Geophagus Winemilleri

So about a year ago I took the Geophagus plunge. I bought four Geophagus Winemilleri and four Geophagus Red Head Tapajos from Jeff Rapps at tangledupincichlids.com. They've been growing out in my 125 gallon and are coming along nicely. I've added a couple of more since then as well as Geophagus Surinamensis. They're really colorful and that's what drew me to them in the first place.

My Story:

A few years ago I bought some 30 gallon tanks from a guy who was breeding Geos. He spoke highly of them at the time, but lamented that he couldn't find many people in our area willing to buy them. He was keeping Red Head Tapajos at the time.

Eventually, I tried one of the Red Head Geos, which was a mistake. It seems like a waste to have just one Geo and mine didn't do well in a community tank with more aggressive species. That was my fault for not understanding them better. I moved him to another tank before eventually losing him.

Over time though, I became more intrigued by the idea of keeping a group of Geos in a larger tank. I went in search of Winemilleri after having seen some photos of them and it took a while to find some available. They're probably my favorite fish now. I moved my Africans to a 75 to convert the 125. Initially, I had them in there with Rotkiel Severums (seen in the video above) but the Geos are now in there by themselves.

The Winemilleri are the larger fish in the video. The Red Heads the smaller ones. I hope to get some quality pictures to post here sometime soon.

Additional Notes:

Geophagus, or Earth Eaters, get their name from the way they scoop up tank substrate (ideally sand or dirt) into their mouths and spit it back out. In this regard, they're great at helping to keep the bottom of the tank clean. It's also very unique behavior that's entertaining to watch.