Feeding tips for Apisto in community tank

[Rycraft]

Just wondering what's the best way to make sure my Apisto pair is getting adequate nutrition. They share a tank with 14 embers and some Amano shrimp.

Should I really just be looking for food to make it's way to the sandy substrate? The tetras don't grab the food once it gets below a certain level, just more worried about the Amanos racing in to grab food before the Apistos find it. The Teras know a finger tap on the glass means dinner time, so hoping the Apistos catch on to that as well.

I have frozen bloodworms (I know these should be fed sparingly), frozen BBS, ciclid micro pellets from Hikari as well as small and medium size bug bites. I'm going to go pick up some frozen brine shrimp today as well seeing what other frozen foods I might be able to get so I can have a good rotation and figure out what they like.

 

[MacZ]

What species of Apisto are you keeping? That can have some influence. Just aswell as the time the Apistos are in the tank. How long do you have them now?

Otherwise I find Amanos not to be good tankmates for dwarf cichlids.

 

[Rycraft]

@MacZ Apistogramma Velifera. I've had them about 4 days now. The tank is in my home office where I work all day. So far I've noticed zero aggression issues. The shrimps just got out of the way if they feel threatened but generally the male ignores them and the female could care less about them.

Is live dafnia a good food option? They seem relatively easy to culture and seems like it would encourage their hunting instincts.

 

[anewbie]

My tank is heavily planted and i feed my top feeders flake because they like to pick stuff off the surface. For the apisto i put in a mix of fluval bug bite and northfind bug bites (none of my fishes in any of my tanks like the northfin because it has garlic so i will stop feeding it when i finish the bag). Therefore my apisto can pick the food they want - they mostly go for the bug bite but occasionally the female will snag some flakes at the top or poke at the zuc. I put the zuc in for the bn pleco but for some reason in this specific tank the bn won't touch it but the oto(s) and snails still eat it (in my other tanks the pleco - mostly l204 and bn) will snag the zuc as soon as it touches the water - can't tell you why the group in this tank rejects it outright.

 

[MacZ]

@MacZ Apistogramma Velifera. I've had them about 4 days now. The tank is in my home office where I work all day. So far I've noticed zero aggression issues. The shrimps just got out of the way if they feel threatened but generally the male ignores them and the female could care less about them.

Is live dafnia a good food option? They seem relatively easy to culture and seems like it would encourage their hunting instincts.

Interesting you mention aggression,. I didn't even think about that, Amanos are just generally a nuisance in a tank with dwarf cichlids in my opinion.
Anyhow: Give them time. In 4 days my Apistos usually wouldn't eat very fast even without competing tankmates.

Daphnia are good, but be aware, bigger amounts are kind of a laxative. So feed them maybe 1-2x a week in smaller amounts.

 

[Rycraft]

Interesting you mention aggression,. I didn't even think about that, Amanos are just generally a nuisance in a tank with dwarf cichlids in my opinion.
Anyhow: Give them time. In 4 days my Apistos usually wouldn't eat very fast even without competing tankmates.

Daphnia are good, but be aware, bigger amounts are kind of a laxative. So feed them maybe 1-2x a week in smaller amounts.

I picked up some frozen brine shrimp and a frozen brine/spirulina/krill mix last night. So hopefully they enjoy those as well.

It's only been 5 days and the female already has her breeding dress on trying to lure the male into either cave so it appears they at least like the tank setup.

 

[MacZ]

a frozen brine/spirulina/krill

Rinse in freshwater, as too much salt is bad for the kidneys. Also Apistos are definitely on the carnivore side of things, so maybe get something without spirulina next time.

 

[anewbie]

Interesting you mention aggression,. I didn't even think about that, Amanos are just generally a nuisance in a tank with dwarf cichlids in my opinion.
Anyhow: Give them time. In 4 days my Apistos usually wouldn't eat very fast even without competing tankmates.

Daphnia are good, but be aware, bigger amounts are kind of a laxative. So feed them maybe 1-2x a week in smaller amounts.

Interesting. When I feed my pleco solient green my cockatoo will eat quite a bit of it. They also at times poke at the zuc so maybe they are just confused ?

 

[MacZ]

Interesting. When I feed my pleco solient green my cockatoo will eat quite a bit of it. They also at times poke at the zuc so maybe they are just confused ?

I'm not surprised about the repashy, as it's not 100% plantbased. The zucchini I would attribute to curiosity, though.