South American Cichlids • How fragile are apistos?

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

Hi everyone! I am planning on getting Apistogramma borellii next month. However, I was chatting with another aquariumist today, and he acknowledged that he could never get his apistos to last more than a month before dying. My question is...how fragile are apistos (and A. borellii in particular)? I was going to keep a pair in a 10 gallon tank and do twice weekly 20% water changes. Thanks

[slava2929]

As someone who is building a black water 20 long apisto tank, I'm also very curious about their fragility. My LFS has agassizii in at the moment and have never kept them before. IN fact I have NEVER seen Agazzizii in any fish store at any time so I''d really like to try keeping them but your comment has me worried. My tank is 6.6 Ph, 5.6 GH, 26 C (79F) and Nitrates are less than 20PPM. I hope someone with Apisto experience answers your question because it's a good one.

[zimmy]

I had borellis and cacatuoides in a high tech heavily planted 110G at one point. I had a hard time getting the borellis to eat initially and used a pipette to get food to them. Eventually they settled and were fine till I sold them many months later.

They need lots of cover, like in a planted tank, and water flow should not be too high. My pH was also lowered in my tank through the use of CO2. That might also have helped.

[slava2929]

FYI: I now have two male agassizii in a 6.8 Ph, 5.6 dh, 81 degree, 20 Long blackwater tank with four tetras and the fish are doing really well. No hint of stress or serious aggression. It's got five or six caves, driftwood, oak leaves and 2/3 peat substrate so I have done my best to re-create an Amazon environment. I have no live plants, but I suspect Ph and temperature are the keys for dwarf cichlids - ie. they need a relatively low Ph and keep the tank water warm.