Geophagus - Possible Issue

[firemike]

To the Geo Keepers/Fans

My display tank at home is ready for Geo's - (should I stumble on some juvenile leucos).

Recently I was at an Aquarium shop requesting these lovely fish and they stated that Leucostica's are not actually available, they would have to be incorrectly labeled Jurupari. I know they are similar but can someone confirm whether this is true or not?

http://eartheaters.qldaf.com/index.php?page=leucosticta

tells me the complete opposite and based on this forum, I would think the aquarium shop has it wrong.

They went on to mention that I should tread very carefully as Jurupari are very prone to coughing disease and can easily wipe out your tank. This put a few alarms up as I don't want to spend $100+ on fish to see them die and wipe out some of my other fish. Have any of the leuco/jurupari keeping experienced this disease?

I thought Geophagus in general were fairly simply to keep. Any feedback is appreciated, especially any common issues for leuco/juruparis.

[E4G13M4N]

From my understanding the store has it wrong, jurupari are misslabelled leuco's going by all the information i have found, jurupari are rare in the hobby world wide and were misslabelled from the start.

But try and tell some people that, that has bought them as jurupari .

If the research has changed i will gladly take it back,

[dobbin4]

I beleive the same.Store wrong.

There are not many true jurupari around & you can do far better than the $$$'s your talking on here with leuco.

If your looking for some try the search up top right. Mattzilla has some great photos on here as well of his

[LEG-IT]

i also heard they were very prone to Hole in the head disease if water conditions were bad and if they were stressed to much

[dobbin4]

Hole in the head disease if water conditions were bad and if they were stressed to much

You hit it on the head,Dont keep any fish in bad water or your going to get some sort of disease.

[mcsx]

I beleive the same.Store wrong.

There are not many true jurupari around & you can do far better than the $$$'s your talking on here with leuco.

If your looking for some try the search up top right. Mattzilla has some great photos on here as well of his

Correction, there are no true Jurupari in Australia.

There's talk about a few other variety's around, but i haven't seen any for years.

Store is wrong, only thing currenly available would be Satanoperca Leucosticta.

coughing disease, no idea what that is, but they are prone to hole in the head, best way to avoid this is remove any carbon in the filter, and keep the water changes to weekly changes of 40-50%.

Cheers Mark~

[firemike]

Correction, there are no true Jurupari in Australia.

There's talk about a few other variety's around, but i haven't seen any for years.

Store is wrong, only thing currenly available would be Satanoperca Leucosticta.

coughing disease, no idea what that is, but they are prone to hole in the head, best way to avoid this is remove any carbon in the filter, and keep the water changes to weekly changes of 40-50%.

Cheers Mark~

Thanks for the replies all. 40-50%, is this the case for most geophagus breeds or do leucos require better conditions?

[E4G13M4N]

all fish when it comes to water quality

[japes]

Everyones covered it, no S. jurupari in Australia.

When talking about water quality, percentage changes and schedule are of far less concern compared to softness. These fish do not do well in hard water, so if your tap water is rock hard, invest in RO or don't bother. I raised my S. leucosticta (Mattzilla's now) for 18 months in 4dgH 4dkH pH 6.8-7.1 water with no issues whatsoever.