Planning Aquarium rack, need input!

[Pabz0r545]

Hello Apistogramma.com.

I am planning to build a small fish rack with 6-8 tanks and I need your input. I would like to purchase a group of apisto juveniles and hopefully get a pair or 2 and have a try at breeding but I am not sure about what size of tank to use. I would also like to keep dithers with and without the apisto's and possibly some cherry red shrimps in their own tanks. Right now I am thinking 2-4 20 longs displayed normally and 10 gallons underneath mounted sideways. Not sure though....

What is the optimal size tank for a breeding pair of apisto's and raising the fry? I would like to give them adequate space while at the same time keeping the tank sizes to a minimum so my wife will let me have more tanks Also wondering if the short height of the 20 gallon long would have a negative impact on the effectiveness of the HMF.

15 gallon? 20 gallon? 20 Long? 20 tall? 30 gallon?

Help suggest a setup around 8 tanks please.

-Pabz0r

 

[Mike Wise]

Optimal size is like in the wild, somewhere between 3 sq. ft. and several miles! Seriously, the best size really depends on the species. Fish like A. wapisana will live and breed happily in a 5 gal./20 L tank, but A. atahualpa needs at least a 20 gal long/75cm or better yet a 30 gal. long/90cm tank. You can breed most apistos in a 15 gal/60cm tank if you have proper decor and experience with cichlid behavior. I use mostly 20 longs and 30 longs.

 

[Pabz0r545]

I believe A. agassizi, A. caucatoides, A. borelli and A. Hongsloi are the species more commonly found in the LFS's around here so likely I will be working with 1 or more of these unless I can source some from a nearby city or province.

I truly love the look of 20 longs. Will the 20 long be well suited for all of these species? Also which of these is the most forgiving when it comes to water chemistry? We have liquid rock here so I will likely be using pure r/o or a 90/10 RO/tap mix.

 

[slimbolen99]

20 talls to me, are a good tank with dithers that are going to use the top part of the tank; otherwise, they aren't much different than a 10.

For an apisto pair only, the 15 is going to save you some vertical space (same footprint as 20high), so you could fit in more 15s in the same square feet as 20highs.

If I were to do it again, I'd either go with a rack of 15s on top rack, with 5 gallons on the middle rack for siphoning small fry into, and 15s on the bottom rack for raising fry.

If you're into letting pairs raise fry, I think you'd need at least a 40breeder to allow the male somewhere to hide.

Hope that helps.

 

[Pabz0r545]

Thank you very much slimbolen99. Very informative post that helps me very much.

I would like to let the parents raise the fry as I am still a newbie and have only ever had my caucatoides spawn which resulted in a bunch of dead fish. Woke up to nice little red eggs and dead dithers and dead caucatoides. Only the male was alive surprisingly? I would have thought the female killed everything. Possibly this is because the tank was too small? 20 Gallon Long.

So maybe I will invest in 1 or 2 40 breeders, a couple 15's and a few 10's. I already have a few free 10 gallons lined up from local aquarists.

I just want to design a nice rack that I will not want to change.

 

[slimbolen99]

I like to leave the fry with the parents for two to three weeks after the fry are free swimming, and then siphon some out into another tank, leaving some for the parents to continue to raise (or eat when they breed again). If you have tons of cover in the tank, it's likely a few fry will survive past the getting eaten part.

You could do a couple of 15s on top rack, a 40 breeder on the middle rack, and three to four 10s on the bottom; that would give you three tiers, and enough room to raise quite a few fry. 40 breeder would be the parent's tank, the 10s would be for siphoning fry into and growing out, and the 15s could be for growing out.

Good luck. Sounds like fun.