An experimental cichlid tank .... your thoughts please !

[Zincubus]

I have a little experiment going at the moment .

I have a very heavily planted tank about 20 gallons with the following ALL living happily !!

Every fish is very young and under an inch in length .

2 Apistogramma panderini (pair)
2 Apistogramma pulchra (pair)
2 Apistogramma cacatuoides (pair)
2 Borelli Cichlids (Pair)
2 Keyhole Cichlids (pair)
4 Checkerboard Cichlids (tiny)


The only two fish who had a problem with each other was the female panderini and the male pulchra but they took it in turns to "chase" each other .. ... there was no outright winner so they both get on with each other ( well tolerate each other ).

=Amazingly the only fish who has claimed a little patch of tank is one of the TINY checkerboard cichlids

I realise that this tank is only peaceful because they are ALL such yopung fish but it is fantastically intersting to watch them all going about their business.

As they grow I will simply move them to other tanks.

 

[Zincubus]

To be honest I did a little research about these little beauties and decided to try them togther in a heavily planted tank . Bear in mind that they are ALL unsed an inch long - the checkerboard and pulchra's are only half an inch long.

Nothing sinister going on - I just had a feeling that they would get on as they are so young -and thankfully for the last month or so - they have.


I have 3 other mature tanks ready and waiting if any problems develope.

 

[Zincubus]

Incidently please excuse any spelling mistakes.

Initially I put in the tiny 4 checkerboard cichlids in with no problems other than ONE of the little fellows claimed a little patch in the path of the rising air bubbles

One week later I added the little pair of Apistogramma cacatuoides - all six got on beautifully ,

A couple of days passed and I added the pair of Borelli Cichlids these are the biggest pair at just over an inch long . Again no problems at all .

Then a few days later one of the local fish shops had some Apistogramma panderini in stock so I bought two and popped them in with the others.

Within about half an hour the female panderini had "taken" the front of the tank at ground level and proceeded to chase any of the others out of her little patch .... after a short while I decided to remove the pair of panderinis to make life easier for the others .

A couple of days later in another fish shop - I found a pair of Apistogramma pulchra hiding under some bogwood in a very busy tank of 5" clown loaches - the little pulchras were terrified. They were the last two of a batch and the fish shop had just dumped a new stock of loaches in .

Anyway I got them both for £5 / $10 and they appear to be a pair . Very attractive AND interesting to watch.

When I got home I introduced them and expected no problems as they were so small - under an inch - but the dominant one decided that HE would have the front of the tank as HIS patch .

Anyways to cut a long story short the next day I decided to give the pair of panderinis a second chance in the community . and LO and BEHOLD a strange thing happened .... the female panderini wanted her patch back but the male pulchra didn't want to give it up .... so they took it in turns to chase each other - about 4 goes each and since then NOTHING !!! No problems at all !! It's as though they just respect each other and have agreed to get on nicely.


I realise that it's early days and I am sure that the sday will come when I have to remove a few of them but until then I can honestly say that this is the most interesting group of fish I have ever had in 35 years fishkeeping ( on and off)

 

[filio]

Hello, Zincubus.
I think this is a very interesting experiment you have on going. I would love to see some pictures to get idea of the setup. Even a video. Of course we all know things will change once the youngsters reach puberty. Maybe you should change the title to.."Please, don't try this at home!" :biggrin:

 

[RAF]

Well, I'dd say it's a dangerous experiment. I've seen a cacatuoides with a pandurini in his mouth choking... the cacatuoids managed to survive after the pandurini been taken out of his mouth by force... the same can't be said about de pandurini!

But... keep us posted...

 

[Zincubus]

No worries - remember these little beauties are ALL under 1 " long at the moment .

 

[Zincubus]

Update

I have removed the Keyhole cichlids as they were eating most of the food - greedy beggars - so the others will get a little more food now !

 

[Apistomaster]

Nothing wrong with keeping mixed juveniles together as long as you can keep the females identified and are prepared to remove each developing fish out before any scales start to fly.

 

[Zincubus]

Update

I decided to remove the pair of Apistogramma panderini and the pair of Borelli Cichlids as I wanted to add a small pair of Laetacara curviceps to my show tank .


All the females are now quite obvious .

 

[Zincubus]

I can see quite a few changes in the coming months in my effort to find the perfect community tank .

 

[Zincubus]

Update
My main tank now has a pair of Apis. Pulchas , 4 checkerboard cichlids , Pair of curviceps , a pair of Apis. cacatuoides and just added two very small but beautiful Rams .

Everybody is happy and healthy

 

[bigbird]

morning,

any chance of a photo of the tank ?
cheers jk :biggrin:

 

[ste12000]

Did you say your tank was 20g ???

If so you are seriously over crowded in there..

I know what your going to say ... ''But there all tiny''

So what, tiny fish rapidly grow into big fish and even if you have got other tanks i dont think you should be cramming that many dwarfs in a small space, they should not be forced to fight for a tiny territory..Your setting a bad example to others.

 

[chris1932]

I have seen Cacatuoides males get quite large in a short time span. They have quite the large mouth and as with almost any cichlid, if it fits in the mouth its food.

 

[Apistomaster]

What Chris says is so true. The A. cacatuoides I recently raise grew very fast and the males large. They cleaned out all the Cherry Shrimp which were living with them when I divided the spawn up among four 40 gal breeder tanks.

 

[KnaveTO]

I would have thought that there could be an issue with interbreeding of the species of Apistos... is that not necessarily true?

 

[Mike Wise]

Interbreed of species is more likely among species of the same species-group and when there are no members of the opposite sex available for breeding.

 

[chris1932]

Thanks Larry, Its nice to be right once in awhile.