Apistogramma Cacatuoides - What should I do after male died?

[evilgenius]

I had a pair of Apistos in a 20g aio cube. The male of the pair passed on Sunday evening. I think it he got over stressed and hurt himself as I was trying to put the pair back into the aquarium after a rescape. The 1 year old female is fine. 

What should I do now? I had been thinking of getting a new male, OR a new pair making a trio, but the female here is very aggressive. It's why they were alone in the 20. I could move her OR a trio into a 40g breeder with 8 x-ray tetra and move the guppies from that tank into the 20g. The 40g is heavily planted but not setup for appistos.

The 20g

The 40g

I'm not positive what I need to do, but I need to make a decision in 2 weeks when I go down to Minneapolis (2.5 hr drive one way) and hit up a my favorite fish stores.

[Zenzo]

One suggestion would be to get a couple more, put them all in the 40, and see who pairs up. Then, move the pair to the 20, and either keep the other apisto in the 40 as part of the community (what I would do), or find another hobbyists (or fish club) that will take it. 

Nice looking tanks by the way!

[evilgenius]

On 8/3/2022 at 12:25 PM, Zenzo said:

One suggestion would be to get a couple more, put them all in the 40, and see who pairs up.

Yeah... that was one of my thoughts. To do that I'd have to move the guppies to the 20 so I couldn't move a pair back. I guess I could just put the female in the 40 and not get more for awhile. Maybe I'll be able to sneak a new 40 or 60 down in my basement corner "fishroom" sometime next year... LOL!

On 8/3/2022 at 12:25 PM, Zenzo said:

Nice looking tanks by the way!

Thank you very much! As they say, "Practice makes perfect."