Crenicichla compressiceps tankmates ?

[Reggie Leuty]

I am curious if you can keep Crenicichla compressiceps with any Apistogramma species as tank mates ? The aquarium will be a standard 55 gallon tank . The tank will have live plants and a few pieces of medium drift wood ....

 

[Apistomaster]

I was able to keep adult Apistogramma pairs with six Crencichla compressiceps.
I also had Black Phantom Tetras and 10 adult Heckel Discus in this set up.
I was even able to keep common Ghost Shrimp with them. I was raising the shrimp and had many hundreds of them. I thought the Dwarf Pike Cichlids would eat the shrimp but they didn't. They seem to prefer small foods like frozen blood worms and live black worms.
I was surprised at how gentle the C. compressiceps were with the smaller fish but amongst themselves it was open warfare.
The intra-specific aggression was so bad my group suffered considerable attrition.
I tried Crencichla notothalmus next and that group coexisted better than C. compressiceps and were also tolerate of adult Apistos, Ghost shrimp and rhomboid shaped tetras like Black Phantoms or H. colombinanus.
I never could get my Dwarf Pike Cichlids to spawn although I had ripe adults. One of my disappointments as a fish breeder.
I have bred many pairs of wild Discus so I was surprised how difficult the dwarf Pikes proved to be for me. I really like them.
I wish you success.