can Apisto comm?

[huhengyi1986]

hi i have a male macmasteri and 2x female apisto currently in my 1.5ft cube tank. possible to introduce 1xmale in? will the alpha male breed with the females? advisable?

Thanks for your input.

[stormhawk]

You are not supposed to have more than 1 pair in a tank that small. Unless you are stocking them densely, it is impossible to do this without having 1 pair kill the other, if they are spawning.

As for the female apisto, are they macmasteri females, or females of some other species?

[huhengyi1986]

macmasteri females. was hoping the male will spawn with both of them or spawn with 1 and the other for a back up. been monitoring them. aggressive yes but don't think the other female will be killed. just some chasing for now. if the chasing gets too aggressive will sell the other female.

[stormhawk]

It is possible the male might spawn with either female, provided what you have are actually females and not sneaker males. In any case, if either one is guarding eggs or fry, the other female will not be tolerated, especially in a 1.5 ft tank. Your other option is to use a divider but that would make the 1.5 ft tank very cramped.

[huhengyi1986]

yeah thanks for the advice. if 1 female spawn will the other female just go into hiding? won't get chased and wack till very bad right?

[doppelbanddwarf]

When a pair breeds, the spawning female will chase and attack the other female on sight. In a 1.5ft tank there just isn't a lot of places to hide. Other than serious injuries, stress and not getting enough food could also kill the apisto. There are many cases of males being killed by females during spawning, let alone an extra female.

Even when not spawning, apistos are agressive to each other. The least dominant one suffers the most.

[Wackytpt]

Tank size is too small to accomdate so many apisto.

Acutally even for a 1ft cube is still small to house a pair of apisto.

[marle]

Comm can probably be done if you add in some bigger and aggressive species such as angel fish. Try to add more apistos, best in a group. Lots of hiding spaces.

Think this just reduces the rate of casualties, but not completely eradicate it.

[doppelbanddwarf]

I believe that a community tank of lots of fish is possible, like what you would do for a african rift tank. Lots of apistos so that the aggression is spread out. If you see Joe(scope)'s tanks he has something like this. However filtration and water changes will have to make up for the large numbers.

In hengyi's case it is a 1.5ft tank. I don't think adding larger fishes like angelfishes will be wise.

[stormhawk]

But in larger numbers they probably won't breed. If hengyi doesn't want to breed them then a community setting is fine.

I do agree, putting an Angelfish in a 1.5 ft tank is not feasible, unless the tank is of the tall type.

[huhengyi1986]

Roger that. thanks for all the advice. was thinking of adding rummy nose in. around 8 of them. will that reduce aggression? i been advised that they will swoop down and kill the juv once they start swimming but have also been told that their parents are aggressive enough to fight them off. please advice. think i will sell 1 of the female away..

[Wackytpt]

Huheng,

Please refrain from using short form or IM lingo in AQ.

Thanks

[huhengyi1986]

ok. thanks for reminder will take note.