apisto tank

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

Fair enough, but your experience may be the exception. The dozens of fish of this species I have had since the 1980's is a lot of fish to gage with. And I have had fry several times, but the males sometimes go after them too. I have this in my 40g at the present time.

Or perhaps yours are the exception!
Within the hobby, we have the problem of 'normality' being a statistical fiction.
I remember a discussion once were someone argued that, from a sampled survey, a finding could be made and showed the statistics to 'prove' it. Unfortunately, they failed to take into account the Great Unknowns...in other words, all of those who had not participated in the survey.

 

[Byron]

Or perhaps yours are the exception!
Within the hobby, we have the problem of 'normality' being a statistical fiction.
I remember a discussion once were someone argued that, from a sampled survey, a finding could be made and showed the statistics to 'prove' it. Unfortunately, they failed to take into account the Great Unknowns...in other words, all of those who had not participated in the survey.

The profile on SF mentions this species is relatively peaceful but should not be kept with other surface fishes such as hatchetfishes.

Nannostomus beckfordi – Golden Pencilfish (Nannostomus anomalus; Nannostomus aripirangensis) — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

If you want to argue the behaviour of this species just to argue it, please do so with the trained and knowledgeable biologists, not me. I listen to these people because they know more than I do, and that is how we all learn from the moment we enter school, or at home from parents. My personal "experience" is no more relevant than anyone's, but when it accords with the majority of evidence, enough said.

 

[anewbie]

i recently moved and had to give all my fish away and i'm ready to set my tank back up, its a 40 gallon breeder and i'm pretty set on apistogramma cacatuoides but just those arent going to gill up my tank, i dont really know what can go well with them but i'd like to know what possible tankmates i could put with them, like maybe a school of some tetra or top dwelling fish, a school of catfish (not cories, could even be a singular bottom dweller) possibly some shrimp. any suggestions welcome

Do you intend to breed them ? The general rule is that if you want them to breed successfully try for pencil fishes (generally won't eat the frys) and maybe pygmy cory but skip tetra, pleco, .... if they are just for decoration then most small sa fishes work fine. You can do lemon blue eye pleco if you want and pygmy or orange laser cory. most tetra are also fine though i would recommend the smaller ones. You couold get some ember tetra and kubotai rasbora if you want green and orange fishes (rasbora are not sa fishes but i'm not purist).

 

[fishy fishy wishy]

i do intend to breed them now but i woulf like some sort of fish that would clean the tlass like a pleco but those fish seem off the table huh, so we're lookin at maybe 5 females, 1 male, maybe a few pencilfish (i dont know how many) and i plan to have some shrimp in there no matter how many get eaten

 

[Byron]

i do intend to breed them now but i woulf like some sort of fish that would clean the tlass like a pleco but those fish seem off the table huh, so we're lookin at maybe 5 females, 1 male, maybe a few pencilfish (i dont know how many) and i plan to have some shrimp in there no matter how many get eaten

Pencilfish are all shoaling species, so you need a group, and with these I would say 9-10 is absolute minimum, and a few more would not hurt. All the same species, just to be clear. Depending upon which species (pencilfish), other fish are possible too. Nothing will effectively clean the glass, as the biofilm that develops on all submerged surfaces attracts alge as well as microscopic critters. A sponge scraper used on the front glass, and side panels/back if you want those clean too, at each water change whether you see anything or not. This preventive avoids problem algae that can quickly appear and spread on glass.

 

[Gypsum]

I have N. marginatus, just to be more specific. I tried Nerite snails in the tank. One died and caused an ammonia spike, which led to the sad deaths of a couple pencils. The other disappeared. We dismantled the tank, afraid of another ammonia spike. No sign of it. About a month later, we found it behind the sofa.

Now it's only the pencils and the apistos.

 

[Cydeth]

I've got four tanks with apistogramma currently and I would also recommend a group of pencil fish to go with them.

I currently have Nannostomus Marilynae in the tank with my Macmasteri, and they work great together. The pencils are quick enough to stay away from the apistos and don't really venture too close to the fry. They are a very small fish so you would need quite a few, and at least where I live they are not easy to source.

I've got Nannostomus Beckfordi with my Bitaeniata, and while they do not fin nip the apistos they are very active and tend to go too close to the lower parts of the tank while chasing each other. That normally results in them being chased away by the apistos, although no real fighting seems to occur. These pencils would not be my recommendation.

In the other two tanks with my Panduro and Cacatuoides I currently keep groups of Nannostomus Eques, and honestly these would be my suggestion for anybody else. They stay away from the more contested areas of their tanks and show zero interest in the apistos, choosing to spend most of their time swimming in the upper third of the tank. They are often found close to or amongst the roots of their floating plants.

In three of the four tanks I do not keep bottom dwelling fish, but in the largest I do keep a small group of kuhli loach which have so far not caused any problems.

All four tanks contain a few nerite snails.