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Color morph ID

blizowman1

New Member
Messages
11
Ok so I just got my first pair of cacatouides and I had to Pay 39.99 for them which is more than the las couple of pairs that came threw the shop. They told me they were just "red" but I'm thinking they might be mOre than that especially since they were so expensive. They are tiny too my female is smaller than my cardinals and my male is just about as big as my pristellas.
f27b47ca.jpg

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And here's my tank
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I currently have my pairs of cockatoos, 8 pristellas, 6 cardinals, 4 Corys, and a albino bristle nose.
My plants include wisteria, java fern, banana plant, two Anubis

I've read the cockatoos new lost of hiding spot what are some ideas I could do to make my tank better for them? If you have recommendations on decor or plants or anything at all the help is appreciated. I know I wanna get some kind of floating plant but not sure what yet. THANK YOU FOR THE HELP. This is my first pair and is my first tank I've ever set up
 

Matt1892

New Member
Messages
21
Location
NJ
In regards to the color morph question I have no idea but for decor/plants I personally like dwarf lily plants. They provide a nice mid ground to foreground look along with shooting up lily pads for shade. And as for decor I just got done setting up coconut caves for my Apistos. I think in a heavily planted/all natural tank they look pretty awesome and give a good hiding spot /territory for females.
 

ste12000

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
619
Location
Cheshire..UK
Hi, where are you living? 39.99 what? Dollars, pounds? That price is at the upper end of the scale and the fish are whats called triple reds, nice fish but not at the highest quality. The shops buy these in very cheaply so there was room to negotiate the price!!
The tank looks good, i would personally use a finer substrate as Apistogramma like to dig out caves and hollows under your wood. Apart from that and the fact that the tankmates will eat any A.cacatuoides fry id say that the setup is lovely.. Enjoy and welcome to the forum!
 

aquaticclarity

Moderator
Staff member
5 Year Member
Messages
1,809
Location
Richfield, WI
$40 (US) a pair in several retail shops by me is pretty common for triple red cacatuoides. To get better pricing you have to buy from local breeders. And most of the stores in town don't even carry Apistos with any regularity any more...other then the mass produced cacatuoides and agassizii...and even those are getting hard to find.

Long live the home based fish breeders!
 

blizowman1

New Member
Messages
11
Matt- how did you set up coconut caves and where did you get them .
Ste- I live in TN it was 39.99 us. So Rey are triple red but you said not the highest quality? What exactly does that mean?
I've notice a lot of cacatouides have longer fins on top once mine grows will that begin to happen and maybe the color fill in the fins? Mine are so tiny right now my female might only be half a inch she's smaller than all my cardinals and my male IS bigger but is still young and not grown up yet
 

dw1305

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
2,755
Location
Wiltshire UK
Hi all,
I like Amazon Frogbit (Limnobium) as a floater because both it and Nile Cabbage(Pistia) have great roots, but Limnobium is a bit easier to grow. Any of Salvinia, Pistia, Lemna, Phyllanthes will do. Another option is Floating fern, Ceratopteris, which I have in all my tanks. It is a shame you are not in the UK, or I could have sent some spares.

This is a tank belonging to Lukasz (Ruki) with Nile Cabbage as a floater. <http://www.apistogramma.com/forum/index.php?threads/apistogramma-sp-breitbinden.9042/>
inin.jpg


The easiest way to get the coconut caves, is to buy an ordinary coconut (they cost about £1 in the UK, so $1.50ish). Saw it in half with a hack-saw and then prise all the flesh out of it with a blunt knife, once you've got it all out, saw a notch out of the cut edges, then put the caves in the tank. I usually rub the loose fibres from the shell and super-glue (cyanoacrylate glue) a Java fern and some moss to the top, but this is optional.

With pebbles you may not have to cut a notch out, but I'd definitely replace them with sand.

cheers Darrel
 

dwarfpike

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
176
Location
Seattle, Wa
A lot of our LFS sell precut coconut caves as well, so you might want to check around if you don't like the taste of them and don't want to waste all that food.
 

blizowman1

New Member
Messages
11
How difficult would it be to switch the pebbles to sand and would I still be able to grow my plants the same cause the natural part of the fertilizer (poop) would just sit on top of the samd
 

dw1305

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
2,755
Location
Wiltshire UK
Hi all,
would I still be able to grow my plants the same cause the natural part of the fertilizer (poop) would just sit on top of the samd
The visible faeces are fairly inert, all the fertiliser is in the soluble ions (NH4+, K+, PO4- etc). Both sand and gravel are inert and don't contain any nutrients, but you don't need a nutritious substrate to grow plants, even those that are rooted in the bottom will largely get their nutrients via their leaves and stems.
How difficult would it be to switch the pebbles to sand
Not very difficult, you just add the sand over a few days, it will fall down through the gaps around the pebbles. As you add sand, take away the pebbles you don't want. Over time the sand will naturally end up under the pebbles, and you can keep on adding sand (and removing pebbles) until you get the look you like.

The sand you want is silica sand, and if you can get "Swimming pool filter sand" it is a good size and shape.

cheers Darrel
 

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