Hi all. I'm a new poster.

[ronv]

Been lurking for a while. I'm a long time fish keeper. Right now I have mostly central/ and larger south american cichlids. Geos., H. red points, H. temporalis, V. fenestratus ( a real bruser ), salvini, etc. Anyhow, I have several smaller tanks ( 12"x12"x48" ) in my fish room that I think would be perfect for dwarf cichlids. I'm thinking species tanks plus a few dithers and maybe a few bristle nose plecos. What would be a few good species to start with and how many ( sex ratio ) should I put in each tank? I have six or eight of these tanks I can devote to this project. I want something a little more than common kribs but I do like the westies as well as apistos.
Tap water is PH 6.8 and very soft GH 2-3. What dithers are best? Are there any that won't eat the fry. I hope to get some interesting behavior and am not planning to remove fry immediately so I don't want a dither that will cause great problems. Thanks much.

 

[Apistt_ed]

...

welcome Ronv,

It's great to have you here and interested in dwarfs both africans and south americans. Well, now is probably one the most "busy" times for getting apistos as there has been a great deal of interest in the hobby with apistos and there are many out there who offer great apistos also. On aquabid
http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwcichlids
there are many apistos being offered by some who frequent this forum such as David Soares (apistodave) he has great fish. From your measurements of tanks, they're 29gallons I think... and those tanks would be perfect for any apisto! With the water you have, there are endless options of what you could get really and it can really be preference. Some apistos will be a little more aggressive towards conspecifics so the sex-ratios should be 1-2 males to 2-4 females is about right IMO for a 55. Here on apistogramma.com you can get a hold of Neil for some apistos he's offereing as well as some westies. the link for fish offered is http://www.apistogramma.com/cms/Price_List/Price_List/
You might want to check the specials section every once in a while also.

As for dithers, I'd say stay away from plecos and corydoras. I have a clown pleco and a few royal plecos in my community tanks (90gallon-up tanks) and they are there just to control the population. I know there would be far more young out of the clutches those females produce but they average about 5 fry per clutch surviving to about 1/2 centimeters in length. It's a small amount but probably close to how it is in the wild too. Some really good dithers that shouldn't bother the fry too much are pencil fish, silver hatchetfish, oto cats ( must HAVE in all tanks to control algae), and vietnamese white clouds. These are my must haves in a tank with dithers but not all in one tank as that can be overwhelming for the parent fishes. I would also add that sometimes, the absence of any predatory fish can be delightful as well. I don't always add dithers to my tanks just to see how the parental care would be.
Really your options are endless and up to you... once you've made a decision, then we might be able to add a little help on how to get things started but the joy is in trial and error, sometimes :wink: I hope this has helped a little Ronv, please feel free to ask anything and everything.

John

 

[ronv]

Thanks much

for your reply. I'm going to study it a little and when I feel more intelligent I'll run my thoughts by here again. Again, thanks for your length and well thought out reply.
ronv

 

[LyreTail]

I think a 12x12x48 inch tank is a standard 33 US gal "long"

A 12x14x48 inch tank is a standard 40 US gal long

I hear hatchet fish make great dithers?