# Geophagus variants?



## teqvet (Mar 24, 2008)

How many variants of geophagus are there? How many would you want to keep in a 75gallon tank? I originally was going to stock EBJD's in this 75gallon but given the price and health of these fish, my wife is thinking we should shoot for something different now. I noticed some gorgeous geophagus that had red heads and long trailing fins. Not sure what they were called. Are you able to mix the different variants of these guys together? Right now I'm still going with EBJD's because the wife hasn't really given voice to liking a particular geophagus aside from the one we saw.

thanks for advice.


----------



## klumsyninja (Aug 14, 2008)

If you check the Profiles section in the Library section you can find this list of all the SA Eartheaters including the Geo's ( http://cichlid-forum.com/profiles/category.php?cat=31 )

I love em personally, big slow growing personable fish that do well in large groups have awesome dopey looking expressions on their face and are very friendly. Super peaceful too so you can keep them with many other fish without too much worry.

I currently have a group of WC Geophagus Surinemsis 'Alenquar' and a few WC Steinys in there too.. So pretty.

They need clean water though.. So stay on top of your tank maint.

hth


----------



## teqvet (Mar 24, 2008)

Yes, I saw the profiles for them, and have been looking through them but reading through various forums it seems some are named incorrectly or are the same fish from different collections points. This seems to be one of the more confusing fish I've come across in regards to names.


----------



## teqvet (Mar 24, 2008)

Perfect example of what I mean. A retailer has the geophagus balzoni listed available. This isn't on the profile list from what I can tell. There are quite a few that I have found that are like that, and not much info on the web of them.

edit:

gah not only is that not the name of the fish, but it's mislabeled and mispelled. Evidently this is a common theme with the geophagus? The above should have been listed as Gymnogeophagus Balzani. It's irritating to a point  Not knowing if/when something is correct.


----------



## DiscusQueen (Jul 16, 2007)

Hi.. Yes it can be very confusing. If you go to Jeff Rapps site... Tangled Up In Cichlids is his company name.. you will see the Jeff Rapps Photographic Library of Earth Eaters with great pics and descriptions.. It is very helpful and Jeff is very well thought of in the industry and sells some beautiful fish.. There are also several other wonderful folks on this site that keep and sell earth eaters/geos. I picked up 6 wonderful baby orangehead geos from Ed Burress and they are doing great. It's really a trip to watch them sift the sand....HTH Sue


----------



## edburress (Jun 9, 2007)

There are 25 described species, and who knows how many undescribed :lol:

IME most of the incorrect ID's occur with _G. altifrons_ and _G. surinamensis_, and then incorrect spelling occurs throughout the entire genus quite frequently.

There are a lot of very elementary errors between _Geophagus, Gymnogeophagus_, and _Satanoperca_; and then of course more technical errors, like _G. abalios_ being called _G. altifrons_; then even more specific information such as collection location.

For example, currently _Geophagus altifrons_ is a single, widespread species; but could easily be 2-3 distinct species if you separated the fishes from the Rio *****, Rio TapajÃ³s, Rio Tocantins, etc; and if you happen to be a splitter their might be 6-12 different species within the altifrons. So, needless to say, it is really complicated.

Ed


----------



## teqvet (Mar 24, 2008)

edburress said:


> There are 25 described species, and who knows how many undescribed :lol:
> 
> IME most of the incorrect ID's occur with _G. altifrons_ and _G. surinamensis_, and then incorrect spelling occurs throughout the entire genus quite frequently.
> 
> ...


Glad you said this. I have seen quite a few photos of altifrons and they don't all look the same. I'd wondered a few times if someone didn't know what fish they really had. That explains a bit more, thanks.


----------



## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

Hi *teqvet*,

Just a little note on the Balzani. It belongs to the genus Gymnogeophagus, which generally grow smaller than most geophagus. They also come from temperate climates and require a significant cooler "winter" period each year.

As for keeping Geophagus in a 75 gallon tank. I would personally look doing a group of 4 Geophagus sp. "Tapajos Orange Head". I don't think it's a good idea to mix several species of geophagus like people do with many African cichlids. If you had a large tank, 180 gallons or larger, you could look at having 2 or 3 groups of different geos.


----------



## duaneS (Aug 31, 2006)

If you check Weidners book South American Eartheaters, he list @ 20 varients of the G altifrons complex alone. Some might list them as separate species, some might lump them as variants. 
Because of the chance of crossbreeding, one might think twice about combining. Same goes for the variants of Gymnogeophgus, 
I keep Gy sp Paso Pache








Seems to me a variant of the gymnogenys complex, but one day may be a separate species, so I would tend to keep them separate from others in that complex.
Now the LFS common name game is something altogether bizzaar. 
How many times have you seen festae and uropthalmus named red terror.
Thats why common names are basically useless for a real ID.
I've even seen Tilapia listed as grammodes in some places.


----------

