Nijsseni help?!

[gex18]

I purchased a pair of nijsseni yesterday, they were stuck in the bag for 3 hours (my car decided to blow its head gasket on the way back from the LFS :evil: ), they have been in the tank for 24 hours but are hiding constantly, (also the female is aggresive towards the male?!), the tank is 60"x20"x24" and contains the following;

9 Discus
3 Whiptails
3 Zebra plecos
1 pair nijsseni

Should i hevily plant it? Will they settle down and overcome the shyness (only been in the tank 24 hours)? Also i want to add more nijsseni, could i add another pair, or should i stick to 1 big harem? If so how many females? Is it wise to add another male? Or should i add another type of apisto? Also will dither fish help? Cardinals, corydoras etc?

 

[tjudy]

The fish have probably not been in the tank long enough to settle down. Give them a few days and they will feel more comfortable. You have enough fish in there to act as dithers.

Planting is always helpful in making Apistos feel more comfortable; but only plant as much as you are comfortable with caring for.

I would go the harem route and add another female rather than another pair. Place spawning caves on opposite ends of the tank and the females will set up territories away from each other. The male will roam the whole tank.

 

[chapman76]

Yeah, I have some F0 nijsseni right now. I have 3 females and 1 male. My male is a little more timid than my females. Probably because my dom. female is a lot bigger than him.

Add some clay pots or things to hide in. And yes, lots of plants will help a lot. Dithers are always good. I have some harlequin rasboras that help with them. Also some corys.

 

[cootwarm]

I just got 4 very young, wild caught nijsseni. One died soon, as when she(definitely female) arrived, all but a tablespoon of water had leaked from her bag.

This leaves me with 3 fish, 2 being definitely female. The other I'm hoping is a male, except that often he has a small, but faint "panda" spot on his side. The fish are still settling as they only arrived Tuesday, so they don't have much color yet. None of the pictures I've seen of male nijsseni show any "panda" spot on it.

Could this fish still be male, even though it often has a faint "panda" spot?
There is no doubt that the other 2 are female, as they have other "panda" markings as well.

Thanks,
Michael

 

[Mike Wise]

If, as you say, they are still very young then you might have a male who hasn't taken on his adult markings.