Tannin Aquatics
CCA Members
Those of you who know me well are aware of the fact that I tend to favor small, relatively docile fishes, like characins- the "Teacup Poodles" of the aquarium world.
Well, I may favor those fishes in my tanks, but I do have a healthy respect and admiration for some of the more- shall we say- "hardcore" fishes...like the so-called "Eartheaters" (families Acarichthys, Biotodoma, Geophagus, Guianacara, Gymnogeophagus, and Satanoperca). This lively and diverse group contains some of the most endearing and interesting cichlids around. With a surprising number of our customers wanting to incorporate botanicals in setups with these fishes, I couldn't NOT take a little look at them in "The Tint", right?
(Gymnogeophagus balzanii. Photo by CHUCAO, under CC BY-SA 3.0)
And of course, the name of the genus Geophagus contains the Greek root words for "earth" and "eat", as if to reinforce the popular collective name. So, in case you haven't figured it out by now...they dig in the sand to get food...oh, and they poop.
A lot.
But you probably already knew that, and I'm the last guy you really want to write one of those "Review of the Eartheaters"-type articles, so we're going to focus more on the kind of environment you'd want to set for these bad-asses, from a botanical perspective, of course.(click to read more)
Well, I may favor those fishes in my tanks, but I do have a healthy respect and admiration for some of the more- shall we say- "hardcore" fishes...like the so-called "Eartheaters" (families Acarichthys, Biotodoma, Geophagus, Guianacara, Gymnogeophagus, and Satanoperca). This lively and diverse group contains some of the most endearing and interesting cichlids around. With a surprising number of our customers wanting to incorporate botanicals in setups with these fishes, I couldn't NOT take a little look at them in "The Tint", right?
(Gymnogeophagus balzanii. Photo by CHUCAO, under CC BY-SA 3.0)
And of course, the name of the genus Geophagus contains the Greek root words for "earth" and "eat", as if to reinforce the popular collective name. So, in case you haven't figured it out by now...they dig in the sand to get food...oh, and they poop.
A lot.
But you probably already knew that, and I'm the last guy you really want to write one of those "Review of the Eartheaters"-type articles, so we're going to focus more on the kind of environment you'd want to set for these bad-asses, from a botanical perspective, of course.(click to read more)
