A. Borellii questions

[mgtitans17]

I have an established 26 gallon tank with a cave and a couple of plastic plants. Right now I currently have 4 cardinal tetras, 3 red eye tatras, 2 lemon tetras, 2 serpae tetras, and 2 harlequin tetras. Could i safely keep a pair of a. borelli without any problems in my tank? I am willing to remove fish if i have to. Would i have to add any more plants or caves to my tank? My water parameters are PH around 7.3 but it will soon be 6.8, GH of around 10, a KH of around 4, and no ammonia or nitrites. Would I have to change any of my water paramters to keep borellii's? Thanks for any help?




(This would be my first apisto tank so please bare with some of my newbie questions)

 

[cootwarm]

Hi mgtitans17,

A pair of borellii would do fine with those fish if you don't want to raise any fry. If you want fry, you'll have to remove most of the tetras. The 4 cardinals would probably be the most that the parent borellii could keep an eye on.

Your water is fine for borellii. Because they are fairly peaceful, your current setup is probably fine, just keep an eye on them for a while in the begining. Add a few more plants if it appears that they need more hiding places.

Michael

 

[mgtitans17]

Would putting a pair of a. borelli in my tank be overcrowding it? Would putting two caves instead of one in my tank help reduce any potentioal aggression?

 

[cootwarm]

No, I don't think it would be too crowded for the pair of borellii.
Aggression shouldn't be a problem as borellii might be the most peaceful of all apistogrammas.
The problem would only be if you want to raise fry. The tetras would eat the fry before they had a chance to grow much.

Michael

 

[aspen]

that tank would be nice with a pair or trio of borellii's. when you raise them and want to breed them, and lower your water hardness, that would be the time to remove some of the tetras. ime, even if you left 1 tetra in the tank, you would lose a few fry to the tetra. tetras are egg and esp fry eaters, and are also somewhat nocturnal, as they breed at night.all dwarf's i've kept sleep at night.

rick

 

[mgtitans17]

I have recently decided to purchase and set up a 20 gallon high tank for preferably apistos. Would it be best to keep a trio (1M, 2FM) in that tank? Also, my tap water has a ph around 7.5-7.6. Can borellii's breed and live happily in a tank with that high of a PH?

 

[newworldan06]

Breeding is not a ? of ph, it has to do with KH if the water is to hard the eggs will not be able to be fertlized by the male fast enough. With that high of a ph they will be able to sruvive, but i dont know if they will want to breed. They may be stressed.

 

[cootwarm]

Hi mgtitans17,

I think your borellii would do OK at that pH. I don't know what your hardness is, but that could be OK as well. Borellii are one of the few apistos that don't require very soft acidy water. I think cacatuoides would do fine in that water as well.

Through the summer, I've sort of intentionally kept my apisto water less than ideal to discourage too many from spawning. My tap water is pH 7.5-7.6, GH8 and KH5 (which is kind of soft anyhow). This is all I've been using this summer, yet I got fry from borellii, cacatuoides, maulbruter, and a new, undescribed species being sold simply as Apistogramma sp. "Blue" (supposed to be related to Apistogramma Pebas). :?

So much for trying to discourage them! :wink:

Michael

 

[mgtitans17]

What kind of water temperature do borellii's like? The tank i plan on putting them in has a constant temperature of about 80-81 even if i ture the heater way down.

 

[cootwarm]

Myself, I don't use heaters in most of my tanks. I've only got a couple tanks with heaters. My temps range from about 68-74 in the winter (I've had borellii spawn at these temps many times) to about 80 in the summer. 80 is on the high end of the comfort range for borellii, but I don't think it will hurt them. Because it's summer, that's what my temps are right now and mine are doing good.

Michael

 

[mgtitans17]

I was also wondering what is a good quality flake food that i can feed to the borellii's when i get them? Rite now i am using tetramin original tropical flakes. Will those be good enough for the borellii's if i also feed them freeze dried blood worms and maybe the occasional bbs?

 

[cootwarm]

I just look for vitamin enriched flakes. You may need to get them used to the dry food before feeding BBS. But you might have to give them BBS when you first get them if they're being finicky.