Corys, otos and ditherfish - yes or no

["Nuno Prazeres" <rute_p@hotmail.com>]

Hi!

I am preparing a 95 gal tank (with additional capacity - 30 gal from the 
sump) to host two trios of apisto - agassizii + macmasteri complex (do they 
share habitats in nature?). The tank will be set up with driftwood, rocks 
and plants. The goal is to watch the inter and intraspecific behaviour of 
these fish in a quite low stockage environment.

Giving this goal, is it appropriate to use a few small species corys 
(hastatus???) and otos as cleaners and typical ditherfish like pencils 
and/or hachet fish? Would those fish interfere in the behaviour of the 
apistos or they will just contribute to make it more evident as they are 
said to work as a sort of assurance there is no predator threat arround?

Another thing...

How acid should the water be?
How hard should it be?
Mine comes from the tap at 100 ppm General Hardness and 7,4 pH which is not 
too bad - is a smaller setup a bit peat filtering and CO2 are enough to get 
it to pH 6,2 and 60ppm GH.
Should I use peat and/or CO2 or get serious and go straight to RO?


Thanks for any help

Nuno Prazeres

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