info please

[minty23]

hey guys/girls. new to the forum and wanted some general advice,!
I have a juwel 180 vision tank and am thinking of planting it, with full co2 system etc,. never kept apistos before and wanted to know what there like to maintain. also are there any species that would be best to start with????
any help would be great...:biggrin:

 

[chris1932]

The most important thing to keep in mind is that most Apistogramma are shy fish. In a comunity tank they need an early warning fish like schooling tetras to realy feel at ease. I almost always use Cardinals, Emperors, Pencils, or Neons. Small Corydors cats like Panda, Griesus, or true dwarfs will not bother or be bothered. If you are going to have a dense plant set up have an area with some leaf liter or debris cleared out in a corner and they will call it home. I have not seen that any one species is harder to keep than another, and I have over 30. I prefer wild types over "color enhanced" fish as they seem to live longer. How deep is a Jewel 180? How many watts of light are you planing on running?

Chris

 

[minty23]

hi chris thanks for the advice.
i was planning on keeping them with cardinals, rummy nose tetras and a few corydoras so thats great. the tank is '92x41x55cm' and i am planning on running t5 lighting with 2x35watt tubes. also what do you think to keeping apistogramma with discus? it was a thought of mine but not sure i have been told that they will be fine but wanted another opinion.

thanks again
Martin.

 

[bigbird]

Morning Martin,

Agree with Chris, however i would also add some caves or cocunut shells with the leaf litter. Keeping Discus with Apistos is also no problem. Please however also note, that the tetras are good fry hunters, so if you are looking at breeding, keep this in mind, but for a community tank your set uo looks great. cheers jk :biggrin: