Ideas for a future Apisto tank

[commander salmon]

Hello everyone, i am new to the forum and have enjoyed reading all of the past posts... very imformative

Currently I have a 33 gal tank with 2 african cichlids (N.brichardi, J.Regani), which I will be taking down at the end of the summer when I have to move. When I set it back up again in september I would like to turn it into a planted South American tank.

I'm thinking of keeping 4 different species of fish in the tank: a group of apisto's, a group of cory's, a group of tetras, and a couple algea eaters.

6 A. borelli
3-4 Corydora. panda
10 Black phantom tetras
2 Oto cats

how does this combo sound? any suggestions or previous exp with any of these fish would be welcome 8)

 

[farm41]

Welcome commander salmon, glad to see you here

You do like to plan ahead don't you, your tank sounds great to me.

 

[commander salmon]

I was also wondering if the apisto's/cory's/phantom's would breed in this tank. It would be totally cool if I got the odd fry surviving from any of these species in the tank. I think that if I saw a strong pair of apisto's in the tank I would maybe try putting them in their own 15gal tank to breed, then put them back in the main tank when they are done to raise some of the fry in the 15gal. I've never bred fish before but it would be part of my goal in having this new setup. I think I would also try doing the same with the cory's.

 

[farm41]

Could please tell us your water parameters. Ph, Gh, Kh, conductivity?

 

[commander salmon]

don't know yet, its not going to be setup until september (see first post) :roll: ...

obviously I will shoot for parameters that will best meet the listed species requirements in the community tank... and seperate breeding tanks with parameters for specific species.

All I was wanting to know was if you figured that they would in fact breed in the community tank and if eggs/fry would survive with the other adult fish present.

 

[farm41]

A lot depends on the water conditions when keeping soft water dwarfs. If you have rock hard water with high Ph you will have to do water modifications for them to breed.

 

[Neil]

commander salmon,

WELCOME TO THE FORUM

Your tank sounds great. The choices are good, but it unlikely that you will have any fry swimming around in there besides the borellii, as they are the only species that will protect their fry from the othr inhabitants. To breed the other species, you would probably need a dedicated breeding tank for the tetra, structured in a way so that even the parents couldn't get to the fry. I don't know about the otos, but the pandas can be bred in a bare tank with the parents still in it (I think).
But that still leaves the best option - the borellii. Water conditions for breeding of these Dwarf Cichlids don't have to be extreme and will be good for the others in the tank as well 6.5-7 ph, 4dGH.
Neil

 

[kribs]

I agree with neil. Also the pandas will eat the eggs but will not eat the free swiimming babies for what i have seen. Also the otos also can be bred but you have to play around with them.