New member, looking for Lampeyes!

[mr_apisto]

Hi there!
Some of you may have seen me posting a fair while back on apistograma forums.
I've been away from aquaria for a while, while my house was done up and I had to tear down all my tanks (there were some 90+ at the time).
I'm now starting up again in a much smaller way. I've got a 240 litre in situ and am about to install a 350 litre.
I've always fancied having some lampeyes but don't seem to be able to find any where I am (Catalunya, Spain) if anybody knows any where I am or can send me some, I'd be really pleased.
Would it be possible to put lampeyes in with discus? By my reckoning, they should be within their temperature extremes, but I've never tried this combination before. I know that it's a somewhat strange idea, but what the heck. If they can't go in with the discus, they'll go in with the westies that I'll be installing in a few weeks.
In any case, I'll be having some westies (probably Pelvicachromis taeniatus "Dehani") or Apistograma cacatuoides (2 females and a male), some hatchet fish, some pencils, the discus (probably 2 pairs in the 360) and some sort of algae eater (not decided which, yet). Both tanks will be heavily planted, with a lot of light and CO2, with a reasonable amount of water movement, but no filtration (which will be taken care of by Eichornia crassipes - Water Hyacinth - and by Pistia stratiotes - water lettuce).
That's my brief(ish) intro for now.
Colin

[stormhawk]

Hi Colin,

Welcome to AQ. As for Lampeyes, you can probably get live ones shipped to you from breeders in Germany. There is a killifish association in Spain, but I forgot the name and website link. A search on Google might help. There surely must be at least one breeder within Spain, that is raising Lampeyes.

I would not put lampeyes with discus, because you can't know for certain that the discus will not attempt to eat them.

[Blue Whale]

I would not put Lampeye with Discus simply because Discus are too naughty. Lampeye will take cover each time they see their huge neighbour coming at them.

Here is one observation made with older lampeyes. They are caring, big brother type. If you have one or two older lampeyes (at least 2 years old), in the tank, they tend to take care of other smaller lampeyes or young cardinal tetras. It's like they will show the new fish around, where to go, what to do, stuffs like that. All that comes truth if you have constantly observe them.

Lampeyes are good community tetras if you ask me. When it comes to Discus, my instinct tells me, breed them like you breed angel fish.....in pairs. If you can see two of them pair up, then you buy it. Else, don't keep them in community, competition will heat up.

[mr_apisto]

I've had discus before, and the new ones will already be paired so I don't expect trouble from them. Fact is that I've seen fully adult discus being bullied to the point where they needed to be removed... by a pair of Apisto cacatuoides!
I'm really not worried about the Discus attacking the lampeyes, especially as the tank will be quite heavily planted. My question was more about whether anybody had tried the combination, and whether there had been any unexpected problems
Colin

[Blue Whale]

Anyway, I have not combined before these two.