keeping multiple species

[Corie Dora]

I'm currently keeping/breeding just one species of apisto, and I'm interested in keeping more than one.

Is it possible to keep several males of several different species, with no females present, in a medium sized heavily planted aquarium?

If possible, I'd like to keep a few males this way, and then each female in her own breeding quarters, to which her respective male will be transferred to for breeding.

 

[apisto-nut]

do you have room for more tanks ?

 

[Apistt_ed]

That's actually what I used to do and know of many who still do that! It'd be fine as long as the males have enough hiding places for the subdominant and to retreat from the aggressive ones and they've divided up their boundaries. And when the females are ready to spawn, just drop in the respective male. How many males were you planning on keeping and in what size tank? john

 

[Corie Dora]

Apisto-nut- not *really* but I think I can likely squeeze a few breeding sized tanks into the bedroom yet...(un-benounced to my husband as of yet, lol)

Apist-Ed-Great, I'm so glad this is possible I'm not really quite sure how many I would like to keep...likely somewhere between 2 and 5. The tank in question is a 35 gallon.


I'm just trying to figure how I can work it so that I have more than one species at a time, without adding many more tanks, or a lot more maintenance time. I'm thinking about this scenario, or planting out a small tank and keeping another species as a pair in a small species tank. I'm not sure what I'll do. I guess it will depend on how it goes with the breeding setup I'm trying now, which is a bare bottomed tank with sponge filter. Prior to now, I've only bred in fully planted tanks, and so far, I'm not really enjoying the current setup.

 

[retro_gk]

I think you'll be fine, so long as you keep an eye out for trouble. I've kept multiple species together with no problems.

In fact, as of today, I have a 20 long housing pairs of A. uaupesi, A. sp. breitbinden, A. cf. eunotus and N. taenia with the last 3 species guarding eggs. The tank is furnished with driftwood, rocks and flower pots. Lots of places for sub dominant fish to hide in and not a split fin in the tank.