Several questions

[sstork]

Hi all,

Love the forums here. Lots of great information and interesting discussions. I am setting up a 125g soft water South American tank (Won’t go so far as to call it a biotope tank – as it will have fish from all over SA and live plants, rocks and wood from all over the world etc…) I have three (ish) questions or talking points I would love to get some feedback on.

(Before I go on, I will apologize ahead of time for probably using some of the wrong (old) scientific names. I was a fish “expert” back in the day and have not unlearned a lot of the names from back in the 80’s.)

1). I’d like to try to push the envelope a little on what I can get away with on mixing South American Dwarf cichlids. Any thoughts on / experience with mixing any of the following:

Bigger more aggressive Apistos with Nannacara Anomalas and Bolivian Rams? Aequidens Curviceps?

Other end of the spectrum Apistos with Crenicara Filamentosa and Blue Rams?

Angels and/or, festivums with either of these groups?

The tank will have several “regions” and generally be heavily structured, heavily planted, heavily filtered (though moderate flow) and heavily stocked with schooling dithers and small cats. I also have a few smaller tanks that I can move any particularly aggressive or submissive individuals to. My goal is not to successfully raise fry but will have pairs (harems etc..) which I know will ramp up the chances for aggression problems.

2). I have seen a lot of great info in other posts about which Apisto’s are pair breeders, harem breeders, mouth brooders etc... And about which tend to be more aggressive etc… Is there an online list/database of this info available? How about a relatively recent accurate book? I have plenty of books (again from back in the 80’s) but none of them have that level of detail. Doing searches and reading through all of the posts the searches bring up to try and make lists of my own is a bit overwhelming and I hate to flood the forum asking the same questions others have asked before.

3). Finally, (And I am cringing as I write this but I know my lovely wife is going to pester me to do it. She has given up a lot of her living space and money for my hobby so I have to at least make the effort…) Any thoughts on keeping dwarf gourami’s in this kind of tank? Same question for using dwarf rainbows for dithers either instead of or alongside the tetras.

Thanks in advance for any and all feedback.

 

[Mike Wise]

OK, I'll try to give you my opinions:

1. Most larger apistos should be fine in such a large tank. With a lot of room and minimal crowding none of the dwarf cichlasomines/ram will cause much harm even when breeding. The same should be OK with angels and festivums. Crenicara filamentosus should be able to cohabit with some of the smaller, more peaceful apisto species in a suitably sized and decorated tank. Some that I'd try would be smaller species of the resticulosa-complex or pertensis- and iniridae-groups. Rams require higher temperatures than most apistos like.

2. I know of no comprehensive listing on the internet. There are no recent books, sadly. Römer's "Cichlid Atlas" vol. 1 & 2 discuss behavior for the species found in the books. Many of the new species aren't there, however. Most new species will exhibit a behavior similar to those closely related to it (same species-complex), so compare to discussed species.

3. In a large community tank, I think that smaller gouramies and small rainbowfishes make good members. I wouldn't be afraid to try them, considering that they stay mostly in the middle/upper levels of the tank.

Good luck and let us know how it works.