Winemiller's eartheater

Care at a glance

Overview

The Winemiller's eartheater is a sand-sifting cichlid for the bottom of a dark, soft-water tank. It is best with a little experience.

Caring for the Winemiller's eartheater

Keep a group of five or six Winemiller's eartheaters in at least 172 gal (650 L). Give them deep, pale sand with leaf litter, tannin-stained water and subdued light, which is what brings up their color.

Run its tank darker and softer than the average eartheater's. Keep the water at 77 to 84°F (25 to 29°C) and a pH of 4.8 to 6.5. Stable, very soft water matters more for this fish than for the rest of the genus.

Feed fine sinking foods and frozen brine shrimp or cyclops in small, frequent amounts. Winemiller's eartheaters are mostly peaceful and suit calm blackwater company.

It is a delayed mouthbrooder. Breeding it is of moderate difficulty.

Good to know

Geophagus winemilleri, a member of the family Cichlidae, is named for the ecologist Kirk Winemiller. It is a blackwater specialist within a genus that mostly lives in clearer water.

In the wild

Geophagus winemilleri sifts blackwater sand along the Casiquiare and in the upper Negro.

Common questions

Related species

• 

  Neambi eartheater

  Geophagus neambi

  9.4 in (24 cm) · 172 gal (650 L)

  9.4 in (24 cm)172 gal (650 L)77–84°F (25–29°C)

• 

  Silverspot eartheater

  Geophagus argyrostictus

  9.4 in (24 cm) · 119 gal (450 L)

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

• 

  Abalios eartheater

  Geophagus abalios

  9.8 in (25 cm) · 172 gal (650 L)

  9.8 in (25 cm)172 gal (650 L)77–84°F (25–29°C)

• 

  Dicrozoster eartheater

  Geophagus dicrozoster

  9.8 in (25 cm) · 172 gal (650 L)

  9.8 in (25 cm)172 gal (650 L)77–84°F (25–29°C)

• 

  Bigspot eartheater

  Geophagus megasema

  9.1 in (23 cm) · 172 gal (650 L)

  9.1 in (23 cm)172 gal (650 L)77–84°F (25–29°C)

• 

  Panama eartheater

  Geophagus crassilabris

  10.2 in (26 cm) · 172 gal (650 L)

  10.2 in (26 cm)172 gal (650 L)77–84°F (25–29°C)