20 Gallon Long Apistogramma Honeymoon Suite

[Rube_Goldfish]

In December 2022 I bought a pair of Apistogramma cacatuoides from my LFS to include in my then-new 55 gallon planted community tank. The male did not survive quarantine. So I bought a second pair, reasoning that a 1M:2F trio ought to work in a four foot planted tank.

Shortly after adding all three to that tank, we realized that we'd mis-sexed the new pair and they were both male. (Knowing what I know now, I think one of them was a sneaker male.) One male ended up on the outs with the other two fish, and was being pretty relentlessly hounded.

For his safety, he was removed to an empty-of-fish but still running 10 gallon planted tank that was waiting to be re-set as a shrimp tank. My LFS had said they'd take him back, but that it would have to wait until after they'd finished moving to a new location across town, so he'd have to stay in that 10 gallon tank for about three weeks.

You might be able to see where this story is going. Due to construction delays, my LFS didn't open at the new location until about four months had passed. In the meantime, the pair in the 55 had spawned, and four females survived to a saleable size. I netted out three of them to take to the now-open LFS, but one of the juveniles eluded capture for a few days. By the time I'd caught "Debbie" (named for D.B. Cooper, equally hard to catch), she was mature; on a hunch, I put her in the 10 gallon. She and "Adam" (originally named "Amber" by my kids, big Sofia the First fans) have now had two successful spawns, and between their easy productivity and the fact that they're right next to my home office desk, I've grown attached to them.

So what was originally a three week arrangement has become permanent, which means I can no longer keep these fish in a ten gallon tank, and I'll be upgrading them to a 20 long (and the ten they're in now will finally be able to turn into a shrimp tank!).

To add on to the excitement, Mrs. Goldfish will be principally designing the aquascape, her first. We looked through a lot of photos for inspiration and have settled on a triangular composition using rounded river cobbles on pool filter sand with some kind of wood (she's got surprisingly strong opinions on driftwood!). I'll be handling the planting and maintenance, but it's always fun to incorporate loved ones into your hobby/obsession.

Other than what type of wood to use, the only real open question at this point is tank mates. Other than bladder snails, Debbie and Adam are alone in their tank at the moment, and while there is something to be said for understocking, if I could have more fish, it would be a shame not to, right? But I want to try to balance "more fish is better than fewer fish" with the knowledge that they will still breed, and I want a) fry to survive; b) Debbie not to be too stressed chasing away 'threats' to the fry; and c) to not put fish in a tank just to be harried by an overzealous mother protecting her fry.

I know the real answer is that I have to decide if this will principally be a breeding tank or an aquarium that occasionally has breeding activity, but hey, who doesn't want to have it all? So with that in mind, does anyone have any suggestions for tank mates? I have Corydoras sterbai in the 55 and would love pygmy or panda cories in thid 20 long, if that's not too much. I thought clown killifish might be a good option, because they're small and spend so much time near the surface (right?) in contrast to the apistos. Would a bristlenose pleco be too big for a 20 long? Would Amano shrimp and/or otocinclus be harassed too much by apistos?

With apologies to Blaise Pascal, if I'd had more time, I'd have written a shorter first journal post, so if you've read this far, thank you. Here's Debbie and Adam in their too-small, too-messy tank:

Hopefully I'll have more pictures next time.

[Guppysnail]

Congratulations 🎉 I love my Apisto cauc. Watching them is such a delight. It’s easy to see how you became so attached. 
 

A bn pleco will not be to big however they may get their eyes plucked when mom has her babies. I even had to remove snails mine are so fierce guarding babies. Nerites remain and are still doing well though. 

[Rube_Goldfish]

On 8/10/2023 at 6:00 PM, Guppysnail said:

Congratulations 🎉 I love my Apisto cauc. Watching them is such a delight. It’s easy to see how you became so attached. 
 

A bn pleco will not be to big however they may get their eyes plucked when mom has her babies. I even had to remove snails mine are so fierce guarding babies. Nerites remain and are still doing well though. 

Yeah, that's the sort of thing I'm hoping to avoid. I've seen Debbie try to run off bladder snails, who seem to ignore her, and her mother in the 55 is constantly trying to drive away sterbai cories twice or three times her mass (they move, usually, bit never seem too bothered by her). "Fierce" is a great way to describe it.

[Rube_Goldfish]

I'm gathering supplies:

I have basically everything I need, I think. There's most of an ACO small sponge filter in there; the sponge itself is seeding in my 55 gallon tank, but it'll be used on my 10 gallon fry grow-out tank. That tank currently has an Oase HOB rated for up to 20 gallons, so that'll get put on this 20 long.

One thing I have been looking for but not finding is "aquatic compost". MD Fish Tanks has been using it a lot as part of his "substrate system" in conjunction with gravel, sand, and root tabs, so I thought I'd go that route, too. He says you can find it at any pond supply shop, but I've been asking around and mostly getting blank looks and shrugs. Maybe it's a British English term? If I can't find it, I'll just root tab the stuffing out gravel and sand and wait for mulm to build up. I can be patient and I'm not planning on any difficult plants anyway.

Then I'll have to cut another polycarbonate sheeting lid. Oh, and I'll need the hardcape, too. I guess I don't have almost everything I need after all.