Apistogrammas

[lilacamy931]

It has been suggested for my stocking on a 160 litre to go for a pair or trio of these and would like some more info and your thoughts on if it will work, I am after a peaceful community.

The stocking that will be in the tank will be 8 lampeyes, 15 male guppies, 2 freshwater neon gobies (bottom dwellers), 6 glass catfish.

Also locally literally these fish are labelled apistogrammas, there is no differentiation between the varying species, would this be a problem as well or generally would apistos the genus work in this tank.

Lastly trio or two females or pair? Thank you very much for any advice x

 

[pirate monkey]

Hi ya, it would be helpful if you could maybe take some pictures of the lfs stock or perhaps have a look around the internet at the different types of apistos and let us know which ones your lfs have?

I'm afraid I only have experience of A. cactuoides, or cockatoo cichlid

this is a rather impressive specimen (not mine!)

and a (rather blurry ) photo of one I had -so you can see colour variations

they are really lovely and would go well with your stocking, although I would take caution around the guppies - cichlids tend to be fairly nippy and the guppies fins maybe pretty tempting! Personally I have never kept guppies, and the fish I did keep with my cockatoos were never bothered!

With cockatoos, they should be kept in a trio of 1m:2f

I imagine the above advice would be similar for other apistos, hopefully somebody else can either confirm or deny that.

HTH

HTH

 

[lilacamy931]

Thanks very much! Having enquired at the stores further it would seem this will not be an option for my tank as all the species available are soft water, I have a ph8 and hard water and wouldnt want to mess with teh buffering qualities Thanks for all the help x

 

[stiffler69]

I sell this species via my website different colour variations though these are like blue with some black and some nice browny colour spots on their head really nice fish and cheap too take a peak id love a tff member to be my first customer

 

[lilacamy931]

LOL we might consider but really unsure with our stocking choices and main concern is our extremely high PH and hard water

 

[pirate monkey]

I also have a high pH of 8 and hard water.

Usually fish you buy locally have been raised in tanks with local water - certainly my lfs doesn't keep them different water to the rest of the fish they have!

Might be worth checking in other places nearby to see what they're pH and water hardness are like. I know we were always put of rams for the same reason but there's lots of people on here who keep them in their normal water.

 

[lilacamy931]

The two places that do do them have special setup tanks for soft water (they keep the discus in this special section also) doh!

 

[stiffler69]

The two places that do do them have special setup tanks for soft water (they keep the discus in this special section also) doh!

You in luck then i keep myn in tap water treated with stress coat no special treatments

 

[lilacamy931]

Would these go with pearl or dwarf gouramis or a lone angel at all? Are you similar tap conditions to me? Hard water and ph 8? Have you any piccys and prices? Sorry for all the questions! P.s. what do you feed them (just realised a website going to look )

 

[stiffler69]

They should go with them species ok they are not really agressive, only when breeding, i think our water is a bit softer in middlesbrough though and the ph is quite a bit lower so im not sure how they would respond to this but whenever i have bought fish i have never really worried about water chemistry

 

[lilacamy931]

So may be worth giving it a shot and seeing what will happen? Thanks very much stiffler69, how do yours feed?

 

[stiffler69]

They have been feeding on tetra prima, flake, discus diet blocks as they pinch it off the discus lol, and bloodworms and other live foods just the usual really

 

[lilacamy931]

Thank you very much for all the help, locally they have boreilli, linkei and nijessi (very much forgive spelling) we may try the borellis! thanks so much for helping

 

[shane87]

They should go with them species ok they are not really agressive, only when breeding, i think our water is a bit softer in middlesbrough though and the ph is quite a bit lower so im not sure how they would respond to this but whenever i have bought fish i have never really worried about water chemistry

i live down the road from middlesbrough and my ph is at 7-7.2 any iv neva checked for hardness

 

[lilacamy931]

thanks shane87, how do you find your angelfish by itself? relatively happy and behaves with teh other fish, reckon I would get on ok with my stocking of 6 glass catfish, 10-15 male guppies, 2 apistos, 2 gobies? (lamps being moved fingers crossed)