Back into Apistos... Again!

[MarcJoshua]

Hello all,

I guess its been a while since I last kept these adorable little fellows and after a long hiatus, I guess I'm finally back in the game! It all started at Christmas 2015, when an old friend of mine came over to visit and commented that it was weird that I had an empty tank on my desk just collecting dust and that tank had never been empty for as long as I've had it. So, I decided to get off my lazy bum and get back into keeping fish and only one type of fish seemed to appeal to me enough to really plonk some coin into this project and get back into keeping fish. Yup, no prizes for guessing that it was apistos! It took me a long while to finally stabilise my tank, and up until then, I was terrified of killing any new acquisitions by introducing them into an un-cycled tank. I think my tank has taken just over 3 months since the initial start up for the water parameters to have settled. Now I finally have my ammonia and nitrites at 0 and my nitrates at around 5-10 ppm. During the time that I was waiting to get my tank cycled, I had started browsing around looking for suitable species and dither fish and since I had convinced myself to try out a low tech planted tank, I was busy wandering around looking for plants, caves and hide holes and of course the fish.

One of the shops that really grabbed my attention was Simply Cichlids, Adrian has stocked many species of Apistos, both captive bred (usually his own stock) and wild caught specimens. I had initially thought that it would be great fun to go back to Inkas, but since the specimens were rather small and more importantly, my tanks wasn't ready for the main inhabitants yet, I decided to wait and get some dither fish instead, so I brought home 7 neons and 2 ottos with me. At that point in time, I was trying to help the cycling along by adding livestock, instead of getting better readings for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates, they spiked! Luckily for me, no fish were lost so I decided to play it safe and continue to wait. Once my tank had had settled, I introduced a small bunch of 5 cherry shrimp, of which only 3 survived... No idea why...

I finally tested my water again and found nothing wrong with the parameters and thus decided that I have waited long enough and went to Simply Cichlids to see what was available. I was initially captivated my the Elizibethae but they were out of my price range, also seeing as I am just coming back into Apistos, felt that they were out of my skill range as well. After ogling at the many species on display, the one that really caught my eye was the Agasizzi blue variant, they are absolutely stunning and thus, I decided to take them home with me! BIG Shoutout to Adrian of Simply Cichlids for selling me these two beauties!

Some basic info on my tank:
Size: 15 x 10 x 12 inches (7 gallons)
Filter: Taiwanese Canister filter (360 l/hr)
Lights: Top Aqua 5W LED
Air pump: GEX silent small
Soil: ADA Amazonia
Features: 2 caves, some plants and driftwood (no clue what species of plants I have)
Inhabitants: 1 pair of Agasizzi Blue, 7 neon tetras, assorted shrimp and 2 ottos

Pics:
FTS
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Male:
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Female:
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[tetrakid]

Nice piece.
Fishkeeping is always captivating and enjoyable, every time.

[Carol Anne]

Hi MarcJoshua,

I first started out with the ADA Amazonia soil as a substrate as I wanted both a planted nano and shrimp before finally falling into breeding and keeping Apisto's. I found that this substate can leach ammonia very badly if at all disturbed by the fish or if your planting into it and upsetting the soil up goes all the readings. I will never use it again for this reason. I have since settled on Cal Aqua labs black earth and topped it of with NZ iron sand which I find the plants love. You have picked a lovely fish as a first to start out with. I'm keen to know if you've added to your collection.

Regards,

Carol Anne