58 replies to this topic

[Anka]

Hi guys,

 

Thinking of setting up a geo + discus display tank when/if I manage to find the time and money to do so.

 

My tank is 4x1.5x2.

 

My questions are:

- What earth eater species are readily available in Perth?

- What substrate is best - I presume it's sand? Will river sand be ok?

- Is my tank large enough to house them?

- How many could I fit without overstocking?

- What are decent tank mates?

- Will they play along with L-numbers?

 

I look forward to replies

 

Thanks

Andrew

[DinPerth]

Watching this post with interest as was about to post something similar.

I have 6 Geophagus sp. "Tapajos Orange Head" on Order.

Cheers

Duncan

[Anka]

Hi Duncan,

Where are you getting the orange heads from?

Regards,

Andrew

[DinPerth]

I contacted Paul at Morley Aquariums he said he could get them in for me.

Give him a shout.

Cheers

Duncan

[Redevilz]

Geos will be fine with most plecos.

River sand is great for geos

[Anka]

Thanks guys.

Where is the best place to purchase river sand? Soils aint soils?

 

Also, can you keep any variety of plants? Or will they dig them up constantly. I'm ok with them digging them up accidently from time to time, but if they are going to do it a lot I won't bother with plants.

What décor is recommended? Rocks and wood?

[Bermont]

keeping geos and discus may not be too easy, the geos require much harder water then the discus, as for available species in perth, red horse face, green horseface, red/orange head tapajos, red hump tapajos, rio brancos ive seen so far, threadfin acaras are also available but i believe they arent actually geos, as for digging up plants, they sift the substrate so much i doubt any plants would last unless you can a good way to anchor them down and a deep substrate.

[DinPerth]

I am going with river sand from soilsaintsoils. River rocks from bunnings(largeish from $3.97 each). Driftwood prob with some javafern tied on.

[Anka]

I would love to tie java fern to driftwood but I can't help myself from only putting fish and plants from the same region together

[DinPerth]

I would be the same, but after getting my own fish room at my new house I have had to bend to my wife's will on what goes in her display tank.

It will be interesting to see how her BGK gets on with the Geo's although I have to say he has never hurt any of our other fish.

[werdna]

Ronny mixed one bag of ADA aqua soil in with the white sand. Looked great IMO and helped buffer too.

[Buccal]

Usually mixing substrates look out of place, but that looks well balanced and nice.
By looking at some pics recently of Ponchos old geo set ups, I'm sure there's some info to come from that direction.
Ronny also from looking into his history would be pretty close to full bottle to.

Anka, you've been a bit limited,,,, a six x two x two would open up how far you can go.
Text book info are not be all and end all for telling you what you can and can't do.
What can work for some may not or others.

Display discus do fine in up to 7.8ph even water being on the hard side.
Mine breed constant fortnightly in medium hard ph 7.8.
Bad parents though.

Personally I think a 4 ft is border line and likely you won't get away with it not being 2x2 wide/high.
Both species would be happy in same setting/environment but they are at home in being in groups.
5-6 Geos and 8-6 discus would go ok approaching full size in a six foot.
Your 4ft would serve above for roughly 1-1.5 years I'd say if starting with small fish.

[Kleinz]

My guys are in a planted tank, but they excavate around plant trunks and I have to fill it in again from time to time. They don't unearth anything entirely. They seem to like the cover melon swords (South American!) give, and I have some crypts in there as well.

 

My sand is just river/play sand with upaqua aquasoil mixed in. I think it looks fine and helps keep the plants fed and hides the crap. To get a pH shift, you'd need a lot more, though.

 

There are a couple of items of driftwood, and some rounded soils aint soils river rocks. These are placed to protect plant roots while establishing, and the surinamensis use them to spawn on .

 

I have some orange spots growing out in there as well as whiptails and an otto, but see the OS rarely. They are perfectly OK with these, but I do make sure the cats are bigger than food-sized before they go in.

