Red Head Tapajos Care?

[Cichlidnewbie23]

I'm interested in some geophagus and i understand that red head tapajos dont get very big. My space is limited and I am wondering how big of a tank i would need to comfortably house a group of these fish. I'm looking for a new tank project to fill my spare time and love SA/CA cichlids and was kinda curious as to what my options are. Thanks! Also some info oon red head tapajos would be great. I already have pool sand on my list of what I'll need for them if i get them. Any other tips for them?

[jgentry]

What size tank are you looking at? I would think a 55g would be a minimum for a pair. Probably really need a 125g to keep a group long term and still give them enough space. You might be able to get away with a 75g for a small group for a while.

They are one of the easier geophagus to keep and breed. They come from soft water but adapt and breed well is most tap water as long as it is kept clean.

[Cichlidnewbie23]

So a 55 for a pair? That's not to bad. I really didn't have a goal for a specific tank size thats really what I was curious about. Looks like ill have some saving to do haha thanks for responding so fast

[jgentry]

So a 55 for a pair? That's not to bad. I really didn't have a goal for a specific tank size thats really what I was curious about. Looks like ill have some saving to do haha thanks for responding so fast

Just remember that the bigger tank you get initially the better. Also consider that a 55g would be for only the orangehead pair and maybe a BN pleco or 2 and a few tetra dithers or something. If you want a community you will need a bigger tank. If you just want to breed a pair a 55g should work.

[Cichlidnewbie23]

yeah ive never been succesful breeding cichlids so a pair set up with a bn pleco and a few dithers would be perfect and i know the bigger the tank the better but i live under the control of my parents who arent exactly fans of my expensive hobby haha

[buntbarsch]

Here is some info that will help you:

http://www.cichlidae.com/article.php?id=308

[Cichlidnewbie23]

Great article. Thanks a lot

[Dean Hougen]

The advice you got from JD on tank size matches very well with my experience and the article by Klaus is wonderful. I would just add that my red heads did not breed for a long time, even though I had three males and three females, and I wondered why mine weren't breeding even past the size and age that everyone else's were. I finally determined that in trying to give them plenty of sifting room I had made their tank too bare. Once I added more driftwood to the tank they started breeding pretty quickly.

They still weren't great parents for me, though. Sometimes they would have mouths full of eggs for a while but no fry would be seen. (Presumably they ate the eggs.) Sometimes they would have fry for a few days and then the fry would be gone. (I'm not sure if they ate the fry themselves or if tankmates did or some combination.) In any case, to get fry to survive I needed to intervene earlier than I do with lots of cichlids. Nonetheless, I greatly enjoyed them and would recommend them to you.



Dean

[Cichlidnewbie23]

Cool thanks for advice Dean. I really hope I get to take care of this species in the future