# Tankmates for Geophagus Steindachneri "redhump"?



## Sanpedro (Feb 23, 2009)

:fish: Just want to ask for advices and opinions for what diether fish and tankmates are preferable for red hump earth eater?.... Im planning to set up a 75 gal tank. thank for your time and advices...


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## illy-d (Nov 6, 2005)

Hi Sanpedro.

I kept a number of fish with my red humps including the following;

Neons tetra
Rummy nose tetra
Serpae Tetras
Rosey Barb
Gourami
Siamese Algae Eater
BN Pleco
Bolivian Ram
Keyhole Cichlid
Severum
Jack Dempsey
Convicts
Clown Loaches

What I found is that the Red Humps only bothered the Bolivian Rams - presumably because the occupied the same areas of the tank. My Red Humps were too busy breeding or chasing each other to be worried about bothering the Tetras. In fact I would say that 'dither' fish are not required for these guys - but you could definately stock a 'community' tank around them.

Red humps are supposedly aggressive for eartheaters (I've never kept other Geo species so I cannot comment on that). What I can say is that their inter-species aggression is less than typical cichlids, but their conspecific aggression can be high.

It is best to stock 1:2 or 1:3 male to female ratio as the males will always be harassing the females to breed. I had a 90g with 2:2 and it worked out okay as the males would also chase each other around.

In a 75g you could do 2 males and 4 or 5 females and probably stock another cichlid like a Severum in there as well. When the Steinies breed they don't behave like a lot of other cichlids do - the male just wants to do the deed and then the female becomes reclusive once she's holding... The male goes about harassing the next female and there is no territory to bother defending.

If you have a potential sock list in mind post it up and I'll give you my opinion.
Here's a couple of pics;


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## Sanpedro (Feb 23, 2009)

thank you very much illy-dy! after i finish setting up the community tank for my red hump i'll post some pics. :fish:


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## illy-d (Nov 6, 2005)

Looking forward to it! I miss having these guys to be honest - they were cool fish. Be warned they breed like crazy so don't be to concerned about pulling holding females unless you have plans to raise and rid yourself of literally dozens of fry. That female in the pic I posted was only about 3.5" total length and she regularly had broods of 30+ fry. In that pic I think there is more then 50 or 60 fry.

If I was to do it again I would probably get more females or raise a few females seperate from males until they put on some size... The females don't eat for at least 14 days or more when holding and it's common for them to have 1 brood/month so in reality they just don't have the resources to grow when they are raised with males... Having a greater number of females may give them a bit more of a break between broods to recoup their energy and actually use it to put on mass rather then produce offspring. That's my $0.02 anyhow - I'm looking forward to seeing your set-up.


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## illy-d (Nov 6, 2005)

oh and FYI as a follow up to my above post I tried keeping two females alone in a 33g tank for awhile and it didn't work. The stronger one dominated the weaker one and beat the snot out of her so bad I thought she was going to die... In many ways the females are nastier then the males to each other!!!

I would say the best way to describe this species of fish is 'Rowdy'.


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