another new guy

[bub]

I am a new member but not new to the site. I have been reading old threads for over a month now and have found a lot of very helpful information so thank you, to everyone who helps us new guys.

I have a fifty five gallon well planted low tech tank with several caves(slate and clay pots). This tank is a display tank, that currently has 2 gold rams, 2 blue rams. I am currently trying to order Cacatuoides triple red from the "amazon basement". I am hoping to get two females and one male.

My questions-

What kind of dithers would you use to keep the tank interesting, and give the best chance of babie cacs surviving? I was hoping for two small shoals.

What kind of cleanup crew would you suggest? I really like adolphi cory but i'm not sure if they would be the best choice?

Any other suggestions or warnings would also be appreciated?

Thank you
Bub

 

[ed seeley]

Dithers that won't eat fry include Pencilfish, hatchets and a range of nano fish too. I also keep killies with mine that are easy for the female apistos to chase off.

If you want to save the fry don't have any Corydoras. Apart from perhaps the tinest species they will all eat fry. You don't need to have clean up crew anyway you should just feed enough for the fish there and no extra that needs cleaning up.

Be a bit careful adding extra fish to your tank. You already have 4 territorial fish in there in the form of rams so the new Apistos will be competing with them for space. You may find that a re-arrangement of the decor is needed to re-adjust their territories before adding the new-comers.

 

[bub]

i was afraid you would say that about the corys but i'm willing to make that compromise.

The rams however seem rather docile with each other. I have another tank i could move a pair to if i needed to. I honestly didn't think they would be too much of a problem. If you think that is too many territorial fish i can move the gold rams out to another tank

The hatchets is one option i hadn't considered. I happen to like them and have kept them before.

I'm unfamiliar with the term "nano fish". Any examples would at least help point me in the right direction.

thanks for the advice ed.

 

[ed seeley]

The rams are settled in though and have mapped out their territories so adding new fish may cause issues. Of course it may not - that's half the fun with cichlids, their unpredictability!!! If you have another tank then you can add the newcomers but be prepared to back-track if necessary.

By nano fish I mean all the small lampeyes, blue-eye rainbows (Pseudomugil) and various tiny tetras, rasboras and danios that are becoming available. They have such small mouths that most couldn't eat fry even if they wanted to!

 

[Hudson Ensz]

If it were me i would get a more natural strain of cacs.
It sounds good though.

 

[Mike Wise]

How many cacatuoides were you planning to add? I personally think that a trio of cacs and a pair of Rams would do OK together - as long as the tank is properly decorated. Rams tend to claim an area with both open areas and a place to hide (like plants) while cacatuoides tend to pick areas with more hiding places. It will make a nice community tank. The cacs should produce some fry that survive, but I doubt that the same is true for the Rams. My opinion is enjoy the tank as a community; any fry that survive are a bonus.

 

[bub]

thanks mike,ed and hud,
i have ordered a trio of cacs(2f,1m), and as you said mike that is kind of the plan. the tank after all is a display tank and although i have a twenty gallon on standby i'm not sure what i would do with a full spawn(god willing) of cacs. So i plan to let things run their course and hopefully learn some things along the way and in the future possibly focus on breeding. But for now i'm looking forward to learning about dwarf behavior first hand and doing it with beautiful fish like the triple reds and rams. As for the golden rams, they have been in the tank for two weeks and already spawned, and ate all the eggs on the second day with really no competition from the other 2 rams that are in the tank right now. really got my hopes up though! BAD PARENTS! myself included

As for dithers i'm still undecided. the ember tetras (Hyphessobrycon amandae) seem like very nice fish but i will not find them locally i'm afraid. As main stream as these sound i still love neons and cardinals but i would choose one or the other obviously. would you guys use either of them yourself and which one if you had to choose? why? would be helpful too.

 

[Mike Wise]

Both Neons and Cardinals are excellent tankmates in community tanks. Both have a reputation for being incredible fry predators, too. One or 2 in a school will attack the fry; the female apisto will take off after them and the rest of the school attacks the unprotected fry. After a few days few or no fry remain. Most schooling tetras behave the same.

 

[electric eel]

i wouldn't be so quick to blame the gold rams for being bad parents.i've found what often happens with rams is that the eggs will die and they will eat them about the end of the second day when they should start to wiggle.if you put them in a species only tank and provide appropriate water(very soft) and put a new piece of driftwood in to turn the water dark you would probably get some freeswimming fry.this is the time when i have had more problems because they are very unpredictable as to whether or not they will eat the fry so its best to remove them as soon as they freeswim if you want to raise any of them.

 

[bigbird]

morning,

the other option for dither fish are the nice coloured mountain clouds. they are cheap and mostly available everywhere. I also like the otos as a cleaner. Like everybody states, the tetras are just excellent fry hunters. cheer jk :biggrin:

 

[bub]

I have been looking into the nano fish a lot more there are several i like that i think will work well. I will leave the tetras out.

Any one have any favorites as far as nano fish go?
Sparkle-eye Whitecloud, Chili Rasbora, Burma Yellow Neon Rasbora, are a few i'm considering at this point

I'm assuming that if i put two shoals of nano fish in there i could up the quantity per shoal, as opposed to larger tetras

thanks again