Cactuoides Hopeful

[whnighswonger]

Hey guys! My name is Will I currently have 2 smaller tanks one 10 gallon and one 5 gallon. The 10 gallon currently houses my Male Koi Betta, 4 otocinclus catfish, and 5 pygmy corydoras.
The 5 Gallon is still cycling, but i intend on putting the betta in the 5 gallon with some amano shrimp.
My questions are...
do you guys think a 10 gallon tank that is kept stable with low ph/soft water is ok enough for a pair of cacatuoides?
if so, do you think the pygmy corydoras will eat the fry in the possible case of the apistos breeding?
I intend on keeping the otocinclus catfish in the tank to help with algae, but my nitrites/nitrates have remained low for a while (my LFS recently sold me some "RO" water that had a ph above 7.5 so the ph of my 10 gallon went up, i told the store, they fixed the problem, but now i gotta slowly ramp the ph dow before I add the apistos)
right now my water is soft and Ph is now around 7-7.5 I have added almond leaves to the tank as well as discus buffer to the rest of my "ro" water so it all reads sub 6.5.
Any advice criticisms or anything welcome... i'm slightly newer to the hobby and just love how cacatuoides look/act and would love to own a breeding pair. ( i don't plan on getting a separate breeder tank etc... just gonna let nature take it's course and maybe i'll be able to sell some apistos back to my LFS.)

 

[Mike Wise]

My questions are...
do you guys think a 10 gallon tank that is kept stable with low ph/soft water is ok enough for a pair of cacatuoides?

OK? No, it is too small for a larger polygamous species like A. cacatuoides. Is it possible? Yes, but - and a really big but - you have to be very careful about seeing the first signs of aggression and react to it immediately by separating the 2 fish. If you cannot do this you could lose one of the fish.

if so, do you think the pygmy corydoras will eat the fry in the possible case of the apistos breeding?

No, pygmy corys tend to ignore fry of any kind. They will not even get close enough to the fry before the female gets really nasty.