Apistogramma barlowi

[Jelle Touwen]

Hallo everyone,

I would like to make a tank for Apistogramma barlowi. But i do not know how much individuals i can keep in a tank of 100-40-30cm.
For Apistogramma cacatuoides I know that 1 male and 2 females is the max. But how is it for A. barlowi Can I keep 2 pairs, a trio, or maybe even a small group of 2-3 males and 3-4 females? Or just stick with one pair?

Jelle

 

[Mike Wise]

It really depends on how the tank is decorated. Like cacatuoides, the males are harem breeders but a bit more aggressive.

 

[Jelle Touwen]

The tank will be decorated with fine sand covered in oak and beach leaves. And lots of wood, both spiderwood and bogwood. No plants because of the low pH. So there will be lots of hiding places and sight blocks.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
"No plants because of the low pH".

You can have plants. There are a range of plants that will grow in nutrient poor acid water, in fact some of the more sort after aquascaping plants are only happy in these conditions, things like Tonina, Syngonanthus, Eriocaulon etc.

Other plants thatI've found do well are Ceratopteris thalictroides, Java Fern (Microsorum pteropus), Bolbitis heudelotii and most mosses.

I also like some floaters, Pistia stratiotes is a good plant for "black-water" aquariums, but you could use Salvinia auriculata group or Limnobium laevigatum, or a mixture etc.

cheers Darrel

 

[Mol_PMB]

Frogbit and pennywort do well in my pH 5 tank

 

[rr16]

Hydrocotyle leucocephala does well in mine at pH 5.5. Just got two more A. barlowi today. They came as a pair so I couldn't buy just the female (as I already have a male). I now have two males and a female so I guess we'll see how that pans out. In the paper describing the species it reports that they have been known to breed as harem and pair so I guess it depends. Will have to see how mine go, but they're in a 5 foot tank with a few A. aggassizi too. The male A. aggassizi rules the roost at the moment but I'm hoping this'll take the pressure off the other A. barlowi male a bit. I guess we'll see. It could all backfire. Whereabouts are you based? I have a spare male!

 

[Jelle Touwen]

I live in The Netherlands, I already have a pair A. barlowi in my community tank 1.60-0.50-0.50m. There they have to compeet with a continue breeding harem A. cacatuoides. A breeding pair mesonauta merificus (now with about 100 free swimming larvea) and a breeding pair of pterophylum scalare. So it is quite bussy. My plan is to get rit of the community tank and replace it with 6 smaler aquaria of 1-0.4-0.3 meter. Of which 3 will be South American.

The species in these tanks will be:

Tank 1, pH:5.5-6, ec:90 microSiemens/centimeter
harem Apistogramma cacatuoides
8 Farlowella gracilis
20 Hyphesobrycon amandae

Tank 2, pH:5, ec:40-50 microSiemens/centimeter
? Apistogramma barlowi
10 Otocinclus vitatus
2.4 Copella arnoldi

Tank 3, pH:6.5, ec:250 microSiemens/centimeter
pair Mesonauta merificus
8 Lg6
15 Carnegiella strigata

Tank 1 and 2 will be filled with wood and leafs and maybe a little bit of water. Now I know that i can place some plants, the only question is how many A. barlowi I should buy extra. The LFS has about 40 in stock. So if anybody can help me with that question would be great.

 

[rr16]

Tom C has bred these and was mentioned in the scientific paper describing him. If you contact him directly you may be able to get some rapid, sound advice. I believe he has kept them in various different arrangements (but I could be mistaken and that could be Romig who described the species). As Mike said, they may do well as a harem with one male and 2-3 females. My 2 males and 1 female are doing OK so far and the smaller male is constantly sneaking in for a bit of flirting with the female whilst the bigger male's back is turned. I wish my lfs had 40 barlowi in. I'm jealous.

 

[Jelle Touwen]

Thanks for the hint rr16, Tom helped me a lot. I will keep only one pair, because the females are very aggressive to each other.

 

[Jelle Touwen]

Unfortunatly I still have no breeding tanks, but I was able to get a group in my community tank. I now have 3 males and 5 females. They really are great fish. The dominant pair has eggs now, I hope they will hatch. Some other females are also showing their breeding colors already.