Help with 1st apistogramma!

[Don cheech]

I agree with the borellii being the best choice for your 20 (tall/standard) tank and your water. One thing that I will add to the good advice given here (and this from personal experience working with the species over the years) -- once they do spawn, female borellii can be aggressive with the males. Make sure to have some thick cover in each back corner that goes to the top in addition to whatever other plants you put in there. The thicker the better. By having the plants go to the surface, a severely harassed fish can hide "up" if it cannot get any relief by hiding down near the substrate where Apistos usually hang out, and this can be enough to give you time to discover its plight and remove it. If you are doing a planted tank, you can use stem plants for this, or even group plantings of Val or Crypt. retrospiralis or similar, or taller Java Fern clumps on wood (In my low light fish room tanks, I even just use tall wood pieces in each corner or yarn mops). I would also use hardscape to provide sight breaks to divide the tank into 2-3 "rooms." Put caves (multiple) at opposite ends of the tank. I usually give 2-3 choices on each side, so that whichever the female chooses, it will not be dead center of the aquarium leaving other fish nowhere to get out of her way, including the male. Borellii are a stunning species with the benefit of being a great first-time species to work with. I don't think you'll be disappointed with the choice at all.

Hey again so l just went to a 29 instead of the 20 gallon and again not looking to breed borellis unless they decide to so any changes to your recommendations in terms of how many and what sexes

 

[Ben Rhau]

Hey again so l just went to a 29 instead of the 20 gallon and again not looking to breed borellis unless they decide to so any changes to your recommendations in terms of how many and what sexes

If you combine male and female they will absolutely breed, so you would need a plan for how you want to deal with that. If you don’t want breeding, get one male.

 

[Don cheech]

If you combine male and female they will absolutely breed, so you would need a plan for how you want to deal with that. If you don’t want breeding, get one male.

Would a another male from cacatuoides work or a different dwarf cichlid like ram cichlid?

 

[anewbie]

Would a another male from cacatuoides work or a different dwarf cichlid like ram cichlid?

You could keep a bolivian ram but the behavior is a bit unpredictable also you likely would not know the sex. German blue ram would not be an option due to temp as you would not want to keep Borellie in the 80s. I've found cacatuoides a bit unpredictable even as a singular male; generally they are passive but I had one runt of a male suddenly declare the entire tank as his tank and systematically kill off the other fishes. What trigger this behavior i have no clue - i had put it in the aquarium because it was a runt and i was worried it would not be able to compete with the fishes in his other aquarium sadly i did not realize how aggressive it would become in a different environment.

 

[Don cheech]

You could keep a bolivian ram but the behavior is a bit unpredictable also you likely would not know the sex. German blue ram would not be an option due to temp as you would not want to keep Borellie in the 80s. I've found cacatuoides a bit unpredictable even as a singular male; generally they are passive but I had one runt of a male suddenly declare the entire tank as his tank and systematically kill off the other fishes. What trigger this behavior i have no clue - i had put it in the aquarium because it was a runt and i was worried it would not be able to compete with the fishes in his other aquarium sadly i did not realize how aggressive it would become in a different environment.

That’s rough man this is frustrating. I am a step up from a beginner. I have a successful 75 gallon community nano tank. I fell in love with the apistogramma and put two veijita in There and they died after a few days granted the tank wasn’t fully stable at that time. Then I went out and bought a 29 gallon which I am in the process of beginning to set up and want to dedicate it Apistogramma Borelli which I am pool is one of the easiest to keep but trying to figure out how many and what sexes seems to be the problem and also what other tank mates or dither to put in there