Guinacara
Geayi - The Saddle-Spot Eartheater.
Written
by Kevin Korotev for the SPLASH, the official publication of the Milwaukee
Aquarium Society, INC.
kevinkorotev@netzero.net
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 they’re 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.