Kinbote Posted June 21, 2011 Report Share Posted June 21, 2011 Has anyone here had any experience keeping tetras, specifically cardinals, with geophagus altifrons / surinamensis? Did they get eaten? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted June 21, 2011 Report Share Posted June 21, 2011 been a few years but i kept cardinals with geos the cardinals were a fair size though lost the smaller cardinals when i put the large Tefe green discus in there though :facepalm: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hovmoller Posted June 21, 2011 Report Share Posted June 21, 2011 I used to have a flok of neons with my G. altifrons... they all disapeared one by one during the nights.. and this was when my Geos were only 1/3rd of full size.. At the price of Cardinals I would definitely not do it.. I have 2 Geos at full size now and I keep some Red Phanthoms, Penguins and Silvertips with them.. no problems at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the-obstacle Posted June 21, 2011 Report Share Posted June 21, 2011 The classic lemons work well and are big enough to not get eaten. They're also cheap I noticed the other day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted June 22, 2011 Report Share Posted June 22, 2011 Looking at the size of my geos I think they'd scoff down a slim tetra like a neon/cardinal no worries. High bodied ones like lemons, rosys etc might be a better bet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hovmoller Posted June 22, 2011 Report Share Posted June 22, 2011 Yeah looking at my Geos I'm sure they don't "mean to" eat a little tetra... they just sort of got inhaled when it came to close :slfg: Little Red Riding Hood comes to mind: "oh grandma, what a big mouth you have!" :sml1: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GZ_Loach Posted June 22, 2011 Report Share Posted June 22, 2011 they will eat anything small, i had a half grown one eat a german ram cichlid. Its not hard to think that something small will get eaten by something big... simple maths. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted June 22, 2011 Report Share Posted June 22, 2011 Its not hard to think that something small will get eaten by something big... simple maths. A guppy would eat a shark if its mouth was big enough... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kinbote Posted June 22, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2011 they will eat anything small, i had a half grown one eat a german ram cichlid. Its not hard to think that something small will get eaten by something big... simple maths. I'm not sure that that has anything to do with maths... but if they'll eat a ram, then the high bodied tetras being recommended presumably wouldn't fare any better either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GZ_Loach Posted June 22, 2011 Report Share Posted June 22, 2011 big fish eats little fish :smln: maths.... fish 3 times the size of X fish = food Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hovmoller Posted June 22, 2011 Report Share Posted June 22, 2011 I'm not sure that that has anything to do with maths... but if they'll eat a ram, then the high bodied tetras being recommended presumably wouldn't fare any better either. IMO GZ_Loach's Geo that ate a Ram must have been one rouge G. altifrons... That would be the exception I think. My G. altifrons male (20+ cm) and female lives happily with 9 Red Phanthoms, 3 Penguins, 2 Glowlights and 1 Silver Tip Tetra... and always have been since the geos were smaller and there were more of them.. it was only the Neons that disappeared... I would keep Tetras with Geos any day!.. just not anything neon/cardinal size. And about the fish math.... way off!... there are some gentle giants out there where this "math" does not apply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted June 22, 2011 Report Share Posted June 22, 2011 The tetras might be faster than a ram and less likely to be eaten? Then again someone of MFK put up a pic of one of their large (20cm+) alrifrons that had choked on a small-ish barb (golden, IIRC), so I'm not sure if I'd count on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kinbote Posted June 22, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2011 The tetras might be faster than a ram and less likely to be eaten? Then again someone of MFK put up a pic of one of their large (20cm+) alrifrons that had choked on a small-ish barb (golden, IIRC), so I'm not sure if I'd count on it. But people suspect that the barb was dead at the time, right? You'd figure that that's got to be the exception -- a species that routinely chokes to death trying to eat things too big for it isn't going to be around for long. Big fish eats little fish is only true as long as the big fish is a piscivore, which I thought the geos mostly weren't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supasi Posted June 22, 2011 Report Share Posted June 22, 2011 FWIW mine have never eaten another fish. They are full grown adults. Had them 3 years. I have kept guppies with them, currently have seven Longfin Zeb Danios and 6 guppies. They spend too much time digging to worry bout the other fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hovmoller Posted June 22, 2011 Report Share Posted June 22, 2011 Big fish eats little fish is only true as long as the big fish is a piscivore, which I thought the geos mostly weren't. I think you are absolutely right.. which is why I joked earlier that that they didn't "mean to" eat my neons.. but if a sleepy neon hangs around in front of their snout they might just grab the opportunity. And yes weird things will always happen like a geo eating a Ram or choking on a Barb but that is out of the ordinary... like 1/1000 chance, and then of course it gets posted on MFK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted June 22, 2011 Report Share Posted June 22, 2011 Yes they aren't predatory by nature, but there are always exceptions to the rule. It depends how hungry they are too, a few days of starvation can make smaller tankmates that were previously fine start looking like potential food. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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