Christmas Stocking Craziness - please help!

[Ellie Potts]

Had to leave the forum for a week or two... but I am back! And with plenty of questions

I'm very fortunate to have friends and family that support this hobby, although none of them seem to really understand it. That became apparent this Christmas when a few decided to buy me fish unaware of the preparation that goes into picking out a new species. I was given a pair of apistogramma cacatouides, 3 apistogramma borelli, and a male betta fish. I did ask for the cockatoo apistos, as I'd like to breed them. Currently all of the apistos are no bigger than a half inch so I've felt ok putting them all in a 20 gallon long temporarily. I don't know much about the borellis and their temperments yet, how they interact with other apistos, nor do I know the gender of the 3 fish. I listed below the current information of my three tanks... any suggestions on how to arrange the fish? Or which to get rid of?

55 gallon standard - 1 dwarf gourami, 11 harlequin rasboras, 2 (hopefully more soon) siamese algae eaters, 2 mystery snails
20 gallon long - 2 apistogramma cacatouides, 3 apistogramma borelli, 4 venezuelen corydoras catfish, 1 mystery snail
10 gallon standard - 1 male betta fish

I've attached pictures of what was labeled as the cockatoo apistos (first picture) and the borelli (second picture). I didn't expect to get them so young, so I'm not entirely sure what I'm dealing with.

 

[Wills]

I would put the borreli in the 55 you might have e some issues with the gourami but it could work as they take territory in different levels of the tank so shouldn’t clash too much.

 

[Ellie Potts]

I would put the borreli in the 55 you might have e some issues with the gourami but it could work as they take territory in different levels of the tank so shouldn’t clash too much.

that did cross my mind. Should I wait for the borreli to grow some so they're not at such a disadvantage? They really are teeny

 

[Gypsum]

Borellii are one of the more chilled out apisto species and might be fine with the gourami. They shouldn't stay with the cacatuoides, though. I've got a male and two females in a 70L tank, and they chase each other a wee bit, but nothing excessive. Females are about eight or nine months older than the male, so I'm waiting for the male to mature and then hopefully they'll breed. One of the females is raring to go.

 

[Ellie Potts]

Borellii are one of the more chilled out apisto species and might be fine with the gourami. They shouldn't stay with the cacatuoides, though. I've got a male and two females in a 70L tank, and they chase each other a wee bit, but nothing excessive. Females are about eight or nine months older than the male, so I'm waiting for the male to mature and then hopefully they'll breed. One of the females is raring to go.

Do you think they shouldn't stay with the cacatuoides because they cacatuoides will bully them or the other way around? I imagined if one species was going to be territorial it would be the cacatuoides but that doesn't seem to be the case. Half the time I can't even find the cacatuoides. I'll have to move the Borelli's soon; I'm worried about the cockatoos getting enough food. Perhaps it's because they're slightly smaller for now.

Should I wait for the borelli's to get a little bigger before moving them? I'm nervous their small size will put them at a disadvantage with the dwarf gourami

 

[Colin_T]

Assuming the tanks are all cycled and have established filters.

Shove the borelli in the big tank now. They will find food. Add some plants to the big tank if you don't already have many in there. Chances are the borelli are all males because the Asian suppliers don't send out females. Local breeders will supply males and females to the shops.

The borelli won't care about the gourami.

I would move the Cories into the bigger tank too so there is a pr of cacatuoides and a mystery snail in the 20g tank. When the cacatuoides breed, move the snail out so it doesn't eat the eggs. You can put it back in after the babies are swimming about.