Dicrozoster eartheater

Care at a glance

Overview

This is a peaceful, gregarious eartheater that does best in a group, so keep five or more and let them settle a loose pecking order without real trouble. It works the bottom, taking in mouthfuls of sand and sifting them through its gills for small food, so a deep bed of soft sand shapes how it feeds and behaves. It is harmless to other fish and mixes well in a calm community of medium-sized South Americans. Feed sinking granules and pellets, frozen bloodworm and mysis, and the occasional plant-based food, making sure it reaches the floor. A group of these big sifters needs a tank of at least 450 liters with wide open sand.

In the wild

Geophagus dicrozoster comes from the Orinoco basin, sifting white-sand shallows and lagoons in warm, soft, slightly acidic water. Recreate that with a large expanse of fine sand it can sort through, some smooth wood and rounded stone, and open swimming space above. Keep the water warm and soft, roughly 25 to 29 C at a pH from 5.5 to 7.2, with strong filtration to handle the constant sifting.

Good to know

This eartheater belongs to the family Cichlidae and the sand-sifting surinamensis group, reaching around 25 centimeters. Its name means forked girdle, for the split vertical bar on its flank. It is a substrate-spawning, biparental larvophile mouthbrooder: the pair spawns on the bottom, then takes the larvae into their mouths, so breeding is a moderate challenge in soft water.

Did you know

Telling the sand-sifting eartheaters apart is a fiddly business, and this one is pinned down by a single field mark: a dark bar on the flank that splits into two like the tines of a fork.

Tank mates

Dicrozoster eartheater is a mostly peaceful, social species that keeps to the bottom. These picks match on water type, temperature, pH, size and temperament.

• Fowler's hemiodus

  Bivibranchia fowleri

  Freshwater

  7.5 in (19 cm)106 gal (400 L)75–84°F (24–29°C)

• 

  Hard-lipped barb

  Osteochilus vittatus

  Freshwater

  11.8 in (30 cm)106 gal (400 L)72–82°F (22–28°C)
• Wilder's mouse catfish

  Hassar wilderi

  Freshwater

  9.8 in (25 cm)106 gal (400 L)73–82°F (23–28°C)

• 

  Black-top mouse catfish

  Hassar orestis

  Freshwater

  11.8 in (30 cm)106 gal (400 L)73–82°F (23–28°C)
• Mapire demonfish

  Satanoperca mapiritensis

  Freshwater

  6.7 in (17 cm)106 gal (400 L)77–84°F (25–29°C)

• 

  Nurse tetra

  Brachyalestes nurse

  Freshwater

  9.8 in (25 cm)106 gal (400 L)73–82°F (23–28°C)

Check the full mix in the stocking calculator

Common questions

Related species

• 

  Abalios eartheater

  Geophagus abalios

  Freshwater

  9.8 in (25 cm)119 gal (450 L)77–84°F (25–29°C)
• Panama eartheater

  Geophagus crassilabris

  Freshwater

  10.2 in (26 cm)119 gal (450 L)77–84°F (25–29°C)
• Neambi eartheater

  Geophagus neambi

  Freshwater

  9.4 in (24 cm)119 gal (450 L)77–84°F (25–29°C)
• Silverspot eartheater

  Geophagus argyrostictus

  Freshwater

  9.4 in (24 cm)119 gal (450 L)77–84°F (25–29°C)
• Winemiller's eartheater

  Geophagus winemilleri

  Freshwater

  9.4 in (24 cm)119 gal (450 L)77–84°F (25–29°C)
• Bigspot eartheater

  Geophagus megasema

  Freshwater

  9.1 in (23 cm)119 gal (450 L)77–84°F (25–29°C)