I never found apistos worked that well for me in 5's , they really are just a little too small. A single is ok, but male female pairs had too much friction. A 10 seems to give them jsut enough breathing space to not scrap all the time.
I don't think Dicrossus are very related to Apistos at all. Apisto's are basically small geophagines, and if you look at the most 'primitive' Apisto you can find, Ap. 'Rio Preto', you will see it's about 12, 15 cms long and looks like a Geophagus. (Except it's not in circulation in the US, only Germany and Scandinavia as it was collected by some swedes on holiday). Rams, Mikrogeophagus , are obviously, well micro geophagus also, but form a separate lineage altogether.
Did you know apistos are speciating at an amazing rate, and there is more genetic diversity in the genus apistogramma than in the whole of lake Malawi - that's whay they don't crossbreed so often, whereas Mbuna just cross across genera all the time. Genera is a desriptive term, it is not a good guide to how 'different' animals are at genetic level.
I don't think Dicrossus are very related to Apistos at all. Apisto's are basically small geophagines, and if you look at the most 'primitive' Apisto you can find, Ap. 'Rio Preto', you will see it's about 12, 15 cms long and looks like a Geophagus. (Except it's not in circulation in the US, only Germany and Scandinavia as it was collected by some swedes on holiday). Rams, Mikrogeophagus , are obviously, well micro geophagus also, but form a separate lineage altogether.
Did you know apistos are speciating at an amazing rate, and there is more genetic diversity in the genus apistogramma than in the whole of lake Malawi - that's whay they don't crossbreed so often, whereas Mbuna just cross across genera all the time. Genera is a desriptive term, it is not a good guide to how 'different' animals are at genetic level.