Best Apistogramma

[FrozenFins]

I want apistogramma. But I want them to be friendly yet colorful.

My question is, what is the best apistogramma considering the above?

[Patrick M. Bodega Aquatics]

What would you be keeping with the apistogramma and what size aquarium is it?

 

[Paul]

55 minutes ago, James Black said:

I want apistogramma. But I want them to be friendly yet colorful.

My question is, what is the best apistogramma considering the above?

You need to supply just a little more info. Besides the tank size what temp do plan on keeping them at, how many do you plan on keeping, will there be other fish in the tank, do you plan on breeding? Once you can answer those questions it will be easier to point you to a particular Apisto species. 

[FrozenFins]

9 hours ago, Paul said:

You need to supply just a little more info. Besides the tank size what temp do plan on keeping them at, how many do you plan on keeping, will there be other fish in the tank, do you plan on breeding? Once you can answer those questions it will be easier to point you to a particular Apisto species. 

 

10 hours ago, Patrick M. Bodega Aquatics said:

What would you be keeping with the apistogramma and what size aquarium is it?

 

30 gallon aquarium with tank mates of angels, rams, female swordtail, tetras.

Temp 77-80

Ph 7-8

Only one apistogramma. And no breeding

[gcalberto]

8 minutes ago, James Black said:

 

30 gallon aquarium with tank mates of angels, rams, female swordtail, tetras.

Temp 77-80

Ph 7-8

Only one apistogramma. And no breeding

Since the ph tends to be on the more alcaline side, you might want to stay clear of wildcaught specimens. 

Line bred apistogrammas should do just fine in your water. I would recommend either cacatuoides or agassizii, since they are in my experience the most hardy species, but others like boreli and macmasteri should work as well. 

[Daniel]

Personally, since it is medium size tank I would do either rams or apistos as they occupy the same general niche in the tank. Rams generally like it a little warmer than 77 to 80°F. But apistos are happy in that range.

If you went with apistos, I agree with @gcalberto that cacatuoides would be a fine choice. Male and female apistos have very different color patterns. Females are often a striking yellow and black (and even more so when breeding). 

Apistos can be territorial, which means sometimes they are less than friendly. They are extremely territorial when breeding.

Here are a pair of Apistogramma nijsseni next to my desk where I am typing this now.

Female

Male

 

 

[gcalberto]

2 minutes ago, Daniel said:

Personally, since it is medium size tank I would do either rams or apistos as they occupy the same general niche in the tank. Rams generally like it a little warmer than 77 to 80°F. But apistos are happy in that range.

If you went with apistos, I agree with @gcalberto that cacatuoides would be a fine choice. Male and female apistos have very different color patterns. Females are often a striking yellow and black (and even more so when breeding). 

Apistos can be territorial, which means sometimes they are less than friendly. They are extremely territorial when breeding.

Here are a pair of Apistogramma nijsseni next to my desk where I am typing this now.

Female

Male

 

 

From my personal experience I never had issues with apistos and rams together, except when the apistos, which are generally larger, start breeding. Since his plan is on keeping only one apisto, I don't think that would be an issue.

Now, I just noticed that he said rams, so depending on the amount of rams you already have, there might not be enough room for an apisto, since the tank is really not that big. 

A pair of rams + a male apisto should be fine from my personal experience with them 

[Paul]

1 hour ago, James Black said:

 

30 gallon aquarium with tank mates of angels, rams, female swordtail, tetras.

Temp 77-80

Ph 7-8

Only one apistogramma. And no breeding

You’ve gotten some good advice here. For the most part I agree with @Danieland @gcalberto . Apistos and Rams spend most of their time in the same part of the tank, the bottom. So since given the size of the tank and that you already have a pair of Rams in the tank if the Rams do spawn you more than likely will have some issues. Now I’ve kept cocatuodies and GBRs in the same tank without any issues but they were in a much larger tank. Finally I’ll give you one more Apisto to consider macmasteri. Good luck.

[FrozenFins]

40 minutes ago, Paul said:

You’ve gotten some good advice here. For the most part I agree with @Danieland @gcalberto . Apistos and Rams spend most of their time in the same part of the tank, the bottom. So since given the size of the tank and that you already have a pair of Rams in the tank if the Rams do spawn you more than likely will have some issues. Now I’ve kept cocatuodies and GBRs in the same tank without any issues but they were in a much larger tank. Finally I’ll give you one more Apisto to consider macmasteri. Good luck.

Thankyou everyone! I will only be keeping one ram. I defenetley like the females more.