Will Apistograma be good for me?

[woaht]

Lately I’ve been wanting to breed some Apistograma but I’m not sure if they would be a good fit for me. I have a 20g community tank that I plan on keeping the Apistograma in there as a permanent home. In the community tank i have platys, guppies, rice fish, and some snails.

I plan to breed them in a 10g and to grow out the fry in a separate 20g long.

My questions and concerns are if the 20g community will be a good home for them? Will they bully other fish? Is tank size too small?

I was thinking of getting A. Borelli or A. Cacatouides

 

[MacZ]

I presume the tank in the picture is the breeding tank?

In the community tank i have platys, guppies, rice fish, and some snails.

Nevermind the snails, but depending on what numbers the other fish have, it is entirely possible food never reaches the bottom, where dwarf cichlids usually feed. Sometimes they come to the upper third, but never to the surface (at least in my experience) unless they are the only fish in the tank. Also the livebearers re quite boisterous fish, which usually makes the cichlids rather timid.

For breeding you will definitely need at least 3 tanks. A breeding tank, a second to separate them (population control and if one of them becomes too aggressive to the other) and a growout should have at least 100 liters, if not more, unless you are willing to do daily waterchanges.

Also important when breeding: You should have someone who will take the offspring from you in bulk. Otherwise it will take far too long to sell them off separately or in small batches. The longer you have to keep them the more tanks will be necessary.

So, overall... we can help you out with how to set up a proper small breeding facility (use the search, there is plenty of info here on the forum), but with the status quo I would encourage you to leave it.

 

[Mike Wise]

Definitely agree with MacZ. Your situation is not conducive to either breeding apistos or other members of the community. Anyone who has been here knows my mantra: a community tank is not a breeding tank.