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Numbers of fish actually depends on how your tank is decorated. What other fish do you plan to be in the tank with the apistos? I personally would keep only a trio, but could be possible to keep 4 fish if for breeding only.
Tank has some plants, drifting wood roots. Intially i had rams but i moved them away. I keep nannostomus marginatus there and 4 baby angels. the purpose is viewing, if occasional successful breeding occurs, ill be happy though (we all like these tiny guys). Trio as of 1m +3f ? or you mean 1m+2f (the latter i had a bad experience)
Could be other bottom dwelling fish from the same habitat?
A trio is 3 fish. Will a trio succeed. I don't know because I don't know how you designed your tank to accommodate a territorial species like your apistos. Base on your 'bad experience with a typical trio, my guess is that you do not have enough visual territorial boundaries for more than a pair. Adding an extra female will only cause more problems. Next: "A community tank is not a breeding tank" (where have I heard this??). Personally, if I wanted apistos with angelfish and other bottom-dwelling fish, I'd only keep 2 male apistos of different species/shapes.
thank you, this tank seems to have territories but it might be not enough. do you or anyone have any examples of tank with well designed visual boundaries? My agassizii travel through whole tank circumventing even bulky wood elements.
Yes i know this mantra that ‘a community tank is not a breeding tank’. It is not supposed to be a purposely breeding tank, however Angels are there only for some time until they grow a bit though.
A search of past posts show tanks that exhibit such boundaries. I don't know about others, but I can't see any reason why one would want to stress out a peaceful community tank by adding a breeding pair of cichlids.
If you put a backing on the back and at least one of the ends of the tank it would help. I don't paint the back and sides I use dark coloured card and just tape it on.
After that <"just more structure">, wood, twigs, dead leaves, plants, it doesn't matter what you use.