Wot Do I Need To Do / Change To Make My Tank Chilid Friendly?

[Sammy1911]

Hi
I am new to keeping tropical fish, I inherited a tank some years ago with mature fish so this time I'm starting from scratch and have really found the advise on this site to be one of the best for help and honest opinions (please be gentle with me tho lol). I really want your help so I can make a success of introducing the apistos and making my tank the right environment for them to be happy. The tank I have has been up and running for three months now, PH 7.5 GH 16d ammonia and NO3 are both 0, I don't want to be messing around with changing my water chemistry and as I live in the Midlands the water is notouriously hard so I believe from my research that the cockatoo apisto is general more suited to this environment - is this correct? I was looking at the aggassissi but don't beleive this is a hardy enough option for me? Is this right? ideally a pair of both would be a great.

My tank is a cleair 60 gallon dombed front L100*h55*d46 (cm's) running at 26 degrees my filter is a HDOM SP-1500 and I have 2x 30w day/blue night lights. I can't figure out how to reduce the size of my photo so I have attached a link so you can take a look...

http/s214.photobuc...an/Fish%20Tank/

At the moment I have the following stock:
18 neon tetras (keeping!)
2 pearl danios (love 'em and looking to add another 4)
3 platys (trying to rehome - I live in Birmingham UK offering free to good home!?)
3 mollies (trying to rehome - as above lol, sorry to be cheeky but gotta ask lol)


My wish list:
1 siamese alae eater (or 4x zebra oto?)
1 betta (is it right that due to the size of my tank and fish's preferred roaming areas that one of these would be ok with an apisto?? (One forum said this.. but I'm not too sure, one of the guys in another board in fishforum.net said it wouldn't work so am I better off with an angel??)
2 cockatoo apisto's (a must!!!)

As you can see from the piccy (hopefully!) I have two pieces of bog wood position so that fish can swim underneath and a single plant pot with soley live plants around the edge of the tank (toying with the idea of adding some fake ones tho?). Also, the plants are all slanted which is really bugging me is there anything i can do re: changing the position of the filter maybe or any other suggestions? - OCD kicking in a bit there sorry but I want them to point straight up and can't a see a way of doing it...!?

All ideas wanted and are most welcome, I know you know guys know your stuff when it comes to this kinda thing.

 

[snowflake311]

The SAE like to be kept in groups and they can get 5-6". I sure one would be ok. 3 or more would be better.

I kept my poor betta with many cichlids from rams Kokeyholes to discus. Poor guy is 3 years old and I finaly gave him his own tank. He is a 1000x more happy being away from the cichlids. I don't recomend keeping bettas with any other fish that's bigger then they are it can work but you betta will not be happy.

As far as your stock goes I see NO reason why some apisto's would not work. You could even add a keyhole cichlid.

 

[Sammy1911]

Thanks for the great advise, it can get confusing can't it when you google something? Example, I'd heard Bettas only live 18-24mths in captivity and yet yours is 3 years old amazing!! I read somewhere that SAE are best kept in large groups 6+ or on their own. Given the size of my tank I didn't want to overwhelm it with these when I want a good mixed community tank and apisto's as the pride of it. I will take a look at keyholes I hadn't considered one of those... interesting thought though!

Is my tank okay? Are there enough hidy holes? Should I get 1m/1f or is it better to have 1m/2f? Baring in mind I'm not looking to breed 'em (yet anyway, who knows in the future haha) Now if I get a keyhole would I need a female to keep him company too?

Wow sorry about all of the questions, like everyone on here I suppose I want to get it right first time I'm really getting into all of this now my OH says I give the tank more attention than him now LOLOL

 

[snowflake311]

I can not get the photo to come up. The apisto's like lots of wood or branches. Low laying leafs to hide under they live in the leaf litter. The like to spawn in caves keep that in mind.

My first betta back 15 years ago I had for 5 years.