Apistos for 10gal?

[dready]

Ok... before you laugh. I'm in a tiny, and I mean tiny!, apartment and only have space for a kitchen counter aquarium. I currently have a well established 10 gallon well planted aquaria. I've prepped it with two half coconut shells for plenty of hiding places and am hoping to try a pair of Apistos.

Am I crazy, is this just way to small?

If not, what species could be considered for such a small tank and would it be possible to house more than one female with one male?

Thanks in advance for all your suggestions. :biggrin:

 

[Liquid]

IMO it's fine. My tris and cacas spawned for me in 10gals.

 

[Apistt_ed]

Hello,

One of the best apistos to keep and spawn in a tank like yours would have to be Apistogramma borellii. I've kept and spawned them in 2 1/2 gallon tanks. Great little guys and quite hardy. john

 

[nightowl1350]

A pair of apisto cacs with fit fine in a 10g You may run into problems if they parent raise fry for you That problem will have to be solved if it gets that far. My Apisto cacs are in a 10 with 3 soon to be spawning (I hope) albino BN plecos. There is a bit of a problem when the apisto lay eggs, but they eat them wiht or without the BN in the tank so for now all are kept together (lack of tank space here right now)

Very pretty fish and not too agressive

 

[dready]

Thanks!

I think I will try A. borelli . Any suggestions on sources here in California? Any good husbandry information out there? Is it best to keep more than one female per male, I assume males are too agressive to be kept in such a small enclosure.

I'm considering 1.2 (1 male and 2 females). Any thoughts?

 

[AdamT]

I have a question: What are you using as a filter?

I have a 10-ga that I use as a grow-out tank. For a long time I kept a penguine mini hang-on filter on it. But the impeller in those suckers comes before the filter element, so the filter would suck up some java moss and it would get all wound around the impeller and then the flow would drop.

I looked around for better small filters, but all the manufacturers seem to think that if you want quality filtering you also want high GPH. I wanted to keep the 10-ga pretty calm, I didn't want it to be like a monsoon in there.

I ended up building a plexiglass box that sits in back, the top of which is even with the top of the tank. A siphon fills it, some dividers hold filter media, and at then end the smallest powerhead I could find returns water to the tank. It's not a bad setup, but the siphon breaks too often. =P

Has anyone found good small tank filters? Do you just use air driven sponge filters? (I consider switching to these) Do you make your own units?

 

[tjd]

dready, where in california are you?

AdamT, I mostly use air driven sponge filters for my 10 gallon tanks but in a few instances use a small powerhead on a sponge filter. Noise is a concern with these tanks and the powerhead is much quieter. The powerhead setup works fine and I have raised some blue ram fry in that tank on several occasions.

Tom

 

[dready]

Hi AdamT,

I am in Long Beach, I am using a powerhead as a part of a small 10gallon Tenecor setup. I think I have purchased what looks to be two or even three males as things in the tank have gotten very territorial in the tank. I'll be adding some pencil fish as dither fish in hopes of distracting these three until they are big enough to sex.