New with questions

[MudFrog]

Hi My name is Lisa and I have been surfing here for a few days. And thought I would introduce myself and ask a few questions. I am fairly new to cichlids, having had them about 15 yrs ago.

I am thinking about getting a "opal" cichlid for a 90 gallon that will soon be empty. This tank has had livebearers in it and up for about a year. It's 40% planted. At this time it has sponge filters but a power filter came with it so I could put it on if needed.

Is a shallow tank a must?

I don't know my water cemistry except to say the water is hard. I tried angels, and they lived but decided to give them to someone who had soft water to breed them.

I asked on another fourm what I should stock this 90 gallon with and was given a very interesting answer of dwarf cichlids and silver tetras. I have been looking through the database and found a few that I liked but the water required states soft.

Any suggestions? On fish or tank mates.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Apistt_ed]

hello Lisa,

I'll try my best to try to answer some of your questions. Well, first off, you do not need a shallow tank at all to keep apistos. your 90gallon Tank should be more than fine for a trio of apistos and maybe even another pair.

As for the "opal" dwarf cichlid, I believe that you're talking about Apistogramma borellii. Well, borellii are great fish to start with. They have been known to spawn in fairly hard water, but this also comes down to how hard is your water? You could easily purchase a test kit for mere $3-4 dollars and learn to use it as it is helpful sooner or later. Great fish to start with are A. borellii, A. cacatuoides, and A. eunotus as I have kept them in straight tap water without any trouble and have had successful spawn from all three on more than one occasions. My tap ph is about 7.0 - 7.5 and they did fine so if you're water is around there, then you should have no trouble at all.

Stocking comes down to your preference really. If you want a nice tank as a center piece then you can go with Australian Rainbowfish, killies, a meriad of pencilfishes, hatchetfish (silver and marble), corydoras, vietnamese whiteclouds, anything really. But if you'd like to get a strictly spawning setup, you can cut back on some of the predatory fishes which tend to be the barbs, tetras, and armored cats. In this case, I have pencilfish, dwarf rasboras, hatchetfish, killies and platys and have never had problems with them at all. It comes down to what you'd like to see in there, with thought that obviously you wouldn't put a jaguar cichlid in there with them of course. Besides you are the one who will be looking into that tank. best of luck. John

 

[MudFrog]

Thanks Apistt_ed!

I will go get a ph kit. But if I remember the last time, many months ago, when I tried to lower the ph for my angels, it was around 8.0. I couldn't lower it because there was no buffer. Well, that was what I was told.

I have checked out the Apistogramma borellii "Opal" and very much like this fish but thought about stocking the tank with the Apistogramma cacatuoides "Yellow/Gold" also. (if I could find it) Would the two make good tank mates? If so how many would be a good choice? If not what, in your opinion, would be a good amount of "opal" fish to stock with?

Breeding would be my first thought and if possible I will try to lower my ph. Does anyone have suggestions on how I might do this? I will post chemistry as soon as I get it. I have read some of the posts here and will read more once I find them regarding lowering ph.

Okay, one last thing.... Is there someone here that sells them? If not where is the best place to obtain the Apistogramma's?

Thanks again, Lisa

 

[IndianaSam]

Aquabid.com is a great place to buy Apistogramma in my opinion. Apistodave regularly sells a variety of species and is well regarded (from what I've heard).

 

[MudFrog]

Aquabid.com is a great place to buy Apistogramma in my opinion. Apistodave regularly sells a variety of species and is well regarded (from what I've heard).

Thanks I will take a look there. I think I have spotted the name there before.

MF