Re: Considering these apistos and I'm New!

["Tomoko Schum" <tomokoschum@earthlink.net>]

Hello Lianne

I am a newbie to apisto, too.  I have A. borellii and
A. trifasciata in a community tank set up.  They are
very small - only 1 to 2" long and very beautiful, too.
They proved to be very easy to keep.  I would recommend
them to any newbie to apistos.

However, breeding cichlids in a small community tank
might be a challenge, at least to the bottom dwelling
small fish like cory cats.  I believe small cichlids
would do just fine by themselves or with more
compatible variety of fish in a small tank, just like
several people mentioned previously.  But my experience
with breeding small cichlids in a small community tank
(10 gallon heavily planted tank with a large piece of
driftwood) has not been so successful.  My two
Anomalochromis thomasi turned hostile toward their
tankmate when they suddenly decided to breed in the
tank.  They are fine with otocinclus cats but killed an
American flag fish in just a few hours and seriously
injured my panda cory cats.

I am going to move my borellii to a 20 gallon long for
breeding purpose but I think I will leave my cory cats
in my large tank.  A. trifasciata females seem to be
spawning in my heavily planted 75 gallon community
tank. (I thought they were still too young.  Well, what
do I know?!)  Cory cats and other bottom dwellers in
this tank are doing fine.  They kind of stay out of the
way.

Just my two cents, I hope you all don't mind me butting
in.

Tomoko





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