Add a pair with a solo female?

[pablo]

Hi! I've been keeping fish for a while, but I'm fairly new to Apistos. I've got a 55 gal community tank with various south America species : several tetra, bolivian rams, some corys and a brittlenose catfish. I bought a pair of agassizii earlier in the year, and there were doing well, until I lost the male due to a mistake on my part. Given that they are generally sold in pairs, I'm wondering if I bought another pair, would adding them in with the existing female be likely to cause any problems?

 

[Mike Wise]

Often yes, but it depends on many factors. I personally do not understand why people add potential breeding pairs of cichlids to community tanks. All it seems to do is stress out everyone in the tank to some extent.

 

[Josh]

@pablo welcome to the forum!
any breeding pair is gonna wish like hell that they were alone. so in a way yes there will definitely be issues with the odd-female-out. if the tank is large enough you may be able to reduce those issues to near-negligible but in general it's not a great idea.
of course this excludes any discussion about other tankmates.

 

[pablo]

Thanks, I understand. I think my confusion comes from Apistogrammas being (exclusively?) sold as pair, whereas pretty much every other species you get whatever is on the shop tanks. Looks like I need to track down a lone male instead.

 

[Josh]

Your LFS is selling them as pairs only? Have you asked for the solo price?

 

[Mike Wise]

I think my confusion comes from Apistogrammas being (exclusively?) sold as pair, whereas pretty much every other species you get whatever is on the shop tanks.

The same is true for most killifish. My guess is because males, being more colorful and fancy, would sell faster than females. Shops certainly do not want to be stuck with a tank of drab females. Most aquarium keepers are not really interested in breeding, only looks. I have always thought that killies and apistos could be sold at different prices depending on sex.