Guide for compatibity?

[Big D 25]

I was wondering if there was general rule for compatibity of apistogrammas for purposes of a community tank? Would it generally be better to keep fish within the same lineage groups or fish of different lineage?

In particular, i looking to add another trio (1 male and 2 female) to my fairly densely planted 55 gallon. It already houses a pair of agassizii (male,female) and cacatoides (1 male and 3 female) and some dither rasboras, tetra and sparkling gourami.

My LFS has 3 species in stock.

Bitaeniata
MacMasteri
and Cruzi (which is probably incorrectly identified)

I plan on buying some of all 3 species and keeping the others in a separate 29 gallon. I'm not really looking to breed. Just trying to keep the peace.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Mike Wise]

I prefer to keep species with different body shapes together. In this case A. bitaeniata is very similar to A. agassizii. Either the "A. cruzi" or A. macmasteri are different from the species that you already own. A. macmasteri is more likely to survive in a tank with 5 fish that have already established their own territories.

 

[Apistomaster]

Two species groups in a 55 gal is enough.

 

[Daryl]

I'm new to Apisto's but I find with other cichlids that conspecific aggression is usually higher than aggression to different species... Mike Wise is correct - different fish with similar body shapes would like wise be subject to higher aggression - for example a Festivum would likely be more aggrerssive towards a Gourami than it would be towards Bolivian Ram (even though the Festivum and Ram are both Cichlids).

I have also found that having females present ups the aggression of male fish regardless if pairs have been formed - for example I found it quite easy to keep 3 or 4 male Convicts in a tank together with no problems - as soon as I introduced a single female EVERYBODY's aggression went up...