new tank stocking question

[New_Boy]

hi - i'm new to the forum and am shortly setting up a new tank and was after some advice as I've kept and bred severums, kribensis and chromides but have no experience with apistogramma's

the tank is 120cm by 47cm by 58cm deep. 330litres capacity. comes with internal filter but I'll be adding an external too I think.

basically looking to fill pretty much with vallis and bogwood as decoration.

I've heard that cacotoides are a good fish to start with and was hoping that I could have two males in a tank that size (using the vallis and bogwood to split into two territories). i'm also tending to that dwarf as my local area has quite hard, ph water (7.4). i wasn't planning on using ro water as i prefer to go for as little tampering with water parameters and focus on more regular water changes.

Planned stocking;
6 Apisto Cacatoides (2m:4f)
1 leopard frog pleco
1 lemon bristlenose
5 small cories
30 Neon tetra
30 glowlight tetra

would welcome any comments

 

[OHR]

Welcome to the forum.

Your tank should have a footprint large enough for two males, provided that it has an abundance of cover and territorial borders to break the line of sight.

There are many good ways to set up your filtration, but one important note to remember is that Apistogrammas don`t like strong currents in the water.

Cacs are a good starting apisto pretty hardy. I would recommend that you try to get the ph below neutral anyway, the fish will be less vulnerable and look better.
You can achieve this in many ways. Depending on your waters hardness using aldercones or leaves (like catappa or oak) might help out. I aireate my tapwater and use a stocking filled with peat and this bring ph and hardness in my tanks down enough.

If the goal is to breed your apistos I would loose all the tankmates, the cories mostly for their own sake though.
Dwarf coryes might work, but you will probably never enjoy looking at them swimming undisturbed around like a corycat should.
The classic setup with different Nannostomus Tetras and Otocinclus catfish works for me and a lot of other breeders.

 

[Melanochromis]

Hi there. Cacatuoides is my favorite Apistogramma. I hope you'll enjoy them too

My suggestion is that you might want to be careful about the two pleco-type fish. They are potential egg/fry eaters once the light is off. All other fish can predate the fry too but this one is probably the most difficult for the mother fish to fend off in the dark.

Also, I personally don't like putting 2 males together regardless of the tank size. It's either a single male or many males. 2 is a bad number as it will allow the stronger one to bully the other one. And there's no point really for doing that, because female cacas will go for the more dominant one anyway. I haven't seen any female that goes for the smaller/weaker male.