Hello guest! Are you an Apistogramma enthusiast? If so we invite you to join our community and see what it has to offer. Our site is specifically designed for you and it's a great place for Apisto enthusiasts to meet online. Once you join you'll be able to post messages, upload pictures of your fish and tanks and have a great time with other Apisto enthusiasts. Sign up today!
Marine Section of that store is 25,000gallons and much cleaner
Gas is $3.30/gal and it's 42miles away If I didn't zigzag to every fish store between home and there it takes 50min each way. So something like $8 gas round trip, and $5 more for highway tolls.
NYC wouldve been closer but more...
That's my point, I bought the only 2 festivums they had. These were tank bred, If I buy more, it will have to be online, most likely a different species.
My tank is well cycled, over filtered (brought over the filters from 3 cycled tanks when I transferred to the bag tank). The festivums...
I had bought 2 @ $52. (it was the only 2 they had) one already died =(
They both looked fine in the store, the festivum in the background had pink-ish gills, stayed pale, never left the surface of the water, ate only once in 4 days, was dead at the bottom yesterday.
Ammonia poisoning, right...
***Copy/paste error***
The cleanest most reliable LFS already got the M. Erigious in (8 of them). They're bigger than expected 2¼" pale & clamped. Being medicated for the next few days. Not sure if that's more risky or less than blindly ordering.
Ctenapoma aren't like typical gourami, aggression is on the low end of the spectrum, they generally ignore each other and rarely leave their hide spot. Since I already know they can handle the loaches, and they're bottom dwellers won't interact with angels felt like a much better fit than kribs...
Heres where Im at.
July breeder/supplier list comes out this week. Fingers crossed on the festivums.
I bought 4 new bleeding heart tetras and a 2nd ctenapoma theyll be in a separate tank for a months til they're a little bigger and def. disease free. 2 angelfish, 5 GZ loaches, 4 BH Tetras...
I added 2 small (1.5") Angelfish yesterday. Zero interaction with the loaches, BH Tetras or Ctenapoma.
It's going so well I'm considering adding 2 more Angelfish. That would mean no room for the archer. Tank is somewhere between 85-105gallons
This is the fully freshwater clouded archerfish...
More questions, does my tank have enough plants/caves for the species discussed?
one LFS has Clouded Archerfish... its been a longterm oddball dream fish.
Either Angelfish, Festivums, or Laetacara (a pair each of 2 species not all 3) and a clouded archer.... should be fine, right ?
^what...
I think at this point I have as much info as I can, thanks all. Appistos are def out. Kribs are probably out. I didn't think of it initially, I don't want anything that dies in years or less.
I'll start with an angelfish those are everywhere easy enough to return if the loaches are too mean...
1) Those festivum look awesome!
2) How many angels? You don't keep anhbottom dwelling dwarf cichlids in this (Loach/festivum/angel) tank, right?
Just adding angels and festivums is probably my best bet. Still iffy with the loaches being so mature.
Believe it or not, the GZ Loaches were not...
Aside from the loaches not being timid they all had similar temperament and water requirements (if kept 79° But yeah loaches were a mistake, I should've started here instead of fishlore.
Mesonauta if I find it a reasoble size captive bread at a not too high price ($70 for 3, shipped)
Do are...
Alright new plan. My tank is custom made, closer to 105gal. I made a plexiglass divider Iliaches can keep 1/3 of the space. Give a chance to the new comer to acclimate. Reintroduce the loaches in a few months. If it doesn't work in a few mos I'll get one of the smaller tanks from the attic and...
If I go the rout if that LFS, anything would be kept in a seperate tank for a few months both as a quarantine precaution and to get them to get bigger and healthier.
Local gH falls in the 120-150ppm range.
In not stubbornly trying to add a cichlid. The plan was supposed to be Bolivian Rams...
Found a weird LFS that breed cichlids in-store, smaller ones are all mixed together sold as "assorted cichlids"
Would any of these work:
Kribs
sevrum
peacock cichlid
rainbow cichlid
blue acara
Yellow lab (idk why these are mixed with the new world cichlids but hey were)
I'm more looking for a list of cichlids to keep an eye out for.
Cichlids that aren't so timid that they'll die of stress in a community tank, not so agressive thst theyll slaughter everyone.
Happy at pH 6.8-7.0, reach at least 3", at most 6"
I only know of Angelfish, Rams, Discus...
Heres one in Natural light:
-----
My one small one, full inch smaller than the other 4 , more slender frame, fewer but thicker and more vertical bands he's usually bolder in color. It may be a runt, or only male, or the only true golden zebra loach. (He's fast, can't get all of him in one...
The tank is densely planted and caved, I probably should added that in the OP. Can't have anything that needs large open spaces.
The golden zebras loaches (maybe yoyo) are 5yrs old under 3" doesn't seem like they'll every reach 4". If they do get that big I have a 55g with bigger meaner fish...