Questions...

[Daneland]

I have been keeping fish many years, I have 3 tanks 125 , 60 and 30 liters.125 is a planted tank there is a couple of apistogramma cacatuoides. My tap water is too hard and I try to keep TDS around 400. I had them 3-4 weeks ago , they are both active and eating well. Female spends more time in a cave (driftwood)
60 L will be Apisto only tank, I will keep it low tech, sand substrate. Its fishless cycle has just finished. There will be a couple of sponge filters, plenty of leaves, a couple caves, large crevices. I will mix my tap water with RO water and will fix TDS 100. I am planning to do weekly or two weekly WCs 20%. I will add some dither fish I was thinking 10-12 pygmy corries but Darrel advised Black-Neon Tetra. I might go for it or a school cardinal tetras. I love corries and cardinal tetras. Dont know how important the dither fish is.
The dilemma I am having now, whether I will keep A.cacatuoides in my planted tank and get another pair A.baenschii for 60L.
Is it going to be too cruel to keep A.cacatuoides in hard water? Will they breed?
Many thanks in advance

 

[Mike Wise]

Do you plan to use the 60L for breeding apistos? If so, cardinal/red-neons are a poor choice because the are notorious fry predators. As for A. cacatuoides, especially domestic forms, they are fairly adaptable to water values, although 400 (ppm?) TDS is rather hard. You might want to lower it a bit.

 

[Daneland]

Thanks for your reply. Yes I would like to breed apistos. I keep fish for a long time but other than shrimps and livebrearers, I was not very interested with breeding them, or lets say I was not giving right conditions to them.But my penguen tetras spawned a few times and I loved it and decided to go for it. How about Boraras for dither.I find black tetras are a bit dull. Dont know.
An I decided to keep A.cacatuoides in large tank, I will add more RO to reduced TDS, I will get a different apisto for breeding tank, possibly Inka

 

[Ade205]

Most common choice of dithers with Apistos tends to be pencil fish such as Nannostomus marginatus. Nannostromus literally translates to small mouth!! Smaller the better when fry are around lol! They do like soft water though. I've had success with many different combinations from Harlequins with Cacs to Lampeyes with Borellii, though Corys are not the best idea and shld be avoided. Coincidently, as a side note, my large group of Sterbai in my Discus tank are spawning right now as I type this at 28c and no waterchange in the last week for the first time ever due to work commitments! So much for the traditional advice of large waterchange and temp drop to induce Corys to spawn lol

From what you say I think your going to love the breeding behaviour of Apistos, they are awesome. I've a feeling your Cacs may surprise you!!

Ade.

 

[Daneland]

Most common choice of dithers with Apistos tends to be pencil fish such as Nannostomus marginatus. Nannostromus literally translates to small mouth!! Smaller the better when fry are around lol! They do like soft water though. I've had success with many different combinations from Harlequins with Cacs to Lampeyes with Borellii, though Corys are not the best idea and shld be avoided.

From what you say I think your going to love the breeding behaviour of Apistos, they are awesome. I've a feeling your Cacs may surprise you!!

Ade.

Mate you are an expert!! I have found fry in the large tank today. The mother was fiercely defending her cave (actually a large crevices of a drift wood) and spending much time in it. Today I have just seen them. She hold them in her mouth an spits them out (I think what she was doing). I have ready micro worms and a batch of brine shrimp is on the way.

 

[mrjbacon]

Cardinal tetras tend to reside in warmer water than apistos are accustomed to as well, so they may not do as well in cooler water temperatures being more susceptible to disease. Vice versa for the apistos; they will have a much shorter lifespan in temps more suited to to the Cardinals.

I second the recommendation for pencilfish. They are great dithers for apistos and there are many uniquely patterned nannostomus available.

Another suggestion for dithers if the top of your tank is enclosed is hatchetfish. Marble Hatchetfish are beautiful under certain lighting conditions.

 

[Daneland]

Most common choice of dithers with Apistos tends to be pencil fish such as Nannostomus marginatus. Nannostromus literally translates to small mouth!! Smaller the better when fry are around lol! They do like soft water though. I've had success with many different combinations from Harlequins with Cacs to Lampeyes with Borellii, though Corys are not the best idea and shld be avoided. Coincidently, as a side note, my large group of Sterbai in my Discus tank are spawning right now as I type this at 28c and no waterchange in the last week for the first time ever due to work commitments! So much for the traditional advice of large waterchange and temp drop to induce Corys to spawn lol

From what you say I think your going to love the breeding behaviour of Apistos, they are awesome. I've a feeling your Cacs may surprise you!!

Ade.

I bought 5 Nannostomus marginatus. Now I will try to find a pair of A.baenschii with a reasonable price. Apisto aquatics has them but with postage it is nearly £50 for a pair.