June 2009 - Kitchener Waterloo Aquarium Society

J U N E 2 0 0 9
Re-Scaping a Show Tank
BAP Submission by Ed Koerner, KWAS (edkoerner@sympatico.ca).
Or……. What happens the first time you are spawning
geophagus. That’s right, I have now experienced what happens
when you have a somewhat tidy and planted tank and geos
decide to spawn. You end up with a tank that looks very little
like what you started with. A bit of floating salad, a new level to
the substrate, and many nervous fish that aren’t quite sure
where they are allowed to wander.
This all came about in my 120 gallon South American
community tank. There are about 20 various plecos, some
nymnogeophagus, anostomus, Columbian and serpae tetras,
corys and a few other odds and ends. There are several swords,
crypts and other plants in the tank and a substrate of peat moss
covered with kitty litter and fluorite. There are several pieces of
Mopani driftwood and I do add a bit of “black water” extract or
alder cones every once in a while. The pH in the tank is about
6.5 and there nothing but rain water that goes into the tank. The
temperature in the tank is 77-78 F. I have had pretty good
success with this set up for my SA’s and the general health and
activity of fish has been quite good. For anybody wanting to try
the peat approach, be aware that sediment will filter through
the substrate over time and there will be a bit of a mess when
planting or moving your substrate around later. There is
definitely a steeped tea look to the water that some people may
not like over time, but as I say, I have had very healthy fish in
these conditions. The tank has an Eheim and a small HOB filter
to add some circulation.
Getting back to the fish, I had a few fish given to me by a friend
to add to my nymnogeophagus. I was not sure what they were
at the time or their sex. Over time it became apparent that there
was a dominant male in the mix as he was growing quicker and
larger than the others and started marking his territory a bit or
at least asserting his will in the tank. There were a few other
geos in the tank that I still wasn’t sure of but as the male
coloured up and chose a female the colour patterns could be
differentiated and I found that I had a pair. They also made it
easy to tell they had paired off, swimming together, nuzzling up
to one another, and starting to keep the 6 other geos in the tank
clustered in one half of the tank. Soon they began re-arranging
my/their tank. First they started making pits in the substrate.
They didn’t care what was where – they just started digging. It
became very easy to see why they are called “earth eaters” (the
translation of geophagus) as soon the bottom of my tank looked
like a construction zone. My slate caves were exposed almost to
the bottom of the tank and they didn’t stop when they found
the peat moss so things became a bit messy and cloudy. They
even made cave areas larger by pulling out any extra bits and
pieces they could. Next came plants that were not located to
their liking. Several swords and one huge crypt were uprooted
and left floating in the cloudy water, but after a few days I
noticed that the smaller female was huddled in one back corner
of the tank in a pit and not leaving it. Having some other SA’s
breed for me I thought maybe there was a clutch of eggs but I
couldn’t see anything in the murky water.
Sure enough, a few days later there was a small cloud of fry that
were swimming with the parents. As is normal for most SA’s,
the parents moved the wigglers several times to new pits and
both parents were very good parents guarding the young and
chasing any would be predators away. I was very surprised that
the entire brood was not eaten as the tetras and anostomus can
be quite fast and daring when it comes to picking off easy
meals. The parents though kept a diligent watch over them and
seemed to pay more attention to the other geos. These seemed
to get their attention more often than other fish and the male
would chase them about as far as the tank would let him. The
fry grew and seemed to find a lot of food in the mulm on the
bottom but I also fed them frozen baby brine shrimp, frozen
daphnia and micro pellets. There were about 50 fry. They are
now about half an inch long, growing slowly (I had kribs spawn
at the same time and they are twice their size now) but are still
doing fine in the community tank. Although they have
increased their range that they venture, the parents are still
loosely guarding them and the fry do not seem to be harassed
or targeted by the other tank residents. I now have a tank to
move the fry to so I should be doing that soon.
The geos in question are Geophagus sp. “Red Bahia” and take
on some very nice reds in their fins and coloured up over all
very well with blues and iridescence. The male is only about 5
inches long with the smaller female not yet hitting 4 inches. The
adults are fed with flake once or twice a day (earthworm,
spirulina or cichlid) and conditioned with black worms, frozen
brine shrimp and a bit of beef heart. They also like to go after
veggie wafers. They are generally quite peaceful and a good
choice in a SA community in my opinion. -ED
JohnsFishFood.com
Our company is your number one source for high quality
aquarium products. We surpass the competition, in not only
price, but value as well. We only buy what we ourselves
would use and purchase. We value your business, so any
products we don't have, just ask and we will do our best to
get them.
Check out our web catalog at...
JohnsFishFood.com
18