30G Community Stocking Plan

[TPIRman]

Hi there -- my first post. I've been lurking and reading through the archives for a while, and I was wondering if you all might offer your thoughts on my stocking plan for a standard 30-gallon I'll be setting up soon?

It'll be a heavily planted tank with branchy driftwood and a coconut cave or two, if need be. Here are the fish and friends I'm hoping to put in, over a gradual process as each species gets out of my one quarantine tank (and the next acquisition goes in):

6 - Danios (3 zebras, 1 leopard, 2 pearl)
5 - Corydoras julii
3 - Otocinclus
2 - A. borelli (m/f pair)
1 - Dwarf gourami

If I were starting from scratch, I'd get all the same kind of danio, but these six are living happily in a 10G right now, so they're a good group.

As for the gourami, he'll be the last to go in, and if he doesn't get along (there should be enough hiding places with the plants and wood, but who knows), I'll take him out and let him play in his own 5G tank.

Here are my major questions for this plan:

- Will the borellii have enough territory on the bottom with the cories and the otos in there?

- Will I have to raise fry? I know this is kind of a silly question, but I've searched through the archives and can't find a definitive answer as to whether you can keep a pair of apistos and enjoy their behavior without getting too much into the breeding aspect of things. That's something I'd like to do someday, but not today.

Any other advice for an apisto newbie? Thanks in advance for any guidance you can give, and apologies for my novice-ness.

 

[farm41]

You won't be raising any fry with the danio's in there :wink:

 

[cootwarm]

Hi,

I've read where corys don't mix well with fry either. The parents MIGHT be able to protect against 1 or 2, but I doubt they could keep an eye on 5 corys.

Pencilfish would make a good substitute for the danios. You could get as many as 10 or 12 and still not have to worry about them eating the fry.

No problem with oto cats either. As for the gourami I don't know. I've wondered that myself. I think if you had some floating plants, the gourami would probably spend most of his time near the surface.

I've read where many people keep Amano Shrimp in with apistos and I think even their fry.

As for the borellii, in a 30 gallon tank with many plants and driftwood you could keep 2 or even 3 females in with 1 male. Actually I had 3 males and 4 females in my 30 gallon long with no aggression. 3 of the 4 females spawned and successfully raised their fry to maturity in this 30 gallon. In with the 7 borellii the tankmates were 2 oto cats, 6 marbled hatchetfish, and 6 beckfordi pencilfish. The hatchetfish stayed near the surface and the beckfordi pencilfish chowed BBS in a frenzy along side the small borellii fry without bothering the fry at all. Of course when the fry were REAL tiny, the parents would keep even the pencilfish away.

IMO, I think the behavior of multiple families is more interesting than the behavior of one family.

Michael

 

[newworldan06]

Yes go with pencil fish. They are cool and if u were ever trying to breed take the corys out. They will eat the eggs and the parents will have nothin to do to defend against their hard shells.

 

[TPIRman]

Cootwarm and newworld, I think you might have missed in the original post that I don't want to breed the apistos. So as long as the apistos will be healthy and happy, cories and danios are not a problem for eating the offspring.

Unless -- Will the parents be upset/stressed if their eggs get eaten? If it's not harmful to the apistos, it's fine with me. But if it would be too stressful, then maybe this isn't the right tank for apistos.

And thanks again for your comments -- much appreciated!

 

[cootwarm]

Sorry I misunderstood. I knew you didn't want to raise any fry, but I thought you wanted to have fry in the tank so you could observe their interesting behavior. You also said you had a pair and a couple coconut shells caves which sounds like you want fry in the tank.

Without a family to care for, you will miss their most interesting behavior. It's cool to see the parents leading their school of fry about the tank. Also when the female is caring for brood, she turns a beautiful bright yellow. But she won't be yellow very long if her family disappears in just a couple days.

But if thats not what you're looking for...

I don't think that having their fry eaten would stress out the borellii to the point that it would effect their health. They might be frustrated for a short time after it happens, but they'll get over it.

Michael

 

[TPIRman]

Hi, Michael --

Sorry I misunderstood your supposed misunderstanding! :?

Now I see where you're coming from. How do I have fry in the tank without "raising" them? Would I take them out after a while and sell them to the LFS? How would I get them out -- just net them? Again, please excuse my ignorance and the barrage of questions.

I guess I had included the coconut caves because I wanted to give the borellii a habitat in which they would be comfortable (not knowing the caves were primarily for breeding purposes). Perhaps they would be more comfortable, though, if I gave them the planted 10G as a home after the danios have moved out of that tank. This way I wouldn't mind if they started a little colony of fry because it would be easy to keep track of the fry in the little tank (though I'm still not sure what I do with them when they start growing up). I would like to get the most of the fish that I could -- if this tank at this time isn't the best, that's OK.

Thanks again for all the help.

 

[cootwarm]

It's also interesting to see the interaction between the juvies as they mature. So in the 30 gallon you wouldn't need to remove the fry until you think the tank is getting too crowded. At this point you could just net the larger ones. Most any LFS would be glad to get some good apistos.

I let my 30 gallon get pretty crowded. Even with 7 full size adults there was no agression. Also the adults stopped spawning when the tank got crowded. Once I removed the adults, the little ones began spawning all over the tank. Once again, I have 3 families of brood in the same tank at the same time.

I currently have a pair of borellii with fry in a 10 gallon. They are doing fine but the male borellii has nothing at all to do with brood care. Sometimes he has a few fry hanging out with him, but I think they just tagged along with him. The female does most of the care. In the 30 gallon, the dominant male was very active in helping care for the brood of all 3 families.

Michael

 

[TPIRman]

Awesome -- I'm convinced. I'm definitely going to set up the 10G as a borelli pair tank. I can't wait!

And this actually makes considerations for my 30G community a lot easier. Without the borellii, the bottom of the tank isn't such an issue anymore. (I really want those cories!)

Thanks again for everything, Michael et al. -- I'm so impressed with this forum.