[Poncho]

geos don't prefer hard water, the same basic water parameters apply to both types of fish you want.

 

I'd recommend going with the tapajos as they are a smaller sized geo and you'd fit a group of 5-6 adults in that tank - although as Buccal said, a six foot would be much better. Tapajos are easy enough to get a hold of in Perth.

 

If you don't want tapajos then a pair of brachybranchus aka surinamensis would go ok. Someone was advertising columbian venezuala fry here not long ago - they are awesome but get pretty large. Def 6 ft minimum for those.

 

A sandy substrate is best, just avoid sharp grained sands as they will sift it constantly. Make sure there is heaps of cover for them to retreat to and if keeping plants, place some large pebbles around the stem and they will find it difficult to uproot them.

[Anka]

Thanks for all the comments guys.

 

Tapajos seem to be the prettiest so I'd probs get them.

 

The plan is to get an 8ft'r when I get my own place in a couple years. So I'd probs get 5-6 juvies/young adults and keeping them with 4-5 discus and maybe some corys or l-numbers, for at least 2 years. Will that be too much? Happy to leave the discus out if it would be better without them. Any recommended tank mates Brett?

 

Re: sandy substrate. What would you consider "sharp grained sands"? How does one determine that a sand grain is too sharp? Was thinking river sand from soil aint soils. Will that be ok?

[Buccal]

Keep them small to begin with, and you may go a bit longer.
Discus are happy to take upper perameters as long as you train them up to begin with using discus feeding rings.
Freeze dried blackworms they relish.

Some people use Garnet sand that's used for sandblasting, this is what's considered as sharp and irritating.
River/play sand is ideal.

The Cory's are great in this situation,,,, they really liven up the setting without intruding on other species.

I think these days both geo and discus are acclimatized better to non-modified tap water perameters.
Not saying its preferred by them,,,, but they most certainly accept it and stay happy.
As already mentioned, my discus breed fortnightly (bad parents though) and my tapajos have punched me out copious fry in medium hard water with a ph of 7.8.
You can easily tell when tapajos are not happy as the colors through fins don't show and deep orange over head almost completely fades away.

[Poncho]

sharp sand is when the grains are angular not round. River sand would be fine. I guess to work out if it's too sharp - push your hand into a bag of it. If it hurts then it's too sharp. Angular would be stuff like aragonite - but you wouldn't get that anyway due to buffering properties

 

I kept my geos with Uaru and they were great, but wait for that 8 fter before you get them. Corys and plecs would go well but I don't see any problem with the discus either. Angels would be another good choice and I also kept silver dollars with my geos successfully. Depends what you like.

[Ronny]

Personally, Id say a 4x1.5x2 is too small to have geos and discus. I'd go with one or the other as the geos require a decent size foot print for their sifting and discus are better kept in numbers.

 

Everything else seems to be covered

 

I currently have 8 wild caught discus in a 4x2 with some tetras and some dwarf cichlids (apisto and bolivians) and that is about as much as I'm willing to put in there due to tank size. 

[Jules]

Due geos really need substrate?

I want to keep a nice school or two in a 5x3x2 (if my mate sells it) that will have ray pups in it hopefully, but will be bare bottom.

[Buccal]

Ronny's and Poncho's advice will be more purist, being the advice will be based on the set up to suit and bring out the natural behavior to fully admire the specie.
There's a difference when asking a question.
Being,,,, what will suffice to keep healthy and happy.
Or, what are the full requirements.

I have two full size pairs in just under a four foot tank that's 450mm wide and 340mm high.
A terra cotta dish a each end of tank with a rock in between.
Glass bottom,, no substrate.
They breed, race up for food and follow me walking past.
Both pairs respect one another when it's their turn to breed.

I'm doing it, but it's not something I go recommending.
Comes down to how far you want go.
Worth trial and erroring.
What's unfair to the fish and what's not ???? It's interpretated differently between one aquarist to another.