Re: Corys, otos and ditherfish - yes or no

[Mike & Diane Wise <apistowise@bewellnet.com>]

Nuno,

Let me put my opinion out for you.  A 95 gallon tank - properly 
aquascaped is certainly adequate for 2 trios of Apistogramma. As long as 
the fish cannot see across the entire length of the tank you should have 
no problem with agassizii & a macmasteri-group species setting up 2 
separate territories. The two forms are so different that they certainly 
will not cross breed.

Pencilfish are ideal community members with apistos. They do not 
actually school and their mouths are to small to eat any but the 
smallest fry. Hatchetfish, however, will be a problem unless the 
aquarium is tightly covered. They will "fly" out of the water if an 
apisto attacks them. The Corydoras hastatus are a question. Since they 
are not actually bottom dwellers (they tend to school in mid-water 
levels) it is possible that the apistos will ignore them.

You write that your water is around 100ppm (<7ºdH), but you don't say if 
this is permanent hardness (GH) or carbonate hardness (KH). Depending on 
the amount of KH, peat may be able to soften your water sufficiently to 
permit aggies & macs to breed. Both species can successfully breed at pH 
6.5, GH <100ppm, & KH <50ppm. I do not believe that you will need an R/O 
unit for these fish.

Mike Wise



Nuno Prazeres wrote:

> 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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