Hi all! New to the forum and apistogramma

[neo705]

Hi all,

I got my first apistogramma last week and currently going down the rabbit hole, and what better place to start than this forum.

I'm new to apistogramma, but not new to fish keeping.
I have been keeping fish for 20 years (and I'm 33yo). For the last 7 years I'm aquascaping more than fish keeping but I decided to use my heavily planted tanks as homes to something other than nano fish, for a change.

I have kept and unintentionally bred german blue rams in the past and they were my favourite fish. I can't keep them due to the high temperatures not being suitable for my planted tanks. I then found out that apistogramma are a great alternative that can thrive in more plant appropriate temperatures so here I am.

I hope I don't post too many stupid questions. Bear with me

Currently keeping:
Apisto Borellii (yellow)
Apisto Panduro
Pearl gouramis
Wild Honey gouramis
Sparkling gouramis
Otocinclus
Panda garra
Scarlet Badis
Ruby tetras
Rummynose tetras
L280 pleco
Pygmy cories
Albino cories
Amano shrimps
Red Cherry Shrimps
Nerite snails

 

[KenL]

and welcome.

 

[anewbie]

There is this oddity i never understood - being a genus apistogramma doesn't make it uniquely different than any other cichild or dwarf cichild.

While there are certain rules that can be applied to certain closely related species of apisto (organized by groups and complex); most of these rules are true for any other dwarf cichild.

The only thing i found unusual with the genus apisto is a larger number of polygamous species though this is not unique to them. Just ask anyone who have kept (for example) geophagus in which some are pair forming and other are polgymous.

The worse thing someone can do is declare they own an apisto when asking a question without naming the actual species as if there is uniformity across all apisto with regards to condition it should be kept.

 

[neo705]

There is this oddity i never understood - being a genus apistogramma doesn't make it uniquely different than any other cichild or dwarf cichild.

While there are certain rules that can be applied to certain closely related species of apisto (organized by groups and complex); most of these rules are true for any other dwarf cichild.

The only thing i found unusual with the genus apisto is a larger number of polygamous species though this is not unique to them. Just ask anyone who have kept (for example) geophagus in which some are pair forming and other are polgymous.

The worse thing someone can do is declare they own an apisto when asking a question without naming the actual species as if there is uniformity across all apisto with regards to condition it should be kept.

Thank you for the advice. I wouldn't post anything without specifying the species in fact this is the main source of complexity. The various species.

So far apistos are the most difficult fish to find reliable/ consistent information on...(compared to other types of fish... not other cichlids) and I already messed up worse than with any other fish. See my other thread.

To my understanding the answer to all of the following questions is "it depends".
Can I keep more than one species in the same tank?
Can I have multiple males?
Can I add apistos in a community tank?
Can I keep only females or only males?

And there's a fine line between success and chaos.
Just like many I asked for a m/f pair of panduros and 1m:2f borelliis. They were juveniles so sexing was unreliable. So I ended up with 2f panuros and 2m:1f borellis. If these were darios, or gouramis it wouldn't be the end of the world. With apistos it turns out it is.

Unfortunately what I'm struggling with is that most articles assume I want to breed them when in fact I don't.

 

[anewbie]

Thank you for the advice. I wouldn't post anything without specifying the species in fact this is the main source of complexity. The various species.

So far apistos are the most difficult fish to find reliable/ consistent information on...(compared to other types of fish... not other cichlids) and I already messed up worse than with any other fish. See my other thread.

To my understanding the answer to all of the following questions is "it depends".
Can I keep more than one species in the same tank?
Can I have multiple males?
Can I add apistos in a community tank?
Can I keep only females or only males?

And there's a fine line between success and chaos.
Just like many I asked for a m/f pair of panduros and 1m:2f borelliis. They were juveniles so sexing was unreliable. So I ended up with 2f panuros and 2m:1f borellis. If these were darios, or gouramis it wouldn't be the end of the world. With apistos it turns out it is.

Unfortunately what I'm struggling with is that most articles assume I want to breed them when in fact I don't.

If you don't want to breed them then don't keep males with females and that will solve a lot of your problems.
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As for your questions - it comes down to individual species as some are more aggressive then others and also individual fishes. I had this little runt of a cockatoo male in a 40b but i could never add a 2nd 'nicer' male since he was a killing machine. However i have about 10 a. sp bluketa males together (with females ) in a 65 as they are a much more passive species.
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The general rules is keeping 2 or 3 widely different species of males in a sufficiently large aquarium (40b for example) is fine (widely different part is so they don't think they are competing against each other); but frequently it will boil down to the specific species and regardless of the advice individual fishes can break all the rules.
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As for multiple females in general they will be passive if no male but not always - most people don't keep females as they find the males more attractive but it has been done.
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One thing to be aware is fishes do talk to each other but 'domestic' bred fishes (those with the extra flashy colours) are not able to communicate very well as these artifical breeding has made it difficult for them to use colour to signal intent so domestic fishes are more likely to get into fights than wild caught ones (though they tend to be more tolerant of harder water for a time then wild caught fishes).
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Panduros are pair forming and so a male and female are desired once a bond is form though the female might not like the male you have. Borllie are polygmous so 1 male with 2 females will work out well if the aquaruim is sufficiently large for the females to keep separated and have their own territory.