Apisto vs Pelvicachromis

[aaron]

In your experience, which genus (or species if you could be specific) are more tolerant of their own kind, apistogramma or pelvicachromis?

After I sell off one of the proven Heros sp Atabapo pairs (mouth brooding severums) I'll have an empty 72x18x16 tank. I want something with some fish drama, so I was thinking along the lines of multiple pairs of dwarves of some kind.

[Mike Wise]

In a tank that size, species of either genus should live in fair numbers. Apistogramma (depending of the species) tend to be harem breeders and more specimens can be kept in a certain area. There are exceptions, of course. Pelvicachromis form pair bonds with each pair controlling a similar-size breeding territory. Therefore, I would expect that your tank will house more apistos than kribs. Also realize that the lay-out of the aquarium is important in the number of territories that can be established.

[aaron]

Thanks for the reply Mike.

I have kept apistogramma atahualpa in a 5ft tank, but I am told that they are one of the more aggressive species. Holding individual personalities constant, in your experience what are the some of the most peaceful apistos? From my reading, Borelli seems to be mild mannered. I did not know that there were apistogramma species that pair bond, I thought some had more of a tendency to pair bond, but were mostly inclined to harems.

I like Pelivicachromis equally well, and pair bonding is one of the highlights of the hobby for me. I like watching the two fish work together.

I'm sure you have kept many, many more dwarfs than most, which setup would give me more of those fun little miscellaneous interactions like squabbles over caves, fry stealing, ect. All of those little behaviors that make dwarfs so entertaining because we can give them more space than the big fish. Hope you understand what I am trying to get at .

[Mike Wise]

A. borellii is an excellent species. Females are famous for stealing another's fry and adding them to their own. They are known to steal fry from other apisto species and even other genera! Males usually leave these female squabble alone unless they really get out of hand. Although most apistos form harems, there are some that tend to form pair bonds for breeding purposes. Most species in the nijsseni-group form breeding pair. In an aquarium where there are not threats to the fry, the males will sometimes breed with more than one female. Species of the pertensis- and iniridae-groups are almost monogamous. The female will choose a mate and only breed with that male, often rejecting other males if her mate dies or is removed. Species of the steindachneri-group form pairs when there are fry predators in their tank, but males will breed with several different females if there are no fry predators. Apistos are behaviorally variable. With ~300 different species/forms, this shouldn't really be surprising.

[aaron]

Hey Mike,

I ended up going with 15 A. Cacatoides. 5 males and 10 females.

I absolutely love this tank, the females are just now starting to breed (5 are guarding caves and 1 has free swimmers) and the social behaviors are amazing. The females flare and fuss with each other, but nobody has nipped fins. Time will tell if I will have to remove more females, but I'm hoping the complex decor and line of sight breaks will allow me to keep at least 7.

Two males were quickly eliminated so I am left with three. As of now, one male seems to be doing most of the breeding, but I hope the other two males will eventually try to stake out a territory for themselves. The decor creates three distinct territories, but even if I only have one male I will be more than happy with the tank. The dominate male is slightly (very slightly) larger than the other two, but hopefully they will catch up and challenge him eventually.

I got exactly what I wanted out of this tank.

[Mike Wise]

Seems like a great tank! One suggestion if you want to be certain that you do not lose any more fish: put some pieces of pipe that float in the aquarium. Any fish without a territory and continually attacked will hide at the surface in the pipe. When you see a fish in the pipe, just net the fish/pipe and put in in another tank.

[aaron]

Mike,

Just wanted to update you,

The setup ended up working awesome with 2m10f. Still my favorite tank and this experience has firmly placed apistogramma at the top of my all time favorites list.

Recently I have started taking out rock and driftwood and using strictly plants for line of sight breaks. I have decided that I would rather have less females and be able to see all of them versus having 10 and only being able to see 4-5 at a time. So with that objective in mind, I am playing with territories in order to shoot for 7 observable spawning locations, so far it is working well. I'm sure it will be like the last setup in that I will have to watch and tweak territories.

I do have a side question for you, in your experience are domestic lines of apistogramma more docile than their wild counter parts? In other words, is an A. cacatuoides double red strain less aggressive than a wild cacatuoides?

[Mike Wise]

I don't see much difference in the behavior of domestic vs. wild specimens of the same species. There is more difference between species. The advantage with domestic forms is that they tend to adapt to a wider range of water values and foods - at least at the start.