pearl cichlid

The Pearl Cichlid or Brazilian Geophagus, scientific name Geophagus brasiliensis, belongs to the Cichlidae family. Beautiful and temperamental representative of South American cichlids. Not too friendly to neighbors, requires high quality water, and therefore expensive filtering equipment, and not a small aquarium, so it cannot be classified as an easy-to-keep fish. Not recommended for beginner aquarists.

Habitat

It comes from the river systems of eastern and southern Brazil and Uruguay, flowing into the Atlantic Ocean. Introduced to several countries, including the United States, Australia, Taiwan and the Philippines. They live mainly in coastal regions and lower reaches of rivers, some populations are found in brackish lagoons with permanent or temporary connections to the ocean.

Brief information:

• The volume of the aquarium – from 300 liters.
• Temperature – 18-28°C
• Value pH — 6.0–8.0
• Water hardness – soft to medium hard (5-15 dGH)
• Substrate type – sandy
• Lighting – subdued
• Salty water – permissible in a concentration of 1 tsp. for 10 liters
• Water movement – light or moderate
• The size of the fish is 15–25 cm.
• Meals – any
• Temperament – inhospitable
• Keeping alone or in a formed male/female pair

Description

Adult males reach a length of up to 25 cm, females are much smaller – 13-15 cm. In addition, males have a more saturated color, and an occipital hump develops on the head, which is characteristic of many representatives of cichlids. In the body pattern on a gray-blue background, there are numerous turquoise specks, which are reflected in the name of this species – “pearl”.

All of the above applies to decorative forms supplied for sale. Wild representatives of the Brazilian Geophagus differ not only in size and body shape, but also in color depending on the region of origin.

Food

Accepts all types of popular aquarium fish food: dry, live, frozen. For full development, vegetable and protein supplements must be present in the daily diet. It is advisable to purchase specialized feed for South American cichlids, which have all the necessary trace elements in their composition.

Maintenance and care, arrangement of the aquarium

The minimum volume of the aquarium for one pair of fish starts from 300 liters. Since the Pearl Cichlid lives in nature in a wide variety of conditions, there are no special requirements for design. As a recommendation – you can use a soft sandy substrate, a few snags, smooth flat stones, create subdued lighting and place artificial plants, living ones are likely to be damaged, uprooted.

Water conditions have wide tolerances for pH and dGH, temperature, and possible salt content. Successful maintenance is possible only with high water quality, this can be achieved by using efficient filtration systems and by changing part of the water (50–70% of the volume) to fresh water weekly. In the case of using a sandy substrate, make sure that the mechanical filtration is adapted to the ingress of sand particles and does not fail.

Behavior and Compatibility

A quarrelsome species, especially during the spawning period, when males begin to zealously defend their territory from other fish. Smaller neighbors may suffer. In a large aquarium (500 or more liters) it gets along well with non-aggressive fish of a similar size, in a small aquarium it is worth limiting itself to one or a pair of fish, for example, male / female.

Fish diseases

The main cause of most diseases is unsuitable living conditions and poor-quality food. If the first symptoms are detected, you should check the water parameters and the presence of high concentrations of hazardous substances (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, etc.), if necessary, bring the indicators back to normal and only then proceed with treatment. Read more about symptoms and treatments in the Aquarium Fish Diseases section.