Dwarf Cichlid Biotope + Breeding Program

[9murphy9]

Hi
i am thinking of setting up a planted biotope for a pair of dwarf cichlids and i have a few question if aanybody could help me ? questions are :

1) what type of dwarf cichlids looks the best ?
2)what is the biotope of the dwarf cichlid you suggest ?
3)how much would there fry go for ?
4)whats your experiance with dwarf if you've kept them ?

For your info i am hopeing to breed them,they would be going in a 12 gallon (i think ) on there own,i really want live plants and will try to maintain the temp at 26'C with Ph between 5 - 7.5 (depends on what they need) i do 25 % water changes a week and will feed 3 time a day thanks for any help.

Alex

 

[Wills]

In a 12 gallon tank I would go for a pairing fish rather than a hareem fish so cross out the Apistos - Laetacara Dorsiger or Laetacara Curviceps would be good Nannacara Anomala would be good as well. These three are good IMO as they are easy to sex and quite easy to keep - Rams would be an other option but Bolivians are hard to sex in a shop and Blue or Gold Rams can be hard to keep and there is much speculation as to how they should actually be kept. Checkerboard Cichlids might work as well but these would be a group so it would depend on the foot print of the tank.

As for biotope... sometimes a bit difficult to do - depending on how specific you want to be but if you just want to do a south american tank any tetras would work - Platinum Tetras are a nice one and not often seen - I would stick to the smaller ones just to allow a bigger school so Embers would be great and so would Green Neons - regular neons are a little larger.

With these kind of tanks its important to be smart with your fish choice to get more into a school

I would then leave it at that just a nice sized school of tetras and the pair of dwarfs

Wills

 

[9murphy9]

i really like the redbreast acara, what river system does it come from and do you know what it's biotope should look like, thanks
Alex

 

[9murphy9]

i'm thinking the redbreast acara with some green neons as differs with live plants, a black background with 6.5 Ph. What would the biotope be like ??

 

[star4]

I have red breasted acara, very nice little fish. They do like a lot of cover so some amazon sword, bogwood, and if you can get some windfall oak or alder twigs they do like hiding amongst those.

 

[9murphy9]

thanks star i thought i hadn't hered from you in a while.i have some bogwood soaking in my cellar and i'm planning to get the plants pretty soon,where would i get alder twigs from ? and also would i be able to have a play sand substrate if i added these for the plants :

http/www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aquarium-Plant-Substrate-Fertilizer-Root-Tabs-Aquarium-Plant-Food-X5-/280767736889?pt=UK_Pet_Supplies_Fish&hash=item415f0fac39

 

[star4]

I use kiln dried sand, same as playsand really that will be fine for plants Alder trees this time of year will have little cones similar to pine cones, but a bare tree, gather some of the cones too, these will give the water tannins, the Dorsiger will apprecieate that I have not been around for a while, been busy

 

[9murphy9]

thanks i'll get them plants ordered as soon as steve'o has gotten back to me,i'l have a good luck for some of them alder twigs, i really like the acorn idea too i was going to use black water extract but natural is always better thanks again.

 

[star4]

Alder cones not acorns, acorns will rot You can get alder cones off ebay they are only a few quid for 50, drop 4-5 in (they float for a while) leave them in about 3 weeks or so then remove them and replace with fresh ones