get alot of the sand and is a ***** to clean but i will try it ATM i only have a male and i might keep it that way.

[Kit Walker]

You can reduce the strain on your filter by using a home-made prefilter. I place a block of that blue filter foam over my Aquaclear and Ehim intakes (Fluval 2 inserts work). I found this was the only way to stop eartheaters spitting sand into the filter intakes! I also keep the intakes fairly high, rather than have them down near the substrate. There is nothing worse than the sound of gravel grinding away in the impeller, and I've seen brasilensis actually aim mouthfuls of sand at an Aquaclear intake!

[Dragon_Lord_Tia]

those jerks i remember my archer fish use to spit water at me when he was hungry and when the lids were on he would spit and jump at the lids lol