Geo In A Gravel Tank

[jackel931]

I am guilty of impulse buying the other day at the fishstore... I bought a beautiful geophagus surinamensis that was about 6inches (if that matters). anyway I did not know that they thrive in a sandy or fine substrate environment and I have regular gravel in my tank. I always see him sifting threw it and picking up pieces and spitting them out. Is this going to damage him?? Should I just take him back?? Im worried that it may not be good long term for him, as of now he looks okay. He is still shy (I guess cause I only had him for two days) but besides that he looks very healthy. Does anyone know if he will be okay in an regular gravel tank

 

[jackel931]

does anyone know anything about geos?

 

[Azaezl]

I don't know anything about them really but I did have a geo for about 4 weeks as she came with the tank I bought. That had gravel in and she was constantly picking it up and spitting it out, the previous owner had her for quite a while too(at least a year I think) and that was with gravel. As far as I know she's still alive and healthy producing plenty of little geo's for her new owner who has a male.

If they thrive in sand then perhaps you should change over from gravel to sand, it's not hard to do, I've found all of my fish prefer this, esp. the one's who like to sift through the substrate. I even have it in my goldfish tank after a few rather nasty incidents where I had to remove gravel that was trapped in my moor's mouth.

 

[jackel931]

oh really? i would like to do that but i really dont know how to change a cyled tank over to sand without restarting...

 

[Azaezl]

Drain 50% of the water into a container, add your filter / heater to this & any fish you have.

Drain the rest of the water, remove gravel, add sand(after it's been washed) add 50% new water(de-chlorinated obv.) top up with the old water out of the container, put everything back in, simple but time consuming. It took me about 3 hours to do my 66G but I had pre-washed the sand so didn't have to worry about that.

Any questions feel free to ask

 

[jackel931]

nice that sounds like a do-able task. i will have to try it... ij ust need to wait a couple weeks until this semester is over and I have time, but I will let you know how it turns out.

 

[jackel931]

do I have to put the filter and heater in the same container as the fish? am I supposed to turn the filter on in the container im holding them in? could i just put the filter media and heater in a seperate container then the fish?

 

[Azaezl]

Sure as long as the media is in tank water, the heater can just be left out.

I would recommend keeping it in with the fish depending on how long it takes you. It only took me about 3 hours so I just put the fish in numerous containers near a radiator(on a low temperature) to keep the water warm, but really the temperature shouldn't drop enough to worry about(unless your house is very very cold).

The bacteria will be fine as long as kept wet(in tank water) up to I think it's 6 hours, but if you want just to be on the safe side maybe run the filter in it's own container of tank water.

 

[jackel931]

thanks for all the help!