Justin, see his previous thread.
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?500445-What-type-of-geophagus-are-these
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?500445-What-type-of-geophagus-are-these
Geophagus Pellegrini or Geophagus Crassilabris?
- Thread starter mrwinkle
- Start date
Okay, I will spill the beans. I got them from a fellow MFKer 7 months ago who sold them to me as 1.5" "Geophagus Pellegrini". I did my own research and came to the conclusion that they were not Pellegrini, but I only thought this because of how rare and expensive they are; also, because I am a novice when it comes to Geophagus.
I started an Id thread simply asking "what are these?", without giving any back ground information because i have noticed if you state that you may have a rare and expensive fish, let alone a whole group, people will automatically assume that they are not that species because they are " Rare and expensive".
Example:
I wanted a non bias assessment and that is what i got from THIS thread.
Once we got it narrowed down to only a few possibilities, I decided to test the waters with these two possibilities.
So my next questions are:
Why do they grow so slow?
What can i do to provide the best husbandry for them, temp, ph, food, substrate color, etc?
What size do they start breeding?
Are the Geophagus sp. "orange head" Tapajos good tank mates for them?
I will be putting them in a 100 gallon tank for now.
Not sure how I missed that thread.. It looks like you and I are on the same page though correct? To me it looks to be either or of the two species and not much else. I leaned more towards the crassi's than anything else but if they are sold as pellegrini then in all likelihood that's what they are.
You baited me!
As I mention above, I was fairly confident in my ID but if they were sold as pellegrini then that's most likely what they are. That species was brought in last year through a few sources so rare or not they are around. As I mention above, juvies can look heavily one species or the other especially with such similar species as these two.
1) They should not grow slow. You say you've had them for 7 months? How big were they when you first got them? You may need to bulk up the feeding or change to a more quality diet/pellet. I feed my juvie crassi's 1mm NLS.
2) I keep mine (all SA's) in higher temps, 80-84 degrees. My water is on the hard side for pH (7.8) but it's better to leave yours as is than mess with it. A high quality pellet is a good staple. Once a week I feed large frozen krill and give one day without feeding. Substrate color is irrelevant. Sand or small smooth pebbles is fine. Both species come from sandy to rocky substrate in their natural habitat but it needs be smooth.
3) all hump heads in the "crassilabris complex" breed at small sizes 2.5"-3".
4) I've never kept any humphead with orange heads. In a 100 gallon tank I would not mix them. I would keep one male and all the rest females, your best bet 4+. They are a harem breeder and need multiple females per male. They do not pair for life.
If you want an interesting tank put them in with a rotkeil severum pair. Great colors together, smiliar water perams, care, diet etc.. They will not be competing with one another like another geo species would. That's my $0.02
I would say that they probably are pellegrini, then. I had assumed you bought them from a LFS as "Red-Hump Geo" or something like that, since you were asking for an ID. It would be pretty odd to buy a generic Red-Hump and have it turn out to be pellegrini, but since that is what they were sold as, I suppose that is probably what you've got.
Thanks guys for the info. Dan F I didn't mean to single you out, you just happened to be the nearest victim no hard feelings 
Ok. I feed them hikari cichlid gold. Justin I notice you do a 50% wc a day. I know you have a drip system, but it has motivated me to up mine. I do 3 25% a week will change to 4 per week @ 50% . And I will feed them more as well. How do I tell the male from the female?
Ok. I feed them hikari cichlid gold. Justin I notice you do a 50% wc a day. I know you have a drip system, but it has motivated me to up mine. I do 3 25% a week will change to 4 per week @ 50% . And I will feed them more as well. How do I tell the male from the female?
Thanks guys for the info. Dan F I didn't mean to single you out, you just happened to be the nearest victim no hard feelings
50% WC per day is overkill so your call, with a drip system it's an easier choice than manual labor. It's just what I decided to do while they are small for a better growth rate. With harder water the growth rate slows IME so upping the WC regiment to keep DOC's as close to zero as possible keeps their energy invested in growth not dealing with DOC's and hard water.
Sexual dimorphism is easy as they age. The males will develop a nuchal hump although small will be there, they have a taller body profile and are more colorful. Females have no hump, a more torpedo body shape and are less colorful.
sorry to chime in so late.
after spawning pellegrinni for almost a year now i would say they are pelligrinni,they look like every baby pelligrinni i have grown out.
plus quite a few pet store should have them now i have sold to a few pet stores between nj,ny,maryland and philadephia.
and i sold a few at the aca in dc a awhile back so there is a few members with them.
dont understand why folks so they are so rare an expensive when i was selling them not to many members wanted them and i was selling at a very reasonable price.
hell i even gave away a bunch because i was over run with babies.
after spawning pellegrinni for almost a year now i would say they are pelligrinni,they look like every baby pelligrinni i have grown out.
plus quite a few pet store should have them now i have sold to a few pet stores between nj,ny,maryland and philadephia.
and i sold a few at the aca in dc a awhile back so there is a few members with them.
dont understand why folks so they are so rare an expensive when i was selling them not to many members wanted them and i was selling at a very reasonable price.
hell i even gave away a bunch because i was over run with babies.
^ This happens with me all the time. I've offered some juveniles over the last few years that were highly sought after when they were on vendor lists as wilds, then I couldn't even give the fry away. People will stop spawning them and in a few years people will go back to saying they're rare and they can find them...
