Hello apisto fans!

[Donutz]

Hi folks,

New user here. Great forum you have here with loads of great information for someone like me, new to apistogramma. I started in this hobby about 8 months ago with a low tech planted tank to teach my son about fish; this quickly grew to a second tank, my high tech planted 40B. When buying plants from a local seller I saw these amazing fish in his tank that he only described as 'Rio negro apistos'. Fast forward a few months and I found myself looking into apistos to see if they'd work in my 40B. After much research on apistos and black water, and much begging y to the minister of fun and finance (my wife), I'm in the process of setting up 30 long South American Blackwater inspired tank for some apisto agasizzii. The tank currently holds beckford pencil fish and otos, and I have corydora agasizzii in quarantine for observation.

As of last night here's how the tank looks (please pay no attention to the background).

 

[Duffmanj]

Great looking tank and welcome to the forum! Which type of agassizii are you looking at?

Glad you've got some otos in there! I have a squad of 5 in one of my tanks and they're pretty cool.

Just a couple of small observations (hope you don't mind!), you might consider getting a couple of small caves (home made coconut caves do well and blend in) for the female to choose from, even if they don't breed it adds to the security of the tank. Also, if they do decide to breed, keep an eye on the corys as they occupy the same tank space and may get in the way of the female and her fry!

Are you using any RO water or anything like that? That piece of bogwood is awesome.

Let us know when you've got the aggies in!

 

[Duffmanj]

Oh and good shout with the QT tank by the way, can be difficult to find the space (or convince the other half) that you need an extra tank just to hold new fish for a while, but it's worth it! Is that sand or gravel in the bottom there? Can't make it out.

 

[Donutz]

Thanks for the kind words. Truthfully in my area I don't come across too many agasizzii, so I'll see what comes in on the next shipment to my LFS. I'd love to get something that is WC. I did have a chance to get some agasizzii tefe recently, but as nice as they are, they don't do it for me.

I've been looking for something to act as caves. I really prefer an all natural look ;the best thing I've seen so far (I believe in this forum) is diy caves made from rolled ial. Originally I was looking for a community feel and read that corys and apistos would be okay together, but recently I came across information that contradicts my original finding; I'll keep a close watch on the Cory / apisto dynamic and move the Cory out if there is any sign of issues.

I'm using tap water, but I've hidden plant substrate under the gravel to buffer the water (along with driftwood and ial) . I have had great luck with ADA Aquasoil in my planted tank, which had given me very soft acidic water. I figured I'd try to replicate those parameters by hiding some plant substrate in this tank.


The substrate is gravel, I believe it's 1mm - 2 mm.

 

[dwarfpike]

That is a truly wicked looking root system ... I'm very jealous.