Setting Up an A. Cacatuoides/Agassizi Colony

[Jonathan August]

I'm starting up a fishroom in a little bit and while i was planning the tank layouts and what fish i want to breed and all that great stuff, I thought of My breeding trio.

I want to put them in an above-ground pond. One option is a plastic koi pond, 72 gallons, 43 in long. I was thinking 2-3 males 8-10 females. Decorations would inclue sphagnum peat moss, river rocks/drift wood and a few artificial caves.

The other option is making a custom pond with wood and pond liner, a little more work, but i could have 2 along the available wall. With that I could have 2-4 males 8-13 females. Same decorations.

 

[Tony]

My only thought is if you're building something big like that, you may want to toss in some larger fish. Without glass sides and with surface agitation from filtration, I can imagine observing apistos nearly impossible in one of those options. You'd probably be just as well off tossing your trio in a 10 or 20 gallon tank.

Now what to put in this vat you are building... hmmm...

 

[jonclark96]

I agree with Tony. With something that you can only view from the top, I would go with bigger, more colorful fish. Apistos can comfortably live in much smaller tanks.

 

[dogofwar]

It could be a cool tub...I remember standing in about 8" of water hyacinth-choked water near Bella Union, Uruguay...and looking down on hundreds of pairs of Apistos each gaurding a little spot of turf. The females were bright yellow...

Not sure how this would translate to your tub (probably too deep to see them) but it inspired a nice memory.

I've kept bichirs, a lungfish and other stuff like that in tubs before.

Matt

 

[Jonathan August]

I knew I would only be able to see from the top, and The orig. tank the trio was in was a ten gall. Now they r in a 33 long. The reason for this tub is to observe how they act in nature as close as possible, and make some money on the side.

I thought about bigger fish (green terror, oscar, large pikes, etc.), but I'm not a big fan [no pun intended:lol:].

the fish would be Apistogramma: cacatuoides, agassizi, panduro, and/or trifasciata.

Mikrogeophagus: Ramirezi

and maybe some dithers.

 

[Jonathan August]

i also plan to propagate swords and crypts in this tub

 

[Jonathan August]

I'm starting up a fishroom in a little bit and while i was planning the tank layouts and what fish i want to breed and all that great stuff, I thought of My breeding trio.

I want to put them in an above-ground pond. One option is a plastic koi pond, 72 gallons, 43 in long. I was thinking 2-3 males 8-10 females. Decorations would inclue sphagnum peat moss, river rocks/drift wood and a few artificial caves.
View attachment 4697
The other option is making a custom pond with wood and pond liner, a little more work, but i could have 2 along the available wall. With that I could have 2-4 males 8-13 females. Same decorations. View attachment 4698

if i use the wood-tub it will only be 15-24 in deep

 

[samsmobb]

Won't it be hard to observe seeing as its hard to see fish from above? I'm on the same boat as the others I think it will very hard to see since they aren't too big :/

 

[Jonathan August]

ether way, what would be the best water to filter this, a canister would be easy but i'm afraid it would suck up the fry w/o a perfecter, sponges would be cheap but i'd need a pump to recalculate the water (the tub will look like an up-side down L), and the big pond filters have the same prob. as the canister filters.

 

[dogofwar]

A box and a sponge.

I'd think that mixing a bunch of Apistos would make it that much harder to figure out what is going on.

When I was a kid I had a coupld of 150g rubbermaids set up with African cichlids...filtered with a canister and a sponge filter...

 

[Jonathan August]

all right, I think I'll use the sponges. I'll decide what 1 or two species I want once I'm done with the project.

 

[Avatar]

Never for money, always for love

Layout like that with high surface area to volume ratio you could get by with just a water pump for circulation if you stay on top of water changes and especially if you have plants growing in and out of the water. Not saying you should, just that you've a lot of options for plants and could grow yourself an aquatic jungle with good lighting.

Mixing Apistos is generally a bad idea if only because most females Apistos look just like other female Apistos of different species. And swords are snarky fish that will munch anything so don't expect many Apisto fry if they're co-mingled.

Looks like a lot of fun in any case, best of luck.

 

[Jonathan August]

I ment Amazon Sword plants. But the apistos will most likely be Panduro and cacatuoides, the females aren't that similar so hopefully no crossing

 

[Jonathan August]

Now having second thoughts, but I think it'll have one or two breeding pairs of Cacatuoides and panduro and then grow out.