Rio Negro focused Biotope Tankmates

[FrankNFigs]

I am building a Rio Negro focused biotope tank. Although I am focused on heckel discus, I do want to choose correct dwarf cichlids as tankmates. The tank is 500 gallons , 8’x3’x3’.

As of now my possibilities are:
-Biotodoma Wavrini
-Dicrossus Filamentosus
-Dicrossus foirni
-Apistogramma diplotaenia
-Apistogramma Biotoecus
-Apistograma mendezi

Any other recommendations on species and pairing are welcome

Thanks.

 

[MacZ]

-Apistogramma Biotoecus

Biotoecus is a genus of its own. Typo?

Biotoecus species are a quite small and all species need a lot of open sand. I would not combine them with Discus.

D. foirni are rearely available and I would rather give them a tank on their own to shine. The deserve the spotlight.

@anewbie has Discus with D. filamentosus, he might have further info for you.

 

[anewbie]

Biotoecus is a genus of its own. Typo?

Biotoecus species are a quite small and all species need a lot of open sand. I would not combine them with Discus.

D. foirni are rearely available and I would rather give them a tank on their own to shine. The deserve the spotlight.

@anewbie has Discus with D. filamentosus, he might have further info for you.

no - i have Dicrossus maculatus - beautiful but large fish. sadly only 2 are still alive after 2+ years but they get along even if two males.

Even though the tank is rather large (I have a 500 but mine is 8x4x2); a few comments - first your tank is really really tall and deserve really tall fish.

2nd i'm a bit concern about keeping heckel discus with some of the fishes you listed due to temperature differences - my understanding is the discus will want something like 83 or 84 though that is just baased off of a google search and i'm not sure if you can go a degree or two cooler but that will eliminate a lot of your dwarf cichild options.

I do have a small group of b. wavarni and for some reason i prefer them over the b. cupido i have (both groups are long lived so be prepared to treat them well) but they are not very colourful of course and again the temperature is going to be a bit rough.

aquaticclarity (if you are in usa) has some wild caught mendezi that are quite colourful if eye candy is your thing but again they will want cooler temperatures and they are a more aggressive species from what i've read (i did not buy them due to aggression concerns given my lack of space) btw the wavarni is extremely passive.

I keep my wc discus at 83 and anything cooler makes them shut down (well the range is 81.5 to 83.5 with 83 being hte common temperature) but they are not heckel - they get along fine with the maculatus - did i mention those d. maculatus are lovely fishes.

All the fishes i mentioned in this post i keep in very soft acidic water - ph below 5 and ec around 20-30. Sadly the discus are in a 180 instead of a 500 and could use a bit more room - i have 8 but one will likely be bullied to death soon (i've had them for around 2 1/2 years). After about 1.5 to 2 years one of hte non dominant pairs laid eggs and since then the dominant male has been bullying the 3 smaller ones to the extinct one now hides 24/7 and has lost quite a bit of weight.

 

[MacZ]

no - i have Dicrossus maculatus

Forgive my shoddy memory, at least I rememered it was you.