New to the appisto forum

[lego7979]

Crazy thing , I dont have any appistos but I want some really bad , I'm in love with the way this fish looks and for it's size it is so colorful, and that big mouth is adorable, but here's the thing , my tank is set up all wrong for appisto. I have the trus blood parrots who are really peaceful and sevrum and kribs I like them but I really want the appistos. I don't think my husband who spoils me so would let me have mutiple tanks. If anyone knows or has any suggestions let me know. I did bring one orange flash home without doing my research and we had a firmouth as well , went to the lake over the weekend came back he was gone , no trace of him, so I took the firemouth to TLS and traded him for a plant of some sort , he stayed in there about a month but I don't think I should try it again without maybe taking the sevrum out . I watched him all the time and that firemouth was the only chasing fish I had but who knows what happen?

Well there my story in a nutshell , hope to hear some good advice

 

[Mike Wise]

First, welcome to the apisto forum! When it comes to apistos, I know what you mean. I've had a 'thing' for apistos for 40 years now. As for your present predicament, all I can say is you have 3 options: 1) replace your large cichlid community for a dwarf cichlid/tetra/cory community; 2) buy another tank for the dwarf cichlids. I started the hobby with a 5½ gallon tank. Talked my wife into another ... and another ... and, well 40 tanks later ;-); 3) sadly just accept that we can't have everything we want. Let's face it, cichlids are cichlids, all are territorial and your large species usually don't mix well with apistos.

 

[lego7979]

Why doesn't the large fish bother any of the kribs, one of those things is barely an inch. My sevrum or my blood parrots are nit interested the slightest in them . Well I want an appisto tank but I don't know if I have the heart to switch those blood parrots in. I had them over six years and we been through alot. The thing I don't get is if appistos are south american dwarfs like kribs then why do the go with such specices as loach and tetras?

 

[Mike Wise]

Well, apistos tend to be less aggressive than the Common Krib (Pv. pulcher), but I imagine that this isn't the reason they survive in your tank. My guess is that the Kribs 'own' all of the territories that the apistos would want. If the apistos can't find a territory to hide in, then they are more likely to be attacked by other tank members. I, and most other d.c. keepers, don't recommend keeping apistos with kribs. Kribs are from West Africa and use opposite dominance/submission signals than apistos from South America. They mis-interpret each others signals and this leads to some nasty outcomes. Loaches and tetras tend to be social/schooling species. As such they don't become overly territorial. There are exceptions, of course.