Favorite Gymnogeophagus

[Quo Vadis]

To those you who have kept them what is your favorite, both to look at, and for personality? I am going to be ordering some, but I havent narrowed down the species enough. Im considering Balzanii, sp. 'Blue neon', Gymnogenys, and Labiatus.

Meridionalis are beautiful but too small for my needs, and Australis just dont seem as pretty to me.

 

[Mr.dempsey]

To those you who have kept them what is your favorite, both to look at, and for personality? I am going to be ordering some, but I havent narrowed down the species enough. Im considering Balzanii, sp. 'Blue neon', Gymnogenys, and Labiatus.

Meridionalis are beautiful but too small for my needs, and Australis just dont seem as pretty to me.

I really like both my meridonalis and gymnogenys, if it helps I would trade my meridonalis group for balzanii if I got the chance.

 

[evojoey]

I'm a huge balzani fan. I have 12 of them now, but will be selling off a bunch once I figure out my m/f ratio.

 

[christian333r]

Gymnogeophagus gymnogenys

[video=youtube;XFo1cJJdBaA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFo1cJJdBaA[/video]
The dominat male is beautiful!

 

[jonskom@yahoo.com]

I like the Labiatus myself but I want a group of both the Gymnogenys and the Labiatus.

 

[tlindsey]

Gymnogeophagus gymnogenys

[video=youtube;XFo1cJJdBaA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFo1cJJdBaA[/video]
The dominat male is beautiful!

+1

 

[duanes]

The term gymnogenys seems to have been a catch all term (much like xCichlasoma) for the gymnogenys clade that were at first thought to be location variants, known by the rivers or areas they were caught in, such as Cuaro, Las Tunas, Potrero, etc,etc
at some point they may either be broken up into different species or?????
Gymno labiatus may also be split into more than one species (there are El Tigre, Big Lips, quilero, and more in that clade
This site below breaks many down and shows photos of many
http://aqvaterra.com/cichlids_other_fishes.php
Here are the 3 species (types I have kept and photographed )in no particular preference order
balzani

gymnogenys sp. Paso Pache

quilero (AKA yerbalito)

 

[decoy50]

Some of the other gymnos may have more color, but its hard to beat a male balzanii. That head they get is just unique & they have pretty decent color in their own right too. If you've ever seen a male in person, its a hard fish not to have on your To Keep List.

 

[ryansmith83]

The yerbalito are the only Gymno I've seen in person at my LFS and they are beautiful. I actually went back to pick some up after thinking about them for days later, only to find they had come down with some kind of nasty disease (velvet, maybe?) and so I passed on them. But when they first came in their maroon color was outstanding.

 

[ryansmith83]

Also, from Ken Davis on one of his Uruguay collecting trips, here is Gymnogeophagus (ex)meridionalis... Beautiful fish.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=865206&d=1333462498