Apisto stocking question

[tenohfive]

Hi, hope you don't mind but I've copied and pasted a question from another forum that I'm a member of as the OP wasn't having much joy getting an answer. I'll pass your replies onto her, or if you're a member of TFF you could answer directly. Thanks in advance. And I hope I'm not breaching any forum rules by linking to another forum, if so I'll remove the link.

Chris

http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=288391

I've got 2 young sexed pairs of F2 Apistogramma cacatuoides - triple reds , comming tomorrow
They are going in a quarentine tank for a while but then will be transferring to a Rio 240ltr tank
It's going to be quite heavilly planted with bogwood and coconut caves
they will be living with the following fish

(filters 1200 lph external + 1000 lph internal) - 5 Dwarf,8 honey gouramis,2 bolivian , 3 gold balloon rams , 4 bn plecs , 2 L411 plecs and some corys , shrimps and snails
maybe 2 german blue rams or opaline gouramis or a few more honey gouramis

MY water is soft and ph 7 , will 2 pairs be ok - could i add more apsitos instead of something else or would 2 pairs be the max

 

[Mike Wise]

It really depends on the species, wheter or not you plan to use it primarily for breeding, and the layout of the aquarium. A. atahualpa, for example, can be very aggressive to other dwarfs and a pair can take over much of the tank. A. borellii, on the other hand, will get along in a colony situation. A. cacatuoides is somewhere in the middle with a dominant male and any other male having a subordinate role. A very rough rule for breeding apistos is that each female will need a territory about 12"/30cm in diameter and each male will need some extra space outside of the brood territory. More fish can be kept in a heavily planted/decorated aquarium with many visual boundary markers than in a more open tank.