Gymno. Rhabdotus

[aaron]

Hello,

First post here, but was told this community was full of knowledgeable people.


After reading about Gymno. Rhabdotus in an article on The Cichlid Room Companion I became interested in doing a species tank. What appealed to me were the behaviors described in the article and the fact that I could have multiple pairs breeding and guarding their respective territories at the same time. I am a little confused about the information I am finding on them. Are they indeed called Rhabdotus and why was the species originally called Australis? Do they max out at six inches or four?

Finally, can you give me some basic information on the husbandry required for Rhabdotus? Would 12 individuals be a manageable number in a six foot 125g? How do I handle the cool down period and what temperature do they require?

Thanks all,
Aaron

[aaron]

One more question,

Behavior wise how similar is Rhabdotus to meridionalis? Is one more aggressive than the other?

[Bas Pels]

Lots of questions

@ size - assume 10 cm 4 inches is quite close to the max. It might depent on the origien, some varieties are a bit larger than others, but I never saw a 10 cm bodylength G rhabdotus

@ name A lot of fishes have been sold under the name G australis. In fact I once got a group fishes under this name (I had never seen real australis) which turned out to be G rhabdotus or closelyu related

@ amount of fishes in a tank. In a 180 * 60 cm footprint tank (6 * 2 feet) I would perhaps raise 12, but I would not expect to keep 12 adults. I keep mine in 140 * 50 cm footpring tanks in winter, and not more than 6 adults (together with G gymnogenys) even though serious breeding is never performed in winter - and in summer they are in my garden, in 1* 1 meter footprint ponds

@ cold I keep my Gymnogeophagus in a room with 9 tanks, and the window is open. I'm thinking about adding a greenhouse (unheated, openable in summer) to my house, to use the ponds in winter too. The problem is, G rhabdotus (and the closely related species) can be found from Montevideo, Uruguay in the south, northwards up to quite far in Brasil. Montevideo has in summer 20-22 C (~65-70 F) as day average for 3 months and in winter 10 C (55 F or so) as day average for 3 months while the northern fishes have something like 35-30 C in summer and 15 C (60 F or so) for 2 months in winter

You could try to winter them in an unheated room, mine, from near Montevideo, get slow ~12-14 C, and guite often face 10 C

@ further - decorate the tank with multiple territoria, so that the fishes have 'natural borders' in the tank. They are bottom feeders, which means in nature that their diet is lots of algae and thus low protein. However, that do get a lot of vitamins inside, and you will not do them a favour by feeding them lots of dead ex frozen animals

personally, I use prepared food, flakes, with lost of vitamins and minerals - search for the low protein ones under 40 %

[aaron]

Thanks for the information!

Is This article a good representation of the species?
http://www.cichlidae.com/article.php?id=40