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mixing apisto species OR apisto group?

jase101

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
31
Location
sydney, australia
hi there -

been keeping tropicals for 30 years and apistos for 10 - started with cacs, then aggies, then panduro, nijssenni, hongsloi...BUT, i've always kept them seperately, ie, one species per tank in a pair or trio.

my 6 foot tank houses royal whiptails as the feature fish and large schools of cardinals and rummynoses. i'm thinking of adding apistos to this tank, but of course 6 foot is a lot of room for only a pair/trio.

so my question is, does anyone have experience keeping different species together successfully, ie minimal fighting/bullying? OR are there any species that are compatible in a group, eg 2 males, 4 females...successful breeding is not an issue - fry wouldn't survive in this tank of micropredators anyway. the tank is heavily planted, lots of rocks and caves, so territories will be easy to establish and maintain.

don't limit yourself to my above species list - i feel a new year fish-treat coming on!

thanks in advance for your help,

justin
 

creighton

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
10
I'm kinda new to apistos, but I recently asked the same question to Apisto Dave. I have a 120 gallon (5X2X2) and he said I could fit 10 pairs in there. I currently have 6 pairs of apisto's of 2 different species (3 pair Inka & 3 pair panduro). They seem to be getting along well, but I don't think this would be a good arrangement for breeding (but I'm sure with 10 yrs. of keeping apistos you know that :) ). I'm not quite sure about hybridizing though, but I think in the long run the fish are going to get along just fine.
 

Spyder

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
23
Location
Bristol, CT
I have a 300 gallon heavily planted tank and I started with 7 Cacatuoides (3m, 4f) and have countless now plus numerous Borelli, Bolivian Rams and Blue Rams. They have never shown any aggression towards each other. Could be the size of the tank or the large number of each species but all is peacefull.
 

nc_nutcase

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
27
Location
Charlotte, NC
I first tried a Cac Colony in a 4’ tank it went horrible… twice…

My third try was with a 6’ 125 gal and this made all the difference…

I started with a large group (5 males / 10 females if I remember correct) and two males proved to be the strongest and killed the others… within a years time the two males each owned a side of the tank and there were several smaller males (born in the tank) that owned their little pot.

It was a great community setting that still allowed me to use the upper levels to grow out other fish (I mostly keep larger Cichlids).

Unfortunately I needed the tank for the big guys and had to break up my ‘Colony’.

Fortunately I was recently able to rededicate the same 6’ tank to them and just added 6 young trios (2xTripleRed, 2xOrangeFlash, 2xGold). One male was lost in shipping but the rest have settled in well. The tank also contains approx 20 Red Seprae Tetras and 8 Blue Dempseys (temporary grow out for them). Oh, and two little Firemouthes that refuse to grow…

I’ve only kept Cacs so I have no advice/opinions mixing…
 

jase101

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
31
Location
sydney, australia
thanks for the advice so far. the few times i've had more than one male in a tank, there's just always been that bullying that goes on, so the sub male ends up in a cave or corner mostly. even with trios i find the sub female gets it pretty rough. i like harmonious tanks - if i want violence, i'll watch the news!! hehehe.

so, maybe the way to go is a group of young cacs, and let them sort it out... or maybe i should just get a spectacular pair/trio of something and let them have the whole tank...it's just such a bugger to try and catch fish in this heavily planted tank if i change my mind or if things go pear-shaped!

any other opinions?

justin
 

tleehm

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
44
Location
Sydney, Australia
Hi Justin,

In the past, I've found it absolutely difficult to care for the apisto in a large planted tank. I've tried them in a 5 ft planted tank in the past, as you've already pointed out - pulling them out is almost impossible. This include removing the sick fish for treatment.

At the end, their number will decline as the weaker ones get wasted away:frown: . Finding dead apisto is equally challenging, as they tend to become skeleton quite fast (especially when there's catfish in the tank).

Cheers,
Thomas.
 

curviceps

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
66
Location
Sydney, Australia
in such a community tank, breeding would be unsuccessful anyway, so perhaps try keeping males of different apisto groups. i think its been suggested in this forum that males-only tanks will minimise the aggressions associated with breeding... and let us know if it works, as i would like to try it some day :)
 

bigbird

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
593
Location
Sydney, NSW Australia
Hello Justine,

I have a 5x2x2 tank with 4(2M 2F) cautois, 2pandos(1M 1F), 4( 1M 3 F )agazzi and 3(1M 2F) sp eartheaters and tank is fully planted with also 6( 3M 3F)bolivians. All get on perfect well, my only tip would be, plenty of caves, clay pots,cocunut shells etc and larger structures like rock or wood to give the tank a seperation for these various types. It works a treat and all are breeding etc. I also have 2 eheim filters, doing 1200l/h, keeping water clean. I do 30% change a week.
Hope this helps. Cheers Jan-kurt
 

Apistomaster

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
703
Location
Clarkston, WA
I do the same as bigbird if I want to mix Apistogramma species. I usually would only choose two different species; one slender type and one stockier species and lots of caves.

It would drive me nuts to just keep a bunch of different species of males and miss out on all the fascinating behaviors Apistogramma are capable of even if I wasn't trying to breed them.
 

fishme.

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
88
Location
Athens Greece
i think that it is possible to hybridise if the species are very close to each other like macmasteri and viejita for example
 

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