Geophagus crassilabris

6. July 2007

Geophagus crassilabris

Very large animals, up to 20 cm, came to us from Colombia. These beautiful fish came as well from the Rio Chacu. These eartheaters live in nature in a habitat of moderately flowing streams and rivers. Remarkably for this group of eartheaters is the way they breed their eggs, not as normally in the throat area, as known with most mouthbreeding cichlids, but in the oral cavity. With this type of mouthbreeding you can clearly see that the fish are spreading their operculum and need to expand their upper lip. The lips of G. crassilabris are clearly thicker then its two relatives, G. steindachneri and G. pellegrini. These fish should not be kept in pairs but as a group with one male and several females as known with many Malawi and Tanganyika cichlids. This mating system is called “open polygyny”. These eartheaters are easy to keep and eat all available fish food, including flakes and tablet food.(Text: I. den Daas, Photo: F. Schäfer)

Angaben zum Tier
Herkunft Kolumbien, Rio Chacu