Custody Battles Between Gheophagus braziliensis

Epilogue to the 2002 ACA
by George Richter

Our story starts at the ACA in Atlanta. Very sorry if you missed it. It was among the best conventions and Cichlid shows ever. One of the entries in the Cichlid show was a male Geophagus braziliensis. I thought it a magnificent fish and my friend Dan agreed. We both desired to have some like it. Since the reader probably understands cichlidiots (might even be one) it should come as no surprise that neither of us wanted one. We both had to have a pair. No sense having them if you can't breed them, right?

Later Dan located some G. braziliensis for a mere six dollars apiece. They were of a size that Dan and the owner felt could be sexed. The two-inch fish did not look much like the seven to eight inch monster in the show. I was not so sure about their sexability, so at my suggestion, we bought three pair instead of two. This was probably a good idea. The owner held them for us until Saturday night when they were double bagged with oxygen in preparation for the Sunday drive home. Since Dan had flown and I had driven, our six G. braziliensis were remanded to my custody for the trip home.

The fish were checked Sunday morning and appeared fine. I thought about opening the bag and pouring them in a bucket but, as I said, they looked fine. The bag was tucked away in the cab of the truck and forgotten during the 14-hour ordeal. Driving from Atlanta to Richmond was fine, but from Richmond to Reston, Virginia was near bumper-to-bumper. Tired, thirsty, and hungry I did not need any bad news when I got home.

Bad news it was though. All three of the alleged males, which were decidedly larger than the three alleged females, were deader than doornails. I immediately removed the three smaller fish to a twenty-gallon long tank. Just for the curious, the water was relatively soft, PH about 6.5, and the temperature fluctuated between 75 and 80 degrees. It was surprising that these three started picking around the tank for food as soon as they hit the water. The three larger fish had obviously been dead for quite some time, but these three smaller fish, which had been in the same bag, showed no ill affects from the trip at all. I thought it strange but that was just the start of strange. The toughest part of the loss was telling Dan because at least one pair was his.

By the time Dan saw them two weeks later some other strange things happened. It seems that in a very short time, only a matter of days, one of the "females" put on a tremendous growth spurt. After little more than a week this now noticeably larger fish and one of the others had formed a tag-team and took turns brutalizing the third fish. I have seen cichlids kill each other more times than I would like, so fish number three quickly found safety in a fifty-five with some baby pikes. The two remaining G. braziliensis seemed to be setting up housekeeping in a large flowerpot. At this point I was fairly certain that the three "females" were actually two females and a small, subordinate male. I still found it difficult to believe that these little fish were sexually mature enough to be exhibiting the behavior I was observing.

By the time Dan saw them there was some speculation that there might even be eggs in the flowerpot. We observed typical cichlid parental behavior from both fish and repeated trips to the pot indicated that something was going on in there. When we got close to the tank glass, there was a threatening reaction from the male. They were definitely acting like a pair with eggs. In guilt, I gave Dan back his eighteen dollars and told him I would keep him up to date on developments.

Two days later it appeared that disaster had struck. The male had the female trapped in a corner and was relentlessly attacking her. I watched, hoping it was just a lover's spat. I hoped he would quit. He did not. She was cowering. He was attacking. Fearing for the female's life, I slipped a divider (I always keep them handy) between them. I was a bit disappointed but not terribly surprised. If there had been eggs, she might have eaten them, as young cichlid mothers often do. He may have resented it. He probably thought he didn't get his share of the eggs. I took solace in the distinct possibility that I had a pair of G.braziliensis and planned to put them back together after a suitable cooling off period. As luck would have it, the male was left with the aforementioned flowerpot, which he continued to frequent.

After a couple more days it appeared there was something moving on the bottom of the tank covered by the flowerpot. We know hope springs eternal so I figured the movement was wishful thinking on my part. It was very difficult to see in the flowerpot but after a few more days I was sure there was something moving in it. If there had been eggs it was time for them to have hatched and the fry would be hungry soon. I began to squirt a bit of live baby brine shrimp toward the opening in the flower pot twice a day. I expected to see the proud papa swim out leading his brood any time.

At this point I should mention that the proud mama-to-be was still on her side of the divider and doing well. She had healed quickly from the beating and was eating fine. The divider was tightly in place and, though I had considered removing it, I decided not to rock the boat at this point.

I definitely was not ready for Thursday night's surprise. When I went to squirt a little brine shrimp at the pot, I noticed that there was a cloud of babies around mama! A quick check turned up a similar cloud around papa. This was really bizarre. It is impossible to count these little buggers but it looks like about 300 fry. As near as I can tell there are about 150 with mom, and 150 with dad. The divider is in place and it is very tight. Obviously the fry went under or around it but there seems to be no traffic under or around it now. These two fish (mom and dad) had been separated for at least a week. Now mom seems to have custody of her brood and dad kept his. The swarm around dad obviously reacts to his alerts when I poke around. He can easily herd them into either of two flowerpots in the tank. That tells me that those fry on mom's side didn't just wander over there. Dad sent them or mom called them and only half listened.

For those who know more about cichlids than I, there may be no surprises in my tale. One must still maze and marvel at these fish and their amazing parental instincts. There is obviously also some communication we know nothing about. The part that amazed me the most was the even split of the brood. I intend to continue the current living arrangements just to see what happens.

Don't you just love these cichlids!?!?

September 28, 2002