Geophague steindachneri (red hump) - Jan/13/2011

[charles]

Finally empty one of the small tank. So I decided to stripe the two holding females of the red hump. This type of geophagus steindachneri is mouth breeder. I have a 1m/3f group in with the geophagus heckelii. All 3 females were holding. One of them released in the tank and all the heckelii were thrill to have some live food.

The other two females hold till full term. First female released 30+ fry. Second female released 20+ fry. Both fish is about 3". Now I have 50+ fry swimming in a 27g tank.

For anyone who wants to try breeding some mouth breeding geophagus, I still have a few of this mature fish available. Quite nice in coloring as well for the male...

Here are a few photos of them...

Male...



Holding females...

[2wheelsx2]

Very nice Charles. How big is that holding female now?

[jay_leask]

when i had my pair i didnt realize that she was carrying babies, i thought the male got a hold of her lips and almost ripped the off. after the second time it happened i actually seen the fry.

[charles]

they are only 3". No more female holding, I milked all of them.

[turtlez]

Just a question, are Geophagus Balzani mouthbrooders? I picked up 2 last week and it turns out they are a breeding pair and only 2 inches, they laid eggs on a rock and the other fertilized it, but I didn't get to see what they did with the eggs after because my turtle ate them

[charles]

Tough to find Balzani. That is a good pick up. Though laying eggs at 2" is quite young.

Did you see she has some eggs on the rock and then it get fertizied? If that is the case, then yours are not Balzani. Balzani will lay 1-2 eggs at a time, and she will pick up before laying more.

[turtlez]

Yeah I was shocked to see they layed eggs so fast. One of them laid them, and while the other fertilized them the other fish beat the crap out of my geo red heads, a surinamensis and a heckelii! lol it was quite amazing. I think they were just about to pick them up but then my turtle smelt caviar and it was over. There were very few eggs there and she definately has lots more eggs, the bottom of her belly has a large swell, I think they are just looking for a safe place to lay them again.
One of them looks like http://www.simulationeight.net/fish/july31/balzanii.jpg
and the other looks like Google Image Result for http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z3/edburress/balzanii/fish017.jpg

Sold to me as "Balzam Geophagus", but King Eds always labels stuff wrong :P I got 3 Surinamensis and 2 of them ended up being Red Heads last year. The Balzani were 2 for $30 together, but had no idea they were male and female or a breeding pair, there were quite a few in the tank, I guess it was just a lucky pick