Longbody eartheater

Gymnogeophagus mekinos

Also known as Mekinos gymnogeophagus

FreshwaterFish

Longbody eartheater (Gymnogeophagus mekinos) — The Wet Spot Tropical Fish · Used with permission

Care at a glance

Temperature: 61–79°F (16–26°C)
pH: 6.5–7.8
Adult size: 5.1 in (13 cm)
Minimum tank: 66 gal (250 L)
Temperament: Mostly peaceful
Social behavior: Social
Swim level: Bottom
Difficulty: Medium
Breeding: Medium
Rarity: Rare
Origin: Uruguay basin
Family: Cichlidae

Overview

A slender, mild-mannered eartheater for a temperate tank. It is social and better in a small group than alone, so keep several and give them open sand to sift. It feeds along the bottom, sorting food from mouthfuls of substrate, and it is peaceful with other calm fish of similar size. Like its relatives it prefers cooler, seasonal water to constant heat. Feed sinking foods and small frozen invertebrates. A group is comfortable in about 250 liters or more with a long open floor and fine sand.

In the wild

Gymnogeophagus mekinos lives in the sandy runs of the Uruguay river drainage in southern South America, water that swings with the seasons rather than staying tropical. Give it a soft sand bed for sifting, some wood and smooth stone, and gentle flow. Keep the pH from about 6.5 to 7.8 in soft to moderately hard water, and let the temperature range cooler across the year, roughly 16 to 26 C, with a genuine winter cool-down.

Good to know

This is a South American eartheater in the family Cichlidae, described in 2015 as one of several new Gymnogeophagus from the Uruguay basin. It reaches about 13 centimeters and is the most slender-bodied of its genus. Its name comes from the Greek mekinos, meaning prolonged or elongate, a direct reference to that stretched shape. Like other members of the genus it is a mouthbrooder, breeding at medium difficulty.

Did you know

Its genus is full of stocky, sometimes hump-headed fish, but mekinos took the opposite build. The name is Greek for elongate, chosen by the scientists who described it in 2015 precisely because it is the slimmest, longest-bodied eartheater of the group.

Tank mates

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