Geophagus sp. Orange Head "Tapajos"

Also known as "red head," these eartheaters (they are bottom dwelling cichlids that spend a lot of time sifting through the sand for morsels) are a species that don't get too large, up to about 6-7" for domestics, and have gorgeous red coloration. I plan on starting out with #20 1.5-2" fry next week and will grow them out in the 150-gallon, then sell off the extras later, when they start to get some size to them.

They do well in groups, so I hope to retain quite a few of them in this tank long-term. They are relatively peaceful, as cichlids go, and are not secretive, so they won't be hiding in the rocks. I had my eye on Satanoperca (they've their own genus now, out of the Geophagus genus for the time being) daemon, since I see them locally, but the more I read the more I find them to be particularly prone to bloat, and are much more sensitive to water quality. They also reach about 10", which is fine for my 150 if I limit them to about 5, but then I have to be very careful about sex ratios. I am not intimidated by fish that demand clean water, since my water change regimen makes my tanks clean and healthy (see below ember tetra and black neon spawns in my community 40-gallon!) but my recent mysterious disaster with my Tang cichlids has me a bit gun shy. I also prefer the red coloration of the Tapajos.

I will post pics when I get them. I'll likely move my wild P. leopoldi angel down into that tank with them, and try to locate more wild or wild-type (F1-2) angels for this setup - they will go well together.

For the purist making aquascaping recommendations for an eartheater tank, my setup has much too much rockwork - a shameful waste of space!  When you look through Google images for eartheaters the tanks you see will most often be rather spare, with sand, a few flat rocks for spawning, a piece or two of driftwood, and that's it. This lends a great simplistic look to the tank, and is something I admire and tried to recreate with my Tanganyikan setup, but ultimately, in practice, I find the look too simplistic (maybe I'm doing it wrong) and my eye demands more vertical interest, with zones that draw the eye. Somehow this will need to work for the fish and for my stupid "eye," and I hope I can make that happen. Some of the Acaras are cavedwellers and I could stock some to inhabit the caves, but I might just stick with angels and geos (maybe some larger tetras?) and perhaps Peckoltia sp. catfish for the caves at some point, or even cories. That's for later - right now I'm going to concentrate on the geos, then angels, and see where things go from there.