Apistos AND Rams????

[MOsborne05]

Can I keep a pair of apistos and a pair of rams together in a tank? The tank is 38 gallons, and is 36x12x20. It is heavily planted with a couple pieces of driftwood and two caves.

Also, how do you sex apistos? And are there any certain kinds that are more community friendly? I currently have 1 honey sunset gourami, 6 harlequin rasboras and an L204, or flash plec.

 

[Orion]

I think this would be more of a trial and error setup. It may work great, or it may end in disaster. They both live in the same niche in the aquarium, the bottom. With enough teritories, and some good line of sight breakers I think that it has the possibility to work out.

Are you buying each as a 'pair' as in, they are adults and are breeding, or are you going to get some juveniles and hope that they pair off? I think that by getting juvies you are more likley to sucseed in this, however it would also add a lot of stress on both rams and apisto's once they started becomeing of breeding age and pairs started forming, as teritories and hidding spaces are going to be difficult to find. Having an extra tank to put the 'cast offs' in might well help save the lives of the fish that haven't paired up and allow you to either keep them in another tank, or sale them back to the store or someone else.

Do keep in mind that my thoughts are just guess work based on what I know of each. I've never tried this setup myself.

I know that the apiso cacutuoides and agassizii are often seen in a more community setting, but a larger or more robust species may be needed to live and breed in the same tank with rams. Then agian, the opposite may be best in getting a more docile species.

I belive that the males have more elaborate fins than the females, but not sure that this applys to all the species.

 

[wayne]

Might work, might not. I would prefer multiple pairs of the same species of apisto myself.
Most apistos are very, very easy to sex, even at very small sizes. The only problem can be sleeper males, but females should go yellow even as small as 3/4 inch at times. I would suggest if you can't sex them, you haven't tried - it is very obvious.
Most apistos are pretty community friendly - in my experience the only problem I had was with some big, wild caught A. panduro and A. 'Rio Preto'. The other 7 species I bred were pretty docile

 

[silver dollars]

From what i have heard, Apisto's are way more aggresive than rams are. But i could be wrong on the way more part. But from my point of view, rams are more of a Community fish if you have the right ones, sometimes Apisto's i think can be like the rams, but i would never put them both in the same tank.

 

[MOsborne05]

I've never seen apistos before, so I wanted to get some info on sexing them before I went to the lfs But yes it was pretty obvious. I got a very pretty male and a yellowish female, and I also got two german blue rams, one male and one female. They are acclimating right now, so I'll post pics once they get settled in. I'm not sure what kind of apisto it is, I'll have to look it up, but they are all pretty small, maybe 1" if that.

I also made an impulse buy and picked up two blacktail ranger plecs. They are only about 1/2" and I plan on putting them in my 7 gallon hex. I was going to move the otos to the 38 gallon, but they are too quick. Do you think it will be ok putting the plecs in the 7 gallon, with a male betta, 5 neon tetras and 2 otos? Like I said they are very very tiny, and the tank is well established and has never had any problems. If not, I'll have to take out the decor to get the otos

 

[Mushroomman]

I did apistos, rams, and kribensis in a tank all went well.. in a 30 gallon.

 

[MOsborne05]

Alright well I just put them in the tank and the gourami is poking the rams with his antennae things, and trying to bite them Should I seperate them or let them establish a pecking order? I've never seen the gourami show any signs of aggression towards the harlequin rasboras or plec, so I'm surprised that he's behaving like this!

 

[Orion]

hmmm, he may be doing that because of any similar colors that the apisto's may have. I wouldn't worry about it unless the gourami is bothering them to the point of the apisto's not eating, torn fins, or they just look stressed out in general.

It's been a while since I had a dwarf gourami, but when I did the ones I had were always very curious about anything new that I put in the tank with them, be it just decorations or a new plant or other fish.