Will they get along?

[silver dollars]

I have seen in preveouse(sp?) threads that rams will do fine with Apistos. I am wanting to move my swordtail fry into my other 29G and add some rams and some apistos into the tank that the fry are in right now. The tank has two cave in it and some plants. Will this work?? The tank i am wanting to use is a 29G.

 

[MOsborne05]

Maybe. Depending on how aggressive the rams are, and how much floorspace you have. I have a pair of apistos and a pair of rams in my 38 gallon and they get along fine. Each pair has their own established territories though.

 

[silver dollars]

yeah i was up till 3:30(mount. time) drawing this 125G tank i want it planted and add some caves. Here is a list of all the Dwarf Cichlids i want in a tank:

Keyhole Cichlids(Cleithracra maronii)
Chessboard Cichlids(Dicrossus filamentosus)
Ram Cichlids(mikrogeophaugus Ramirezi)
Red-tailed Dwarf Cichlids(Apistogramma macmasteri)
Agassiz's Dwarf Cichlids(Apistogramma agassizii)
Cockatoo Dwarf Cichlids(Apistogramma cockatuoides)
Red Cockatoo Dwarf Cichlids(?)
Sunburst Cockatoo Cichlids(?)

I don't know if all of these would get along but there is my list. I would keep them in a 125G planted tank with eclipsed lighting and caves. This is my dream tank, and the cichlids to put in there.

I would like to keep some of these together but like i said, i don't know if they are able to be in the same tank without ripping each other to shreads *GOLDFISH* , but i am sure that some of the Apsitos can be kept together.

 

[silver dollars]

I might do some experimenting today if i can. There is a Petco by my dad's house that sells some Apistos and rams, so what i am wanting to do is go there and get 2 of each(1 male and 1 female) and then put them in the same tank and see how it goes.

I will have to move my Swordtail fry(there all about 2 months so they will be fine) into my other 29G and put the Apistos and rams in this 29G tank. I have a female blue ram but no male cause he died in a war for this cave over a Knight Goby The tank i am going to use for them is a 29G tank that has cycled and has some floating plants in there(i will get more) and two caves.

My female ram will get this one brownish cave first probably as that is the cave that she and my male would always breed in and lay there eggs on the top. So here and the male i get i hope will get along with eachother and the Apistos.

As for the Apistos, i am wanting to get these Red-Tailed Dwarf cichlids they have there. The male is Unbelievible in colours! He is about 4"(full growth) and his "wife" is about 3". They look nice and peaceful but i haven't been able to stay at the store and watch them and see if they are peaceful enough for my rams. They swim around everywere with each other and share the same flake or whatever food is in the tank. I just feel like going there and getting them right now but the store isn't open until 9!*crazysmil

So yeah those are my plans for the tank and the fish!

 

[Pure]

The rams will not care about the cave and probably not even really go in it but maybe to hide. They are slate or hole spawners, so what ever cave you see them hide in put a small piece of slate on the gravel next to it.

Couple of things you need to look into. From what I understand checkerboards can be more picky about water quality than rams so look into that, and decide if you want to keep them. Also they are very small so that will limit the size of any other fish you keep with them. Also research if it is ok for apistos to be mixed like that. I'm not 100% sure but I think they might hybridize.

 

[silver dollars]

Thanks for that pure! I am only going to keep probably the rams and the Apistos i listed earlier, or like the Cockatoo on my avatar!

 

[wayne]

Apistos rarely hybridise. Even when they do the fry are very weak if they even develop. There's a lot of genetic 'spread' in the genus Apistogramma, probably more in that one genus than in the entire 'mbuna' group from L Malawi.

My experience with the larger apistos, 3, 4 inches is that they are aggressive, and also comnomly quite short lived - they are the grown out alpha fish from a spawn.

 

[silver dollars]

Here is some information from a book i have on Red-Tailed Dwarf Cichlids that i want to put in there insted:

"The female Red-Tailed Dwarf Cichlid lacks the red markings seen on the males caudal fin. Keep these fish in a groupe made up of a single male and several females. Partially buried clay flowerpots make ideal spawning sites. These should be spaced around the aquarium to provide a retreat for each female. A typical spawning results in up to 120 eggs, with the fry hatching in three days. The male sometimes helps gaurd the fry."
C. Aquarium and Pond fish

I know i keep chaning my mind on the other cichlid to go into the tank, but i have made up my mind on this cichlid. The female ram is very peaceful to the other small fish in the tank. The only time she is "rude" is when she is helping the male fight for territory, but the male died in a spar She is full grown and is very colourful.

