# Geophagus Brasiliensis



## Newbreed (Feb 23, 2009)

I have only been keeping fish for a short amount of time. But in this time i have learned quite a bit about the Species Geophagus Brasiliensis. I currently keep a Juvenile pair in a 46 gallon tank with 4 corys's of assorted variety and 2 bristlenose pleco's. I started off with 5 Brasiliensis to see if i could not achieve a bonded pair. I was in luck. With in 3 days of getting these fish home. i had a pair who was showing signs on breeding behavior. They had pushed every other brasiliensis to the other side of the tank at which point i removed all but the corys and the pleco's which seem to be fast enough and mild tempered enough to ignore the pair and evade them.

My tank goes as follows. 
46 gallon tank.
Sand Substrate.
Temperature 80 Degrees 
Large air stone propped up on a glass suction cup
near the top of the tank for more surface agitation 
Fluval 405 Canister filter set to half flow.
1 lace rock 2 fake drift wood pieces. ( 1 cave, 1 root tangle )
a Mixture of live plants and fake plants. 
7-10 Round River stones for spawning. ( Which they have used once already, and one time they used the cave roof. )

The Pair i have spawn once every month and a half. They lay about 200 eggs. The male is about 4 inch's long and the female is about 3 and a half. These fish cant be more than a year old. When i picked them up from my fish store they were all about 2 inch's long and have amassed size quickly ( about 2 inch's in 2 months ) My LFS said they will not reach larger than 6 inch's in captivity and since these were tank raised he said i am looking at a 6 to 7 inch maximum size. ( we will see )

These fish are very aggressive to any other fish in tank during spawning time, Including their own spawn. I have had my pair spawn twice now and i had to remove the baby fry from parents after second spawn hatched. Up until the second spawn hatched the parents and fry co-existed swimmingly. ( hehe funny aquarium joke ) The parents even at juvenile age are very good parents indeed.

The pair spawn in the dark at night both times. The female guards the egg's and fans them about 22 hours out of the day. The male will come in, fan and guard while the female goes to eat about 2-4 hours of the day in intervals . The pair usually will stay VERY close to the eggs and the male will chase off anything that comes near. Before spawning occurs the Male will dig a few pits and move quite a lot of sand. They also love to dig under roots of pants and place the fry in those pits as when they become free swimming they eat the plant roots.

During incubation the male will dig even more pits to move the fry into. The spawning period goes as follows: Day 1-3 eggs incubate, Day 3-7 wiggling fry are moved from pit to pit. Usually 1 pit a day. Day 7-21 Fry become free swimming and frequent water changes are to be started, As well as baby brine shrimp fed every 3 hours. I do not do a water change during the egg and fry incubation time as to not disturb the substrate and possibly bury fry. Once they are free swimming a water change every 2 days is my ritual as the bio load with 100 babies in tank starts to skyrocket. After a month i started feeding baby brine shrimp in the mornings and flake food in the afternoon and night. Fry watched parents eat from the top of the tank and gobble down flake food and not long after the babies would come to the top and take a flake from my hand. ( Sooooo cute!!!! )

After a little over a month and a half i was able to grow about 50-60 fry from a first spawn of 
150 to 1 inch or more. The parents decided to spawn again and became aggressive to their own children once the fry had hatched, at this time they had to be moved into a "fry grow out tank"

The fry at an inch can co-exist with Bolivian rams species Very well even in small tanks. 30 fry in an 18 gallon tank with about 7 rams and i have not seen 1 shred of aggression at the babies in fact i have noticed more coloration and breeding behavior from the rams when introduced to the fry. There are still about 15 or more free swimming fry with parents i was not able to catch. At a month and a half my fry are fully able to be moved from tanks to tank and are on good Cichlid flakes.

This second spawn looks to consist of 200 or more wiggling fry as it has only been 3 days since spawn. but when looking at the eggs when they were laid this next and the future up in coming spawns should do quite well.

If there is anything that i have missed, or any more information you would like to know about them please ask me. Hopefully this helps some people.


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## imfbrad (Apr 13, 2009)

funny that you posted this. I just bought 5 yesterday looking to get a pair. The 5 came to the store at about 4". some smaller and some bigger but mostly around that size. I got them in a 50 gallon. I was told they grew to about six inches, then look at profile on this site and it says 11 inches. I would love to see some pictures of your setup.


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## Newbreed (Feb 23, 2009)

I will try to upload pictures later i have to meet the new in-laws tonight for dinner for the first time well future in-laws i am nervous as heck.. My male fish hates my camera cause it puts out an orange beam on the target your trying to shoot. so every time the beam comes before the flash he runs grrrrrr lol. But i will snag some good pictures of my substrate


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## imfbrad (Apr 13, 2009)

pics?


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## Newbreed (Feb 23, 2009)

My computers power source stoped working so i replaced that then the powersource wouldnt work with the mother board. so make a long story short i am getting rid of old computer and buying new it will take me a while sorry


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