Apistos In The Community Aquarium

[tenohfive]

I've been thinking about keeping apisto's for nearly a year, and have decided I'm going to take the plunge. They'll be going into a community aquarium though, so I'm after some advice regarding numbers:

Its a 90L tank - 3ft x 1ft x 1ft, heavily filtered, no other cichlids/dwarf cichlids in the tank - just a mix of corys, loaches, danio's (and soon) rainbows. At the moment decor is quite sparse but before I add anything else I'll be adding plenty of bogwood and a couple of rock complexes, with medium planting in between. I've kept tang's and have a larger new world setup so I'm keen to create territories as I'm thinking about adding more than one type of apisto. The territories will be at opposite ends of the tanks so far as possible.

I was thinking about adding cacatuoides and agassizii, but only if its a workable arrangement. Does this sound like it could work?

 

[BigTom]

Are you adding pairs or single fish? If they're going to be breeding then I'd be extremely hesitant about adding more than one type. I kept agassizi in a 90L community and it was barely large enough for the female to avoid the male when they weren't spawning and for the male to hide from the female when they had. She came close to killing him a couple of times immediately after spawning despite it being a heavily planted setup with multiple caves. Fantastic fish though.

The corys and loaches might catch some flack as well, although none of mine were ever really injured. Rainbows I have no experience with.

 

[minxfishy]

Yep got to agree with Tom here, a single species apisto would be fine, but I think you'd be pushing it with more than one pair in a 90L. Personally Id go with the agassizi's and the rainbows, assuming you mean praecox or threadfin would be no problem at all.

 

[tenohfive]

Yep its praecox I'm looking to get - have kept them before and think they're gorgeous. Not made my mind up on numbers, but a reasonable sized shoal. I'd be surprised if anything can keep up with them to give them stick.

Thanks for the advice, I'll just go for a pair of agassizii then.

 

[mattbond]

my mate had his cacatuoides breed with praecox in the tank no problem, his male died 4 days after he saw the fry and the female still raised 5 to adulthood in a community tank ( with ruby barbs!)

 

[tenohfive]

Change of plan - when I got there Wildwoods had sold out of praecox, so on a whim I got some pentazona barbs. (I already knew a bit about them, and knew they're perfectly peaceful.)

I was on the point of getting a pair of apistogramma agassizi when I saw another pair in another tank that looked very similar but were marked up as apistogramma sp. something like 'super red' or similar. Much more impressive. Will post up for a positive ID once they're settled in, but they looked like some of the more impressive pic's of seen of agassizi.

Quick question - would a Ram (or pair ideally) be an option with the apisto's? I've kept Rams before (as you can tell by my avatar) but not with apisto's, and I was wondering if there might be aggression issues between the two.

 

[mattbond]

from what ive heard, i think rams would definately conflict with apistos in a 90l
can u get a pic of those apistos? they could be either super red agazzis or cacatuoides

 

[tenohfive]

They aren't cacatuoides, completely different body shape (and colouration.)

Will get a pic up this evening.

And I was looking at the tank last night and in my mind its not big enough for rams with the apisto's and the rest of the stocking. Think I'll get a peacock goby instead at some point.

 

[Craster]

I'd suggest getting a second female apisto - I always found that my female was constantly harassed by the male when they were kept as a pair.

 

[tenohfive]

I'd suggest getting a second female apisto - I always found that my female was constantly harassed by the male when they were kept as a pair.

A trio crossed my mind but they only had a pair in at the time. I'll see how they get on and if there are harrassment issues I'll see about sourcing a second female.

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[mattbond]

what ph is your water? cockatoos are generally more forgiving than any of the others

 

[sswm]

ph wont matter if they are tank bred so dont worry about that unless they are wild...you should be fine with a pair and enough hiding spots...the male will chase the female prespawn and then female will chase the male postspawn, for the most part, I think that a second female may take more abuse from the one female if it spawns than a pair will cause eachother together

 

[tenohfive]

pH is around the high 7's - low 8's (its awhile since I tested in all honesty, something I've been meaning to get around to for a little while.) That said theres a lot of bogwood, so more likely in the 7's. Will test later on this week. As far as I know they aren't wild - the place I got them from does have alot of wild fish for sale, but from what I can remember these weren't marked up as such. Water quality should be pretty good (which in my experience counts for alot with any cichlid) - minimum 40% weekly water changes and a reasonable level of overfiltration.

They seem to be settling in quite happily so far, no major aggression issues - the male tends the chase off anything in his path, and occasionally chases the female but not often.

Heres some pic's for your perusal. Best quality I could manage with my old Kodak mini-SLR type thing:

Female:

Male:

 

[mattbond]

they are stunning! i dont know what they exactly are though

did you get them from wildwoods?

 

[tenohfive]

they are stunning! i dont know what they exactly are though

did you get them from wildwoods?

Yep. I rave about the quality of fish there, but the photo's above (and when I get round to it, the photo's of my c.sajica, t.ellioti and blue acara from there) really justify it.