zero apisto experience so first your typical tank size question. Would a 10g work as a single species breeding tank or do I need to stick to the 20g long? How many females to male? What about if I put short finned breeding guppies in with them as a partial live food source and dither fish?
What are good water parameters? Due to tapwater toxins I am using RO and I was using seachem's alkaline buffer (bicarbonate based) and equilibrium but I found issues with the lack of calcium and difficulty dissolving equilibrium. I now initially run my water through crushed coral and then finish the buffering and gh with alkaline buffer (ends up with ph 7.8) and cichlid lake salts. Cichlid lake salt is designed for africans but could be mixed at any concentration or I can go back to liquid Replenish which is an overall gh mix for community tanks that is already dissolved or they do make an american cichlid salt powder. Same with buffer there is acid regulator, neutral regulator, arowana buffer.... It just costs more and means I have to run more water change storage tanks to mix different items instead of using less of the same one on that particular batch and mixing in more to finish changes on other tanks.
Any species specific food? Pellets, flakes, frozen? I have bloodworms, mysis shrimp, and beef heart frozen for my bettas and orange spotted sunfish. They also get guppies and ghost shrimp. I was going to grab some cherry shrimp at a swap tomorrow and start breeding those. I have blue ramshorn snails and am getting red ramshorns that the crayfish and sunfish love stripping out of their shells. The damage to the snail shells and molting crayfish is why I switched to a more calcium based hardness additive.
I have a ton of temple plant. I just made 3 more 6-8" cuttings. Some aquatic mint, some anacharis, lots of hornwort, and lots of duckweed. I was going to put a moss wall on a cork background of my 40g breeder for the sunfish so I am debating similar if I'm heavily planting a tank for apisto. What do they need for open areas and substrate?
What are good water parameters? Due to tapwater toxins I am using RO and I was using seachem's alkaline buffer (bicarbonate based) and equilibrium but I found issues with the lack of calcium and difficulty dissolving equilibrium. I now initially run my water through crushed coral and then finish the buffering and gh with alkaline buffer (ends up with ph 7.8) and cichlid lake salts. Cichlid lake salt is designed for africans but could be mixed at any concentration or I can go back to liquid Replenish which is an overall gh mix for community tanks that is already dissolved or they do make an american cichlid salt powder. Same with buffer there is acid regulator, neutral regulator, arowana buffer.... It just costs more and means I have to run more water change storage tanks to mix different items instead of using less of the same one on that particular batch and mixing in more to finish changes on other tanks.
Any species specific food? Pellets, flakes, frozen? I have bloodworms, mysis shrimp, and beef heart frozen for my bettas and orange spotted sunfish. They also get guppies and ghost shrimp. I was going to grab some cherry shrimp at a swap tomorrow and start breeding those. I have blue ramshorn snails and am getting red ramshorns that the crayfish and sunfish love stripping out of their shells. The damage to the snail shells and molting crayfish is why I switched to a more calcium based hardness additive.
I have a ton of temple plant. I just made 3 more 6-8" cuttings. Some aquatic mint, some anacharis, lots of hornwort, and lots of duckweed. I was going to put a moss wall on a cork background of my 40g breeder for the sunfish so I am debating similar if I'm heavily planting a tank for apisto. What do they need for open areas and substrate?