Japes' 2010 Eartheater Work/Photolog

[japes]

The redheads are gorgeous! Are they commonly available over there? unfortunately we don't get them here.

Pardon my ignorance, but what are the "new littlies" you are being shipped?? Looks like another stunning species we don't get. So many reasons to jump the ditch, a big pay rise AND more earth eaters.....

Most common Eartheater over here alongside "Surinamensis" (G. brachybranchus) - both variants, Araguaia and Tapajos are now commonly available, with the Araguaia variant at about $14ea from wholesalers. They breed like rabbits.

The new littlies are Geophagus cf. argyrostictus "Aripuana".

S. leucosticta board their plane on the morning of Monday, June 7. Just said the other day that I couldn't sell them. Grabbing an overhead flash setup tomorrow so I've got a bit over a week to work on getting some memorable photos to add to the collection before they're shipped off.

 

[David R]

Man where do you guys get all the wild caught stuff and new varieties like that?? I thought you had stricter import laws than us...

 

[Sword625]

November 18, 2009:

Now spawning every fortnight - can't tell I purchased the DSLR here

Did you grow out any of the fry when your orange heads were spawning this frequently or did you just leave them in the tank and let nature take its course?

 

[japes]

Did you grow out any of the fry when your orange heads were spawning this frequently or did you just leave them in the tank and let nature take its course?

I wouldn't say it's a case of nature taking it's course, no matter the end result, as they're in such a confined space. I was never interested in raising the fry as I never had the facilities to do so at the time. For the first couple of months the eggs never made it through the first night as they became a meal for the parents, but the couple of spawns just prior to selling them they were finally wising up.

Unsure of how they're doing with the current owner.

 

[Player_Hater]

Japes ...your thread was the final straw in my decision to start my own (not so strict)amazon biotope. So for that i thank you but... wow does my bank balance really dislike you atm.

in a matter of 2 weeks i have started a small grow up tank consisting of
9 x Geophagus sp. "Orange Head"
2 x L201
4 x L002
2 x corydoras metae
10 x corydoras julii
2 x Otocinclus macrospilus
5 x unknown dwarf pencil fish
all fish are under 1 1/2 inch atm

and 10 x Geophagus steindachneri aka cowheads - waiting on them from a breeder to reach a decent size ( 6 weeks time )

all fish will be moved into a new 4x2x2

its been a long long time since ive started a community tank in which all fish are very peaceful towards one another and not hunting each other down for food or fun.... looking forward to growing these geos up

 

[msudawgs56]

Beautiful fish and tanks!

 

[dovii22]

Wow...tank, fish, and photography are all very nice. Well done!

 

[GhostShrimpMan]

Hey Japes, what type of camera do you use for these marvelous pictures?

 

[cichlidian1]

Thanks Japes for the chronological pics of the tapajos growth.

I have been getting into geophagus since seeing your threads and peathenster, and JK47 I think.

I just got 5 little tapajos and was wondering how they would look throughout growing this helped immensely. THanks

 

[japes]

I'm using a cheap Canon 400D setup with a EF 50mm F/1.8 II.

all fish will be moved into a new 4x2x2

Good to see other people getting into the community orientated Eartheater setups, but with 9 Orange Heads you're overstocked, even without the 10 steindachneri. I wouldn't recommend keeping any more than 6 adult Orange Heads in that sized footprint, so you might have to look at thinning down the shoal when males are around 5".

As for tank updates, the 6x2x2 decor has been rearranged as the first of three lots of sales has taken place, with all of the Tetra being sold tomorrow. S. leucosticta ship on Monday.