Geophagus sp. 'Red Head Tapajos'

[Ryan]

Orangeheads, Orange Heads, Red Heads, Tapajos... whatever you want to call them, they're one of the most popular Geophagus for the home aquarium. It's easy to see why. They're colorful (bright orange heads, silvery-yellow bodies, and blue stripes in the fins), small growing, and relatively peaceful for cichlids. They also do a great job turning over thin layers of sand with their constant sifting, which makes them useful as well as pretty.

Last December I had an instance where a female orangehead bred with a male Geophagus parnaibae. I'd never witnessed geos hybridizing and there were very few reports of it online, so I documented it here (http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?117602-Geophagus-hybrids-Oops!) to see if the spawn was viable and how the fry would turn out.

I figured maybe there was no male orangehead in my group of four and the female sought out the only male of her genus in the tank. Today I came home and the male parnaibae was dead on the bottom of the tank. He was a fairly old fish for a small Geo, and I knew he'd been wasting away, but then noticed this was going on.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPljk6Gzlq0

Coincidence? Murder? Who knows. But it looks like I now have a mature male orangehead in the bunch. Apparently he wasn't ready in December.

Ignore the algae. This tank gets direct sunlight and I don't bother to wipe off what the ancistrus misses.

[MKD]

Congrats Ryan. They are 1 of my favorite too and i used to have them. Its so cool when you see them hold 100+ fry in the mouth. Look like you need more tanks. Good luck and enjoy Ryan.

[Solid]

What kind of music are you playing in your fish room? You have some serious mojo goin on in there! Haha! Congrats and beautiful fish!

[rickztahone]

You have so much going on Ryan! How large do these get? Have you kept them with discus since you say they are a little more peaceful?

[Ryan]

Congrats Ryan. They are 1 of my favorite too and i used to have them. Its so cool when you see them hold 100+ fry in the mouth. Look like you need more tanks. Good luck and enjoy Ryan.

Mouthbrooding species are a lot of fun to keep. I have mouthbrooding Geophagus, Heros, Aequidens, and now Bujurquina. It's so much fun to watch them with fry. I just bought a few new tanks and double racks so that I could cram more fish into the fish room. lol


What kind of music are you playing in your fish room? You have some serious mojo goin on in there! Haha! Congrats and beautiful fish!

Last year I had almost no spawning activity here, but this year it has exploded. That new water filter I installed must be doing wonders.


You have so much going on Ryan! How large do these get? Have you kept them with discus since you say they are a little more peaceful?

Tapajos usually end up 4 - 6". For cichlids they are peaceful. They will obviously get pushy and territorial when spawning, but given a large enough tank (6') they should grow out fine with discus. Being sand-sifters you can usually feed them small sinking pellets and they'll eat from the bottom, then you can feed the discus from the top part of the tank. I have kept them with discus with good luck in the past but not when they were spawning.

[Ardan]

Cool! You'll have to keep us posted on the spawning. I've never kept mouthbreeders. Sounds interesting though. That is another colorful fish!


Ardan