Good schoolers for elizas

[drudnick]

I have some elizas coming tomorrow, and I am curious what some of the options are to keep with them. The PH is down in the 5.2-5.5 range (may need to go lower for breeding). Store I am having them shipped from mentioned cardinals or rummy noses. But I was wondering what else might be possible.

Would prefer something found in the wild with them vs just a fish that can handle the water perameters.

Thanks
Dave

 

[Mike Wise]

Cardinals and Rummies are exceptional fry predators. I would suggest several Nannostomus trifasciatus or a school of the smaller Carnegiella hatchetfish.

 

[drudnick]

I am reading alittle about the pencil fish you mentioned, and it says they dont school, that they will set a territory. The tank they will be in is a 26G bowfront. Dont know if tank size would make a diff in your suggestions, so thought I would mention it.

Thanks
Dave

 

[Mike Wise]

It is true that pencilfish are not schooling fish. Males tend to guard the area around them at the time from other males, but don't really set up specific territories like cichlids do. Think of it as more of a "my space" attitude. If you want a community tank, and don't care about reproducing your elizabethae, then any of the many schooling tetra species will do fine. If you hope to breed and have some of the offspring survive, then avoid schooling fish from which it is hard to defend fry.

 

[drudnick]

well i can say i didnt spend the monye on these to not try and breed them. So thats why im lookin for advise. The hatchet fish seemed intriguing. I will probably give them a shot

 

[Tom C]

Maybe I could give you some ideas?

My A. elizabethae with some fry.

The upper part of the tank is completely covered with floating plants (Ceratopteris cornuta). Among this layer of plants, live these lovely tetras, Nannostomus mortenthaleri:

The bonus is that while the dwarfs breed close to the bottom, the characins breed among the floating plants:

 

[Tom C]

In my other tanks for Apistos, I have a lot of the following species and forms. These never bother the Apistos or their fry, in my tanks:

 

[Tom C]

and they breed too in the same tank that Apistos breed:

 

[ed seeley]

I've got a shoal of Nannostomus eques, the Rocket Pencilfish, in with a trio of A.eremnopyge and I find that they shoal really nicely up near the surface. There's also a pair of Epiplatys dageti 'Nkwanta GH96' in there too and they're not eating babies as the female has a shoal of about 30+ little ones!
I'd definitely recomend this species.

 

[Tom C]

The Pyrrhulinas goes very well together with Apistos, here a grow-up tank with fry from Pyrrhulina zigzag and Apistogramma cf. panduro (A184).

Normally the tank looks quite empty, but when I enter the room, everyone wants to have food FIRST.


Just to give you some alternatives.

Good luck !

 

[beleg]

Hehe Lovely image. I might change my bentosi tetras (little piranhas!) with pencil fish..