New here, planning on keeping apistos

[Wey]

Hey all! I built a quite small aquarium last week... let's see, you guys prolly don't use the metric system
:roll: that makes.. 25x10x10 and approx 10Gallons of water.

I've got a nicely planted 33G too with pearl gourami's and other fish. Recently had a good look at all the apistogramma sp. and I fell in love!

The 10G built last week was built to household cardina serrata shrimps and some small fish, but I might use it to keep one pair of harem (depending on the apisto) in it, without any other animals, heavily planted.
What do you apisto experts think of it? Is it possible with the space available? How about Apistogrammoides pucallpaensis? or other?

Nice looking forum guys
Looking forward to posting here in the future...

 

[Randall]

Apistogramma in a 10-gallon tank

Leive Wey,

In a ten-gallon tank, one pair of Apistogramma or Apistogrammoides with some small dither fish (tetras, Nanostomus spp., etc.) should be fine.

Is jouw naam Wey of Weij, alsjeblieft?

Dank je wel.

Groeten,

Randall Kohn

 

[Wey]

Lieve Randall,

Mijn naam is eigenlijk Wouter
My name is actually Wouter

Maar mijn vrienden noemen mij vaak W
But my friends call me often W (like the letter in the alphabet)

In het Nederlands klinkt dat als "wey" (in het Engels klinkt het als "way", als in "way too much")
In Dutch it sounds like "wey" (in English it sounds like "way", as in "way too much")

Ik heb alles in het Nederlands en in het Engels geschreven.
I have written everything in Dutch and English.

Ik hoop dat je het leuk vindt
Ik hope you like it

Alsjeblieft,
Wouter

 

[Leipo]

hartelijk welkom


Always nice to see other dutchies on the forum

 

[Wey]

@Leipo
If it ain't Dutch, it ain't much right?

(Just kidding )

@all
Any advise for some small apisto's (or other dwarfs)? I really like the Dicrossus filamentus, but many fish are getting too big I guess

 

[Wey]

10G isn't much, but the tank is quite long (65cm), which seems like an advantage for a lot of fish (they can swim further), but is it too for dwarfs?

They can have they territories better seperated right? or am I missing things?

Don't feel like dropping males in my community tank every time they spawn (I am always positive ) :roll:

 

[cootwarm]

Hi Wey,

A pair of Apistogramma borellii should do fine in a 10 gallon with a couple dithers. I currently have a trio of borellii in a 10 gallon,. Only 1 of the females spawned. But then 2 sets of fry with their mothers is too much for a ten gallon and probably not possible.

There is no aggression in this tank, the mother borellii chases away the other female when she gets too close, but there is no beating. The other female seems to know to stay away. Other tanks mates are 2 beckfordi Pencilfish and 1 Oto Cat. Also in the tank I have a piece of driftwood, 2 coconut shell caves covered with Java Moss and a little hornwort floating on the surface. The beckfordi Pencilfish make great, peaceful tankmates that don't bother the fry.

The mother stays at one half of the tank with her fry, so there are very few confrontations. The male borellii isn't aggressive either. Matter of fact, sometimes half the fry will hang out with dad for awhile when he is on their half of the tank. When he goes to the other side, the fry stay with mom. It's their interesting and peaceful behavior that makes the borellii one of my favorite apistos. My viejitas and cacatuoides are also peaceful and interesting, but they are each in 30 gallon long tanks.

A pair of Apistogramma trifasciata should do fine in a 10 gallon. Just yesterday I discovered free swimming fry in a 10 gallon. Everything is fine but the only occupants are the parent trifasciata. The tank has the same stuff as the borellii tank, except that the Java Moss is very much overgrown occupying at least a third of the tank!

Bottom line is to make their environment as comfortable as possible with places where they can avoid being seen by the other apisto(s) if they chose to do so. It's when the fish feel safe and comfortable that you are able to observe their most interesting behavior. So the fish are happy and so are you!

Michael

 

[cootwarm]

Hi Wey,

Me again.

I made a slight mistake on the above post. You see, I have 2 borellii tanks. One is a 20 gallon with 1 male & 2 females. The other is the 10 gallon I described above. The mistake I made in the above post was that the 10 gallon tank has 2 males and only 1 female.

Just to show you how peaceful borellii are, when I just checked on them I found there was a small school of fry with each of the 3 borellii including the extra male! Somehow, the extra male adopted some of the fry and the parents are allowing it!

Michael

 

[Wey]

Ok sounds great!
Do you've got any pics of your tank(s ) ?

I saw some nice Borelli at the shop last week...

 

[Wey]

Sorry, dubble post :roll:

 

[cootwarm]

Hi Wey,

Sorry no pictures yet. I'll have to do that sometime in the near future.

I've got a courting pair of Orange Flash cacatuoides in a 10 gallon. So far so good, the real test will come when free swimming fry emerge. I'll let you know how that works out.

Michael

 

[newworldan06]

Hey cootwarm or the cacs generally peacful when spawning and when it come to fry like your boreilli's are? I have read some nasty posts about aggies and am starting to look into cacas. How do they do with the fry?

 

[cootwarm]

newworldan06,

I'm not sure, as I don't have as many cacs as I do borellii. I have 1 pr. Orange Flash cacs in a 20 gallon and 1 pr. Triple Red cacs in another 20 gallon. They both do good with the fry. I saw the male being a tiny bit aggressive with the female during courting, but the female was a little aggressive towards the male when the fry first emerged from the cave. After a couple days she let the male help out with the fry. But no beatings and they don't harass the dithers either (cardinals). But then a 20 gallon is a comfortable size for 1 pair.

Generally I assume they are not quite as peaceful, because I've read that borellii are one of the most peaceful apisto and thats been my experience.

Michael