new apistos, how'd i do??

[aspen]

i was in the lfs today, and was drawn to the dwarf tanks. i noticed they had some pretty healthy- looking young a. nissenji's and some a. viejita's. after a bit of reading i discovered that the nisenji's get quite large, up to 9 cm's and the viejita's get to be 5 or 7 cm's. they both seemed quite nice in the pics, and were otherwise fairly similar in their characteristics. i chose a pair of a. viejita's.

i am aiming towards a 90 gal planted discus tank, with 4 discus, a couple of pairs of dwarfs and some tetras, and since i already have a pair of rams and a pair of cacatuoides, i figured that the viejita's were the better bet, due to their size, and hopefully will be a good match for either of the dwarfs i have already. any thoughts? and also, is there anything that i should know about these fish, other than they are similar in needs to the cacatuoides, except they need to breed in water lower in ph and hardness than the cacatuoides. are they mainly meat-eaters? or prefer plants in their diet? i feed beefheart/shrimp to my discus and will likely grow them out on this and frozen bloodworms and frozen tubifex, to get them to a good size and hopefully good colouration. presently they are dull looking, as they are only young and therefore not showing much colour. (i am actually quite happy about that.) are these fish cave brooders, as the cacatuoides are? are they harem or pair breeders, and do they have a strong pair bond? any idea on lifespan?

are any of the fish i have likely to be overly agressive, or do you think that i might be able to have these guys likely to find a good home in my proposed 90 gal. i envision an active, but not overly agressive s/a community tank, with some nice life and colour. i have them in q at the moment in a 10 gal.

tia, rick
(p.s. if i spelled any of the names wrong, please correct me)

 

[Neil]

aspen,
First off, the only name that you misspelled in NIJSENNI.
I think it was a good choice taking the viejia. The nijsenni might have been more aggressive than what you are looking for in your scheme.
Viejita is variable in its coloration. There are very plain and very brilliant viejita, depending on the particular species-form that you picked up. They probably will do well with the cacatuoides and rams, and are quite different morphologically.
They will do well on the same diet that you are feeding your other fish. And should have no additional requirements.
All Apistogramma species are cave-brooders (except for maulbruter), but can choose other reproductive schemes in a pinch (open-spawning). I think that viejita is less likely to harem spawn than some other apistos and probably will develop a pretty fair pair bond.
Like most apistos, you can expect them to live for a couple of years, given appropriate conditions, but that can vary quite a bit.
Overall, I like your tank set-up and I think you have made some good choices of animals. Keep us posted. Neil