Starting Out?

[joeyg2100]

Apistogramma Cactuoides

I have had a 55 gallon community tank for 6 months now. I am looking to getting a pair of Apistogramma Cacatuoides. This is what I have in my tank right now

-4 Angels
-9 Cardinal Tetras
-2 German Ram's
-2 Bolivian Ram's(Will get rid of if I get Apistogramma's)
-6 Cory's
-2 Bristle noise plecs

Will the cacatuoides get along with these fish? What do these fish eat? Is my tank big enough? I have read a lot of articles about these fish, but I still have a lot of questions. Any information that you can provide will be greatly appreciated. Also I will be changing my tank substaight from white rock to small grey substraight(it will be a little bigger than sand). I also will be adding live plants with CO2 injection syste. So my question on that is, should I wait until my new substaight and plants get established before I get these? Thanks for the help

 

[Christine-FishGrrl]

I've had a pair of cacs in my 25 gallon with a pair of BN plecos and a school of cardinals with no problems. The other fish I have no idea, hopefully someone else will chime in.

 

[Apisto ranch]

I have cockatoo's in with almost the same stock you have listed. without the bolivine rams and or stock would be the same LOL.They will fit right in with them. The onething being your going to need lots of plants for hinding and spawing. The other thing being if you are wanting to bred them. The corys will be a proplum. They will get into the caves,flower pot what ever you use for cockatoo and eat the eggs.
I got rid of my corys for just that reason. As there bottom dwellers and or natural hunter of eggs or any food left on the bottom.

 

[joeyg2100]

What if I move the pot along with the mother into a nother tank? Will this work or will the mother eat the eggs do to stressing of moving to another tank? I think these are such a beautiful fish, and there are no LFS around my area that cary them on a regular basis, so I would like to bread these and stock the LFS with them.

 

[Apisto ranch]

If the females with eggs now. DON"T MOVE HER!!! If your wanting to keep the fry then leave her be til the eggs hatch or become wigglers. If you move her she will eat the eggs fore sure. sometimes just looking at the eggs while shes there will cause her to eat them.
Also moving them to another tank will harm the eggs. the water primes maybe differnt. Causing the eggs to eithe dyi off are have deformaties in the fry if they hatch. Plus you'd have to make sure you didn't get air to the eggs.Now I just reread your frist post and adding plants and co2 is fine either adding the plants frist and then starting the co2 right after is fine. But whatch the PH level of the tank
By adding co2 to the tank it will cause the PH to drop. So with that said if your PH level drops to fast that alone could casue either damage to the eggs and your fish. A sudden PH drop in the tank can hurt even kill your fish.
I don't want to scare you away from the co2, All you need to do is just whatch the levels real close for the frist day or so. If the fish start gasping for air or hanging around the top. Remove the co2 line and add a air stone. A air stone will help raiese the levels again.

 

[fishgeek]

you can sometimes move the mother and egg's still attached to theire cave

slip an ice cream tub under the water and then gently around the area f the egg's , try and get the mother together with this
netting her later maybe more stressful

you will sometimes achieve success this way or you may as apistoranch has suggested cause the mother to be fearful and eat the egg's

matching water can be done by just taking water from the larger tank to fill the new one

andrew

 

[mematrix]

re to post

I agree with both Apisto ranch and fishgeek. I have one thing to add Bristle nose plecs are opertunistic feeders in other words they are omnivorious eat every thing they also will envade the pots if they are bigger than the cacatuoides and won't give up. I speak from experience.

Sincerely Curtis

 

[nightowl1350]

Bn will go in the cave if they fit and eat the eggs. I raise BN and my angels are not happy when they spawn, nor are the apistos. My angels all eat their own eggs so I just pull the ones I want, but I would love to get my apistos to parent raise so I put them in a tank with NO BN.