Ryan
06-12-2015, 02:06 AM
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.
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.