20g Planted Tank (apistogramma/german blue ram?)

xanflisher said:

It is indeed a 20g long.

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Good, that gives you more useable options, some of which I and others have already mentioned.

Perfect, so how many H. sweglesi would you recommend with the single male A. cacatouides if I can get my hands on them?

Worst comes to worst I know I can get ember tetras but the ones I saw didn't impress me at all so hopefully I don't have to resort to that.

Now that I'm looking at a few images on simplyfish, which do you think they would look like? The white is obviously not what I'm looking for.

Now we're into something else. H. sweglesi, prefers the lower half of the water column. Most of the other species in this "clade" are the same. That is the same territory as the cichlids live in...so you can probably see the possible issues this creates. Upper level fish--like the pencilfish and hatchetfish mentioned earlier--provide better tankmates for this reason. In a significantly larger tank, this would not really matter because the pair of cichloids could establish their space (as when they spawn) and the other fish like the tetras here could easily avoid the territory. But in this small a footprint, it is not so easy to do, and depending upon the temperament of the cichlids, both male and female, this might not work. I don't want to recommend a fish that will get torn apart later.

As for the colours in the photos, can you provide a link to "simply fish"? All I get doing a search are fish restaurants and markets. I will however say that my group of the Red Phantom looked like the photos below, from Seriously Fish.

My mistake it was seriouslyfish, I just brain farted. I saw those photos along with a few more that looked white-ish, which is why I was confused.


But seeing as though you don't recommend these anyways, I guess it doesn't really matter.

Ugh. I'll try to think of more red schooling fish.

Get the embers. Let them settle in to a well planted tank and they will soon colour up.

xanflisher said:

My mistake it was seriouslyfish, I just brain farted. I saw those photos along with a few more that looked white-ish, which is why I was confused.

Hyphessobrycon sweglesi – Red Phantom Tetra (Megalamphodus sweglesi) — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

But seeing as though you don't recommend these anyways, I guess it doesn't really matter.

Ugh. I'll try to think of more red schooling fish.

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OK, the off-colour are man-made varieties for longer fins or whatever.

Naughts said:

Get the embers. Let them settle in to a well planted tank and they will soon colour up.

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You think? I'll found a google photo of what they looked like in the shop vs. what I want them to look like. I also don't plan on doing a heavily planted tank especially considering I haven't bought my first live plant yet, probably more of a moderately planted tank. Do you think that would have the same results?

Byron said:

OK, the off-colour are man-made varieties for longer fins or whatever.

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Gotcha. Thanks for your help sorry for being such a pain in the ass LMAO. This is my first planted tank and I thought it would be an awesome project to have an Apistogramma Cacatouides with a matching red/orange shoul.

GaryE said:

That male isn't going to know a female will never show up

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Thanks, this is Golden!

Naughts said:

Get the embers. Let them settle in to a well planted tank and they will soon colour up.

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@xanflisher
I agree depending on how long they've been there, I would watch them for a couple weeks,

From my experience they are very hearty fish!

vanalisa said:

@xanflisher
I agree depending on how long they've been there, I would watch them for a couple weeks,

From my experience they are very hearty fish!

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Sounds perfect, I'm currently using the 20g for quarantine of a few Glofish I picked up for my 29g, so I'll check back on those embers and others when I visit fish stores. This particular one was a Petco, so it's good to know that they carry them because that typically means the other ones in the area do too.

I have to go to a different Petco soon anyways to get root tabs so we'll see!

xanflisher said:

You think? I'll found a google photo of what they looked like in the shop vs. what I want them to look like. I also don't plan on doing a heavily planted tank especially considering I haven't bought my first live plant yet, probably more of a moderately planted tank. Do you think that would have the same results?

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Pardon me if I am misreading here, but just to be certain...I doubt you will see Ember Tetra as red as the second photo. At least, not unless they are now artificially doing this with dyes or something. I think that photo is on the site of the Aquatic Plant Society, but I can't see a credit for it so no idea where they got it from, or if it is touched up (as I suspect).

The species Hyphessobrycon amandae is yellow-orange in colour, much as the first photo attached to this post; my former fish were this quite brilliant orange hue. This attractive little fish was discovered in 1986 by Heiko Bleher, and described and named in honour of his mother, the explorer Amanda Bleher, by Gery and Uj in 1987, and apparently there is a second colour form of lemon yellow which is not found in company with the described fish and thus may possibly be a distinct species. My last group purchased were more yellow than orange, and they have not coloured up equal to the orange fish I previously acquired (they are together).

Byron said:

Pardon me if I am misreading here, but just to be certain...I doubt you will see Ember Tetra as red as the second photo. At least, not unless they are now artificially doing this with dyes or something. I think that photo is on the site of the Aquatic Plant Society, but I can't see a credit for it so no idea where they got it from, or if it is touched up (as I suspect).

The species Hyphessobrycon amandae is yellow-orange in colour, much as the first photo attached to this post; my former fish were this quite brilliant orange hue. This attractive little fish was discovered in 1986 by Heiko Bleher, and described and named in honour of his mother, the explorer Amanda Bleher, by Gery and Uj in 1987, and apparently there is a second colour form of lemon yellow which is not found in company with the described fish and thus may possibly be a distinct species. My last group purchased were more yellow than orange, and they have not coloured up equal to the orange fish I previously acquired (they are together).

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Well damn okay. I knew I probably wouldn't get ones THAT red, but I was definitely hoping for something close to it. I would be okay with ones that have a nice orange to them, but the ones that I saw were more of a clear, (like the first photo above) rather than orange.
Whether these were colored down, were too young to show color, or this batch specifically had poor color, I don't know.

Just try to wait it out... Maybe take a few pictures and post them on here and some of these other experts can weigh in on the fish.