apistogramma Barlowi

[S.k]

Hi,

I'm still in process of choicing between 3 species of Apistogramma's one of them is the A.Barlowi how ever due to the tank size i wanted to get a group of around 12-14 of one species.

I started to doubt if you can keep the A.barlowi in a group since i saw somewhere that females arent very nice to eachother what is your exsperience?

Could i keep them 5 males and 10 females or best to keep them in a even ratio like 5 males and 5 females?

Thanks for your answers in advance

Greetings

 

[Mike Wise]

IMHO 15 A. barlowi is a lot of fish, if you are thinking of the 90 gallon. Personally, 3 males is the maximum + 5-6 females, but it would really need to be heavily decorated. A. barlowi, like all atahualpa-group species are highly aggressive.

 

[S.k]

Hi Mike,

Its for the 220 gallon, I was aware it is quit a agressive fish but from my understanding its more the female that is so agressive, Are they only agressive towards each other or also to other species of fish?

 

[Jelle Touwen]

I have no idea what the sizes of a 220 gallon tank are. It is about 800 liters, but what are the measures in meters? I have 8 A. barlowi in my 400 liter aquarium. It is 1.60-0.50-0.50 meter. I have 3 males and 5 females. They formed 2 pairs now and one pair dominates the right side of the tank. The other pair lives peacefully with the bachelors on the left side. They do not seem highly aggressive to me, they kind of resemble humans. The males are flaring to each other, but that's it. The females however can be really bitchy, when the dominant female sees another Apisto then "her" man, she will chase it until it finds a hiding where it can not be spot. She chases it through the whole tank, not only in her territory. But I have never seen real fights or wounds. They do not really interact with other species, sometimes they chase a catfish from their favorite spot, but never more then 5 centimeter. I really love this species and can recommend them to everybody. They do well in water with Ph7, and ec 200 microsiemens. However the eggs do not hatch under this conditions. So I’m using a reverse osmoses installation now to lower the ec to about 90 microsiemens and I will see what happens then.

 

[S.k]

Hi,

Its 170 x 80 and its nice to read your experience..Im still not sure between two species and one of them is the Barlowi since they can reach a nice size if im correct males around 10 cm and females 7 cm?.

What is your water temperature and do you keep them on that same temperature all year around?.

so my thoughts about the females was correct..

 

[Jelle Touwen]

That is quite a nice size for a tank. My biggest male is about 7 cm and the female about 6 i guess. But still they are verry nice to see. They are verry active and present. I see them all the time, even with all the branches and leaves in the tank. A. biateniata which I had before was far less present, and was hiding a lot. I change the temperature every month, from 22/30 degrees celcius. Because I believe they have changing water temperature in the wild aswell. Based on my experience you can better keep a lot of males, then a lot of females. They bond quite strongly, so an even distribution may work as well. SO I think for your tank 5/5 will do well.

 

[S.k]

Hi,

Am also changing temperatures i have a 3 month cool period of 21 degrees then slowly up to 24,5 degrees.

They plan is to keep them with a larger cichlid so i have some diversity.

Other hand yes the biteaniata maybe little bit more shy but are defiantly colour wise nicer and due to size i feel like i can keep a bigger group of them

 

[Jelle Touwen]

I don't know what the parameters of your water are/will be. But I find the A. barlowi a lot more hardy and easy to keep in normal tap water.

 

[S.k]

water parameters are 6,0 pH and 2-4 gh and kh but i have no intention on breeding