The motivation for this question is that black water is required for chocolate gourami so if the tank has been designed for black water (and sufficiently large); is it safe to keep them with apisto. I do realize they are an asian fish that would never occur naturally with apisto but not sure that matters.
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Is it safe to keep chocolate gourami with breeding apisto ?
- Thread starter anewbie
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- Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
Personally, I would not. Chocolate gouramies IMHO are much more demanding than most apistos. I doubt that they would survive long from any stress due to cichlid aggression.
- Messages
- 11,217
- Location
- Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
At that size it probably will not be a problem. I would, however, orient the water values to those most suitable for the chocolates.
Ok thanks. It is still a year out and i'll do more research; not sure it is good idea as they are far more delicate than the apisto species i'm considering and have other concerns around behavior but they seem like an interesting fish. In case you are wondering i'm only planning on one low ph aquarium given the special treatment it will recieve. The other aquariums i setup will have low gh/kh but no effort will be made to reduce ph.
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I know it's quite a bit later now, but given you mention it's a long term plan I might be in time.
I feel like behavior wise it would work fine, especially in a tank that big. I keep both Sphaerichthys osphromenoides and S. selatanensis and in my experience S. selatanensis stress much less than S. osphromenoides, so I would go for those if you end up doing it.
As mentioned before, find an Apistogramma species that suits the extremely acidic and warmer waters the chocolate gouramis like. There should be plenty. but not always easy to find. Might I suggest Dicrossus filamentosus as an alternative?
And chocolate gouramis are group fish. In a tank that size, don't get fewer than 20. 1:1 m:f would be ideal but it doesn't matter as much in a group that large.
I feel like behavior wise it would work fine, especially in a tank that big. I keep both Sphaerichthys osphromenoides and S. selatanensis and in my experience S. selatanensis stress much less than S. osphromenoides, so I would go for those if you end up doing it.
As mentioned before, find an Apistogramma species that suits the extremely acidic and warmer waters the chocolate gouramis like. There should be plenty. but not always easy to find. Might I suggest Dicrossus filamentosus as an alternative?
And chocolate gouramis are group fish. In a tank that size, don't get fewer than 20. 1:1 m:f would be ideal but it doesn't matter as much in a group that large.
Sounds interesting but they do best in 82-84 degree ?
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Officially, 77 is enough. In my experience, even lower works. I keep them at 72, and so does my friend who has spawned them. I will argue though, that it's better to be safe than sorry and go for 77+. But you could go all the way up to 84 if you wanted to, yes.
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77 is good; a lot of species of apisto do well at 77. I'm thinking nijennsi and elizabeth but also have been considering Dicrossus filamentosus for some months. I have to think about it more definitely wnat nijjensi - elizabeth are a bit less likely and if i drop them then maybe dicrossus filamentosus which are fairly peaceful.
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My experience with nijsseni is that they're absolute psychos, the entire complex. They could work in a tank this big but I would avoid them. I'm also unsure they would appreciate the pH of max. 5.5. A. elizabethae and Dicrossus absolutely would.
According to Tom's website their native ph is 5.3. They are a bit aggressive. I have a female (long story) with a pair of hongsloi in a 29. She has her 'corner' and for some reason after over a year the female hongsloi decided to lay eggs in the nijsseni corner. She chased both her and the male away. Not really the scene i wanted to see but now a month later everyone gets along again. Her corner isn't very large - maybe 1/8 of a 29; but she has made it clear it is her corner. Other than that incident they co-exist fine - they have been together now for around 18 months.
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I've been warned that in a large tank the nijsseni can be quite territorial and aggressive; so there is that concern. The reason for having multiple species in the tank is that it is large and will be my only low ph tank. Maybe i'll just have to accept it won't work and drop the nijsseni. Then i guess i could go with elizabeth, dicrossues and a bit of chocolate.
