new 55g for Agassizi - dither choices

[ecarlate]

Hello!

After years of fishkeeping I'm taking the plunge into apistos. I've kept shrimp, barbs,rainbow fish etc over time but no cichlids beyond GBRs.

My 55g is newly cycled, having been up 2 months. It is currently home to 18 blue tetras (added progressively thelaat month or so) and now 4 agassizi. Parameters are below. Of course after some reading here and other articles I am questioning my choice of fish.the LFS, a great knowledgeable bunch, convinced me to forego my initial idea of lampeye killis and go with tetra instead. The reasoning being the kill is would be too passive for cichlids, even dwarves.

Also I have 5 or 6 bronze cories in another tank that I was thinking of transferring to the 55g. Or the LFS also have pygmy cories, though they are so tiny i'm concerned about feeding them.

Thoughts? This is a community tank, I'm not against trying to raise fry(I have other tanks I could set up) but this is mostly a 'enjoy the nice fish' tank the agassizi are common ones, 2 males and 2 females hopefully.

Heavily planted, lots of wood and rocks with a few ceramic flower pots thrown in for good measure
Temp 22-24 C
PH 7.2 (tap is 7.6)
Ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 0

 

[Josh]

Welcome to the forum! The tank looks great already. It'll be even nicer once you get it fully populated!

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

.....My 55g is newly cycled, having been up 2 months. It is currently home to 18 blue tetras (added progressively thelaat month or so) and now 4 agassizi. Parameters are below. Of course after some reading here and other articles I am questioning my choice of fish.the LFS, a great knowledgeable bunch, convinced me to forego my initial idea of lampeye killis and go with tetra instead. The reasoning being the kill is would be too passive for cichlids, even dwarves.

Also I have 5 or 6 bronze cories in another tank that I was thinking of transferring to the 55g. Or the LFS also have pygmy cories, though they are so tiny i'm concerned about feeding them.

Thoughts? This is a community tank, I'm not against trying to raise fry(I have other tanks I could set up) but this is mostly a 'enjoy the nice fish' tank the agassizi are common ones, 2 males and 2 females hopefully.

Heavily planted, lots of wood and rocks with a few ceramic flower pots thrown in for good measure
Temp 22-24 C
PH 7.2 (tap is 7.6)
Ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 0

Tank looks fine, it is still a bit lacking in cover for a tank for Apistogramma. A few caves, or some dead leaves, would help. I like 1/2 coconuts for caves, you can super-glue Java Fern and moss etc to them.

This sort of thing.

The gravel isn't ideal, sand would be better. Have a look at <A. agassizii biotope.....>

I think the tank is a bit cool, I'd raise the temperature to 25 - 26oC. Mike keeps his cichlids fairly cool so he may be able to advise whether that is too cool for A. agassizii. <http://www.apistogramma.com/forum/threads/size-of-dwarf-cichlids.18760/#post-90798>

Norman's Lamp-eye is fine as a dither, they are actually quite aggressive fish. The problem I had with them was that they bred very freely, and there isn't any market locally for them. Neither Corydoras or Tetra are great with Apistogramma. An exception is Corydoras pygmaeus, which I kept with Apistogramma cacatuoides without any problem. The cichlids didn't seem to regard either the Pygmy Cories (or Otocinclus) as "fish".

I'm not a great fan of test kits, I would be if they worked, but mainly they don't. Even with access to lab. grade analytical equipment it is quite difficult to get accurate and repeatable values for some ions, particularly mono-valent anions like nitrate (NO3-). You won't have 0ppm NO3, but you probably have quite low levels.

I use a different approach to water management (the <"Duckweed Index">) for planted tanks, it uses plant health as a proxy for water quality.

cheers Darrel

 

[Mike Wise]

Your temperature is on the low side, but should be OK. Keeping your apistos long-term at 22°C/72° means they have a lower metabolism and are more susceptible to infections, if water quality deteriorates for some reason. 24° - 26°C would be safer.

As for community tank members with apistos, any smaller, non-aggressive, not-overly active fish should work. Fish that live mostly at the top third of a tank (as deep as yours) will have fewer aggression problems than bottom-dwelling fish like catfish. Neither the Pygmy Cories nor Otos are bottom-dwelling fish, so they are not invading the apistos' territories.

 

[ecarlate]

Wow thanks everyone for the great advice. I increased the temp, added flower pots for caves and the plants are growing along, filling in the tank. I always go to great lengths to make nice scapes in my tanks, then let the plants overgrow everything haha

The apistos seem to be doing OK, I've had eggs a few times though I don't think they were fertilised. In fact I'm starting to think I have 4 females! Also one has a damaged tail, I'm wondering if this is due to agression. If so I suppose I could return 2 and get a male. What do you think? First PIC is the one with the damage tail

 

[ecarlate]

Anyone? My LFS has agassizi in stock now, a pretty rare occurrence so I don't want to miss it. Thanks!

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Anyone? My LFS has agassizi in stock now, a pretty rare occurrence so I don't want to miss it. Thanks!

They all look like females. If you have the chance of buying a male I would.

cheers Darrel

 

[ecarlate]

Awesome, thanks for the reply Darrel! Well not so awesome because now I have to exchange some but at least I know now.

 

[mrjbacon]

You don't necessarily need to exchange any if the tank is big enough for all of them. Ideally you want at least a few females per male in A. agassizii. I've even heard of 7 before.