Setting Up An Apisto Tank

[tenohfive]

I'm new to keeping dwarf cichlids of any description (with the exception of the Ram pair I have in my community tank) and am after a bit of general advice.

Its a 3ft x 1ft x 1ft tank (85L) and I'll be setting it up a Tetratec EX700 or equivilant (yet to be bought-if you have a spare, check out the buy and sell-I'll offer you a fair price.)
I'm looking to use play sand as a substrate and 3 or so Java Fern Plants. As for the rest, I'm a little unsure. I've got alot of slate so am in a position to make a few caves, or could make a multiple stacked cave centrepiece to the tank, secured with aquarium sealant. Potentially I could pick up some bogwood as well or instead. Or go more heavily planted...I'm not sure which way to go.

Whats going to be most suitable for the apisto's? And is there any other general advice Apisto keepers can give me?

Thanks
Chris

 

[sswm]

I'd say a more heavily planted tank would be better and if you can get a plant to spread across the bottom they would like that. I have chain swords in my tank(currently spreading across the whole bottom) and my apisto's always swim in and out of them. Apisto's like caves and are cave spawners but they prefer a cave with a smaller entrance to it, so using flower pots would be a good choice. To make the flower pots in my tank look more natural, I covered the tops of them with some silicone and then rolled them in sand to try and take away that orange colour of them

 

[ikongoni]

This is my first time keeping Apisto too, and I have been surprised at how active they are.
Despite having caves, mine are always exploring, and swimming in and out and around the plants and bogwood.

This is a photo of my Apisto tank, and they seem very happy....

 

[tenohfive]

Thanks for the advice.

I've just tested the pH for my tank, and its about 8 - 8.2. Will that be a problem for apisto's?

 

[Dan Robbins]

oh yes. big problem.
As they are south american, they need a very soft water aquarium, something along the lines of 6 - 6.5
Many apisto keepers do this naturally by filtering the water through peat which also gives a more natural blackwater aquarium, this really shows out the colour of the fish also. Bogwood will also help lower the pH of the tank, but this needs to be additional to the peat, as it wont lower it do its desired reading itself... Unless you have a REALLY big piece.
You would have to preform small frequent water changes if this is the pH of your tap water, alternatively use R.O water or rainwater as large water changes will give too high a fluctuations in the pH of the tank and is potentially harmful, especially as Apistogramma are a slightly more delicate species anyways...
Dan

 

[tenohfive]

I was planning on doing frequent small water changes.

As for the pH, watch this space...its 7 at the tap (as I've since found out,) and I'm trying to work out the cause of the rise in my normal community tank.

Is 7 workable?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

7 is def workable, we keep apisto's no problems in around 7.2...... think 8 is pushing it though

 

[duncs]

I would disagree with 7 being fine for all species of Apistogramma. If the fishes are captive-bred, it's less of an issue, but they'll still colour up more intensely if kept in acidic waters, around 6.2 to 6.5.

If they're wild caught though, it's entirely species specific. Apistogramma borelli have a wide range of natural habitats, some of which are up to pH 8, some of which are as low as pH 5.5. Wild caught Apistogramma agassizii should be kept in waters more acidic than pH 6.

If you want to breed your fish, and give them the best home, I would strongly recommend making your water more acidic. Something around 6.5 isn't too difficult to achieve and is a decent parameter for most Apistogramma species.

 

[tenohfive]

Fair enough. I'm trying to work out why theres such a difference between my tap water and in my community tank - the current theory seems to be the fact its well planted (and with a fair growth of algae) and next to a window, so the amount of photosynthesis may be increasing the pH. Thats coupled with the fact I've got some unknown rocks in the tank which I'll shortly be testing with vinegar.

If its not one of those, I'm out of ideas. Either way - once the tanks set up, I'll be testing quality well before I add any fish.

I would disagree with 7 being fine for all species of Apistogramma. If the fishes are captive-bred, it's less of an issue, but they'll still colour up more intensely if kept in acidic waters, around 6.2 to 6.5.

If they're wild caught though, it's entirely species specific. Apistogramma borelli have a wide range of natural habitats, some of which are up to pH 8, some of which are as low as pH 5.5. Wild caught Apistogramma agassizii should be kept in waters more acidic than pH 6.

If you want to breed your fish, and give them the best home, I would strongly recommend making your water more acidic. Something around 6.5 isn't too difficult to achieve and is a decent parameter for most Apistogramma species.

Is it workable to get my pH down and keep it down though? I was under the impression fluctuations in pH were more dangerous than a steady high pH? Incidentally, I've been speaking to someone through ebay who breeds apisto's privately - depending on how good the stock are, most of them will be coming from him.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Is it workable to get my pH down and keep it down though? I was under the impression fluctuations in pH were more dangerous than a steady high pH?

generally that is the case, pH is tricky to adjust and achieve a good solid balance but not impossible. Have a read of the link in my sig pH and KH which explains a bit mroe about adjusting pH.

 

[duncs]

It would indeed require extra work to keep it stable, but it's certainly manageable.

I was keeping Dicrossus maculatus at around pH 5.2 using acid. I worked out how many drops of acid made 10 litres of my tap water turn from pH 7.2 to pH 5.2, then did water changes using 20 litre buckets and multiplied the amount of acid required when putting tap water back in to the tank.

I never had any pH crashes despite the tank being small, even when I went on holiday for three weeks.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

It would indeed require extra work to keep it stable, but it's certainly manageable.

I was keeping Dicrossus maculatus at around pH 5.2 using acid. I worked out how many drops of acid made 10 litres of my tap water turn from pH 7.2 to pH 5.2, then did water changes using 20 litre buckets and multiplied the amount of acid required when putting tap water back in to the tank.

I never had any pH crashes despite the tank being small, even when I went on holiday for three weeks.

Just to add, how manageable it is often depends on what your KH is rather than what the pH actually is. If the KH is high it can be a right old pain to get things down.

However as Duncs alluded too earlier the different species do have different requirements/tolerances.... it may be that the right choice for you is to leave the pH alone and get a species which is more comfortable in a higher pH.

Did you have your heart set on any particular species?

 

[duncs]

Yeah indeed - kH is important. My kH is actually pretty low, which makes it more difficult in some ways (more prone to pH crashing and so on) but certainly makes it easier to drop the pH.

You could opt for some tank bred Apistogramma borelli. They're not my personal favourite species of dwarf but they're still a gorgeous little fish. Males are bright blue, females bright yellow when in breeding condition. If you used something to bring your pH/hardness down just a little bit, whilst remaining stable, the borelli would still thrive.

I used to have some pics but I've lost them

Something like that, though that's Apistogramma cf. "borelli", which means it's not the true borelli but an unidentified, similar species.

 

[tenohfive]

Not especially, there are a couple which caught my eye but there was no one species that I couldn't live without.

If I can get it to 7, then add bogwood and consider peat (I know nothing about peat so will need to do some digging) then I can consider my options.
Either that or abandon the apisto tank idea and go for something completely different - given the size of the tank though, I don't have many options for a species tank.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

have you thought about the african dwarf cichlids, like shellies neolamprolugus multifascius (probably not spelt like that!) who are dead interesting little fish and make a great little community tank and would be more than happy with a pH of 8-8.2?