I am cleaning the tank right now so it is clean and nice looking for the fish, but i am taking a break for the world cup game on now I have been searching the Red-Tailed Dwarf Cichlid on google and have found that the females are peaceful like rams, but males are territorial and will fight for a spot they like the most. I think that having another male cichlid in the tank with a male ram will help him be stronger and show off his strength and colours to the females.

Here is a link to a site that i have found, this is what the Red-Tailed Dwarf looks like: http://www.brosaters.se/diskus-varberg/fiskar/ciklider/st/macmasteri_hane2.jpg

 

[silver dollars]

Here are my plans for ther tank:

29G tank, floating plant, 2 caves, gravel, plants around the caves, and eclipsed lighting.

Water quality: frequent water changes every saturday, test for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate, Check p.H. and k.H., Keep temp. between 74-84 degrees F.

Fish: Rams-1 male, 2 females
Red-Tailed Dwarf-1male, 2 females

Food: flakes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Brine shrimp every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday.
Both flakes and shrimp every saturday after cleaning.

Is the food thing ok or should i do some changes? So what do ya think of my plans????

 

[silver dollars]

I am done with the tank! Now i will let it cycle!

 

[Pure]

Where do you plan on finding this dwarf?

 

[silver dollars]

There are two stores i went to today that have them, a Petsmart next to my dads house and this store called The Aquarium.

 

[wayne]

A. macmasteri is a nice easy Apisto., one of the 'whitewater species, so appreciates water with low kH but doesn't need super low pH. Easy to breed. I can assure you males and females are ridiculously easy to differentiate, it's a bit mroe than a lack of red in the females tail. Telling female macmasteri form other female apistos is a bit more tricky....

 

[silver dollars]

So how do you sex them????

 

[wayne]

You'll be able to tell. The A. cacatuoides inyour avatar is a male, and the male macmasteri will have similar features to that - colour, fin development, head shape. Females are small and brown,unless they're ready to spawn, when they're small and yellow.
The only thing to beware are 'sleeper' males that are not in dom male colours. So getround that, buy a cert male, and get a 'female' that is gold/yellow in colour. They should be ready to spawn at a ludicrously small size - 3/4 inch for sure, if not smaller.

I really need to get round to a sticky on Apistos...... - I bred 9 different ones, so I'm a novice, there's a guy locally who 2 years ago had bred 50 different species, and was going strong on the rest.

 

[silver dollars]

So is the male like more colourful than the female? And should i keep him with 2 females or one female cause i am going to go buy a male ram and another female and put them in the same tank and then move my female ram in my 55G into the tank that the dwarf cichlids will be in.

I just got a digital camera so i am going to film the tank that is cycleing and post it and see how you like it! Also there is a stone in there and that is it besides the gravel, i will add the caves tomorrow with the rams and Red-Tails.

P.S. Thanks for the info Wayne! Can you make a list of the dwarf cichlids that you have bred? Thanks!!!

 

[wayne]

This is still a good page for Apistoes tho' getting a bit outdated - [The Krib] Apistogramma and other Dwarf Cichlids - look thro' a few species and you'll see that most of the time females are small and brown , except when ready to breed they go yellow. Males are almost always more colourful, more finned.

A. aggassizi (red), A. borelli (boring), A. cacatuoides, A. eunotus (recommended), A. macmasteri, A. 'Rio Preto' (interesting, as close to the root, original Apisto as you get. Big too, 10cms, wild caught),A. panduro (wildcaught), A. bifasciata (hard work, ultra acid), A. cf. macmasteri.

I get to see a lot of wild caught fish - we are so remote here it's easier to get fish straight from the catchers/1st stage distributors as from the large wholesalers that most lfs in the US use.

 

[silver dollars]

well today is the big day when i will get my fish!!!!!!!