Guinacara Geayi - The Saddle-Spot Eartheater
by Kevin Korotev
from Splash, newsletter of the Milwaukee Aquarium Society
Aquarticles.com
I was wonderfully surprised to see a tank full of Guinacara geayi, about a
year ago (Christmastime 2002), at the PET WORLD WAREHOUSE, on South 27th Street, here in
Milwaukee. I have come to visit this store regularly. It seems to often have a species or
two other local stores do not. This fish, the “Saddle-Spot Eartheater”, was an
excellent example. I have never seen them anywhere else in town.
Juvenile, at 1.5” inches, the fish is high contrast black and white and shaped,
roughly, like a ram. I have jokingly told friends that it is the only fish I would
recommend keeping over white gravel as the whitish body contrasts the saddle-spot, cheek
stripe and gill cover markings beautifully. There is, even at this age, a hint of
iridescence in the body. It remains a hint and seems to simply tease you into thinking the
fish will someday blossom with color like some eartheaters do in maturity. The pictures in
the Thomas Weidner book:”South American Eartheaters” do not represent the color
I first saw in these PET WORLD WAREHOUSE fish. One caption even states that, “The
yellow color…is even noticeable in juveniles.” My fish never appeared yellow.
Maybe it was diet, genetic strain or some other factor that contributed to this.
Guinacara geayi needs clean, cool water. I was warned of this by Tom Wojtech
and quickly learned through experience that he was right. Stress was noticeable when the
temperature ever got above 78 degrees or the water changes became infrequent (Once!). I
experimented with water values during their youth and never made any breakthrough
observations. They don’t seem to care much if the water swings a little acidic or
alkaline. I settled on the easiest: simple straight Milwaukee tap water.
I kept 6 individuals (a dominant male, a submissive male and 4 females) in a 45 gallon
high tank with large rock pieces and one hollow log (all but one spawn occurred in this
log, no matter which female was involved). I suspect the volume of water was less than 30
gallons. They didn’t dig much until they began to spawn and only minimally then. It
was impossible to distinguish the sexes until they were nearly a year old. By then their
behavior, more than their appearance, gave them away. The dominant male did, however, have
a slightly greater slope to his forehead, seemed a little larger and rarely displayed the
full ‘saddle’. The females did display all sorts of color patterns in defense of
their temporary bond with him or their spawn.
Here is a perfect description of breeding behavior, lifted from Thomas Weidner’s South
American Eartheaters:
'The pair formation is initiated by the male through lateral display, but it is the female
who makes her choice of mate and is often dominant within the partnership. However, the
male does not always take well to being "under her thumb", and this often
results in small quarrels between the pair. The partners almost always indulge in lateral
threat when they meet, and often the opercula are spread as well while the pair circle
nose to tail. At the same time there is often a greeting ceremony with an exchange of
small gestures by which the partners recognize each other. If two unpaired individuals
meet then they very rapidly start delivering small bites to each other's flanks, and if
the argument is not resolved in this fashion they face each other and threaten each other
frontally with opercula outspread, and they may even resort to mouth-fighting.'
Once a pair has formed then they very soon seek out a well-protected home in which to
spawn after it has been excavated by both partners to their mutual liking.
After intensive courtship, during which the pair circle nose to tail with all fins
spread, the spawning takes place in the cave (or sheltered spot), with the female
attaching her eggs mainly to vertical surfaces and only extremely rarely to the
overhanging "ceiling". The numerous (up to 400) green-grey eggs are very small
(1 - 1.5 mm) and adhere by their long side. After four days the larvae are freed from
their shells by the female and collected together on the floor (of the cave). During the
next seven days the wrigglers are tended almost entirely by the female, while the male
guards the immediate vicinity of the breeding cave. If the male should stray too far from
the cave, the female dashes out and reminds him of his paternal duties in no uncertain
terms, by ramming him several times in the flanks.
The female is very fond of hiding the larvae in little nooks and crannies where they
are better protected from attacks by predators. After a total of 11 days at 26C the now
free-swimming fry are led around by their mother in the immediate vicinity of the breeding
cave. The male now also participates in the direct care of the brood, and alternates with
the female in leading the young. The parents are extremely vigilant in their leading of
the young, and both parents guide their offspring in the desired direction. The coloration
of the opercula is undoubtedly very helpful in so doing, as the eye-stripe is now reduced
to an opercular spot, very prominent during this phase, and which can be used by the fry
for orientation as the parents invariably remain above them. Often the lips too are very
dark, and this, together with the conspicuous black ventral spines, is an additional help
in orientation. The fry are guided by means of jerking of the body, twitching of the fins,
and leading. Fin twitching clearly indicates danger, as on this signal the fry sink to the
bottom and remain there motionless. When the parental fins are spread the fry rise up
again. At nightfall the fry are collected together by the female and concealed in nooks
and crannies in the floor of the cave. Although the male repeatedly tries to enter the
breeding cave he is never allowed to do so. The rearing of the fry is not particularly
difficult, as once free-swimming they can manage Artemia nauplii immediately and do so
extremely greedily. Unfortunately they grow only very slowly, so that a lot of time and
effort must be invested before they are large enough to go to new homes. The good news is
that they are themselves in turn sexually mature at a length of 8 cm, i.e. at 9-12 months
old.
My geayi favored me with about 8 frustrating spawns. Each one was interrupted somewhere
short of free-swim. In retrospect, a female or two should have been removed from the tank
as I suspect their individual eagerness to be “next” upset the balance. I would
not have wanted to be the guarding female in that tank. Large numbers of eggs or recently
hatched fry would simply disappear. Only once was this a case of the female moving fry to
another location and after she did, the fry slowly disappeared anyway. Finally, after the
particularly large 9th spawn, I pulled the whole log and placed it in a 20 gallon long
tank I had set-up with water from the 45. I set a gentle current through the log with an
impeller trimmed powerhead. This worked wonderfully well.
A couple hundred fry exist today, about 60 days from this last spawn. They are easy to
care for, eat well, grow very slowly and are just beginning to show their saddle-spot. The
parents have moved on to Tupper, Lake New York for further adventures.
Check out the South 27th Street PET WORLD WAREHOUSE.
Get the book.
Enjoy your Eartheaters.
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