First Apistos & an Introduction

[thesoundd]

Hello!

I've decided to get into the world of Apistos and, after browsing around the forum for a while, I figured it was time to actually post.

I've kept Tanganyikan cichlids and various iivebearer tanks in the past, but this is my first go at South American cichlids. I'm starting out fairly small -- I have a 15 gallon that is already heavily planted with a few pieces of driftwood. My only concern with the tank right now is the substrate: it was left over from an old Tanganyika tank and consists of crushed coral and seashell pieces. I know this probably isn't ideal, but the substrate has been in an active tank for over 6 years and I was hoping that it was basically done with any mineral leaching. What do you think?

I am in the process of acquiring 3 A. hongsloi juvies and I'm hoping that the sex ratio works in my favor. They're currently 1", at what size will I be able to sex them? If it turns out that I only have 1 male, will I be able to keep both females, or should I reduce it down to a pair?

As far as dither fish, I really love the celestial pearl danios and their water requirements are fairly aligned with the Apistos. Has anyone had success with this combo? If not the danios, then I'm leaning towards cardinal tetras.

I'm also setting up a separate habitat for crystal red shrimp and I think I'll try to introduce some to the Apisto tank once their numbers start to increase. I've heard pretty mixed reviews on shrimp/Apisto compatibility, but I figured that as long as I'm willing to accept the shrimp as a food source that it's worth a shot, right?

As far as steady live food for the Apistos, I want something easy-ish and cheap-ish, so I think I'll try my hand at grindal worms, unless you have a better suggestion.

Ok, I think that's all for now - thanks and I look forward to becoming a legitimate member of the community!

 

[thesoundd]

Ah, woops...could a mod move this to the Apisto forum? Thanks.

 

[Mike Wise]

First, welcome to the apisto forum! Whether or not you can keep 2 females in a tank really depends on its size and lay-out. As long as it is large enough and each female can establish a breeding territory, it should work. I prefer 20 Long tanks, but you might get away with something smaller. As for live food, I use mostly baby brine shrimp. It is eaten by all apistos, fry new fry to 4"/10cm adults. Grindal worms are not well-balanced nutrionally. They have a high fat content. It is great for an occasional food or for developing eggs in females, but used daily it will lead to obese fish.

 

[thesoundd]

Hey Mike,

Thanks for the information! I guess I've heard that it can be difficult to use brine shrimp because they have a fairly narrow window for their nutritional peak. Is raising brine shrimp as easy as having them in a container sea monkey style?

 

[Mike Wise]

Brine shrimp eggs are very easy to hatch. Set-up and collection really don't take much more time than thawing frozen foods and feeding it to the fish. There are many sites on the web that describe simple shrimp hatchers (I use a series of 3 2-liter bottles). If you time your hatches properly, nutrition will be on the optimal side.