Geophagus Brasiliensis Starving!!

**samiul** · 07-05-2012, 12:43 AM

Hi, i recently purchased a Geophagus brasiliensis from my LFS and it was a breeding male. It is around 7" long and is in a 70g tank with a jaguar cichlid (5" long) and a blood parrot cichlid (4" long).

I have provided plenty of caves and since i have bought the Geophagus brasiliensis, it has rearranged the gravel and created its own territory and does not seem to come out at all, when it does come out and anybody goes near the aquarium, it runs back in its cave. It doesnt seem to be getting bullied as it is the bully in the tank, but all it does is sit in its cave all day.

I have tried feeding it algae wafers, sinking pellets, flake food, cucumber, green peas and bloodworms but whenever they fall in it just ignores the food and lets it fall in front of its face. Can someone please tell me how to get it to eat because i think it is starving and it has started to get thin as it has had no food for just over 2 weeks.

**escamosa** · 07-05-2012, 02:24 AM

This is only a guess, but I think it's worth throwing out there.

You said in your post that you have gravel for the substrate. A lot of the Eartheater cichlids come from areas that have sandy substrates, and their method of feeding is to sift through the sand to find any small organisms or particles of food. Anything that they pick up, that isn't food, they expell through their gills. I'm wondering if it's the substrate that's stopping him from feeding properly.

**samiul** · 07-05-2012, 11:57 AM

The guy at the LFS that i bought it from said that the eartheater had lived in a gravel substrate tank before he got it and whilst he had it, it was in a gravel tank too.

Ok i'll treat them for internal parasites but for what duration, a few days?..

Is there any other types of food i can try throwing in?

**Lady Hobbs** · 07-05-2012, 04:06 PM

Most fish are happier without the tank lights and will vendure out more. Have you tried turning them off for longer periods?

**escamosa** · 07-05-2012, 09:04 PM

L.H. Could be onto something here too. You could always try feeding them later at night, when it's dark, or earlier in the morning. The only other food that I can think of trying him on, would be brine shrimp and spirulina flake. He won't really get a lot out of brine shrimp, no where near as much as the spirulina flake, but it's worth a shot.

**Lady Hobbs** · 07-05-2012, 09:24 PM

Are you sure the Jag is not showing aggression toward the brasiliensis even tho the brasiliensis may be a bit larger? If he'd being dominated by that Jag and trying to stay out of it's way, he will remain in hiding like that.

I do hope you plan on having a larger tank tho because a Jag tops out at 16" and a brasiliensis almost a foot. That's a lot of fish in a 48" tank.

That poor little blood parrot is not going to be happy at all. They can not even fight back to defend themselves. He doesn't have a very good chance against the others at all.