# 25 gallon rescaped for my expected arrivals :-)



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

I'm expecting my Apistogramma trifasciata trio to arrive this Thursday, so I rescaped the tank in anticipation. The piece of wood on the left is like a cave, because it's hollow from the back. There are a couple of 'caves' in the crevices of the wood, and one underneath the wood. I'm also getting a couple of those 'cichlid rocks' which will be hidden conveniently behind the huge piece of driftwood. This should provide enough choices for the females.

Once they arrive, I will post pictures of the apistos in this thread.

Photos!


----------



## vince0 (Sep 7, 2008)

the tank looks really nice! can't wait to see the rest of the pictures!


----------



## Cvurb (Apr 12, 2010)

Beautiful tank! They will love it! Can't wait to see them too!


----------



## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

Keep an eye on your dario badis though, they may not be able to withstand the apisto aggression ... especially as they will be completing for the same space.


----------



## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

Very nice aquascape *Isis24*. :thumb:



dwarfpike said:


> Keep an eye on your dario badis though, they may not be able to withstand the apisto aggression ... especially as they will be completing for the same space.


What he said.


----------



## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

DeadFishFloating said:


> Very nice aquascape *Isis24*. :thumb:


What he said too. :thumb:


----------



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

Haha. I will definitely keep an eye on the little guys. As it turns out, it's my birthday in two weeks and I'm getting a new tank!! The 12 long (35.4"x8.4"x9.4") will be replacing my 4 gallon saltwater pico. I didn't like saltwater... it was very boring.


----------



## cichlify (Sep 1, 2009)

Dang, thats a chocolate gourami right? Those are sweet! nice !


----------



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

Yep, that's my boy!  I've had him since last August, and though I heard the Chocolate gourami motto "Don't buy 'cause they die" he has done quite well!


----------



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

My babies are here!!!!! They're tiny! about 1.5" I'd say. They're hiding right now, so I can't get pictures yet. I can't see them clearly, but from what I can tell, the male has a lot of blue speckling on his face and body, and has two huge spines on his dorsal fin.

I'm worried that the two 'females' might be males. I know they're small now, so you can't always tell, but the 'females' also have spines on their dorsal fin. They're definitely smaller than the male's, but they're there... I can't tell if they have any blue coloration. Any idea if this means anything? I probably won't be able to get pictures today, but I will try as soon as they come out to play 

I also secretly got 2 Bolivian ram females, which I've been waiting for since last AUGUST! They're easy to vent and I'm 99% sure that one of them is a female, and ~90% sure that the other one is a female. I got a nice birthday gift today... the 12 long tank!! I will try the trifasciata trio in there and a Bolivian ram pair in the 25. The only reason I got two bolivian ram females is because I wanted to guarantee that I'd end up with one female. I'm happy now 

I'll have a plan B if the trifasciatas don't do well in the 12 long. I'm hopeful though.

Pictures to follow!

Lara


----------



## Cvurb (Apr 12, 2010)

Twelve foot long tank! Lucky! Can't wait to see pictures!


----------



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

haha...definitely not 12 foot long! 12 gallon long. It's a 3 foot long tank. interesting dimensions. I WISH it were 12 feet long! Although I'd be paranoid about it falling through the floor...


----------



## Cvurb (Apr 12, 2010)

Hahaha, I was really surprised there! LOL But too bad... Can't wait to see the pictures!


----------



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

Photos!

The new fish definitely need to be fattened up. They all eat, but not very much. I've tried small pellets, which they occasionally spit out. I tried mysis shrimp, but they're too big for most of the fish. I've also tried bloodworms, which they all seem to like, but I know there are dangers associated with feeding bloodworms. I have cyclops eez which is for saltwater fish. I wonder if it's ok to feed it to these guys?
*
My important question*:
Refer to the female apisto photos. There are two supposed females. They both have those spines on their dorsal fin, but they're not as long as the male's. Are these two fish really females? The camera really makes it look like they differ greatly in color from the male, but that's not reality. They're really similar color-wise.

Male Apistogramma trifasciata









Female apistogramma trifasciata?

























Female bolivian with male apisto behind her, possible female in front









The two female Bolivians are not enjoying each others' company...









Dario dario


----------



## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

The cyclopseez should be fine, I know a local apisto/krib breeder that used it pretty much exclusively for both fry and adults.

That last pic of the 'female' deffinately looks like male finnage, but I'll let the apisto experts handle that one.


----------



## Cvurb (Apr 12, 2010)

WOW! That is a beautiful tank! So are Bolivians chill with Apistogrammas? I'm going to get a cockatoo pair (Or trio from a local breeder, one will be for free ) and I will have 2 pairs of Bolivians in there.


----------



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

Thank you! The Bolivians bicker too much among themselves to notice anyone else :wink:

Cvurb, what size is your tank? I read it somewhere but I don't quite remember.

I'd have to say that the bully of the tank is the chocolate gourami. He really doesn't like to have fish in his way 

My new 12 long (gallons :wink: ) is arriving tomorrow, so the apisto trio will go in there soon. Then the 25 will be just for a bolivian pair. I'll put one male in with the two females, and when he chooses his mate, I'll take the other female out.

What's great is that nobody is bothering the darios. They really mind their business and it's amazing how many crevices the wood has. It has caves underneath and within it, so it seems that everyone gets their space. I hated the previous 'scape on this tank, but I'm really loving this one. I hope that my DIY CO2 will support the plants that are in there.

I'm still hoping for more word on the supposed 'female' apistos. As soon as I saw them, my heart dropped. I've never had apistos before but they don't look like the females I've seen in photos. I really hope I'm wrong.


----------



## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

I'd say your two "female" trifasciata are more than likely female.


----------



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

:dancing:


----------



## Cvurb (Apr 12, 2010)

Cool, that is always good. 
My Tank is a 50G or a 50G tank... I'm leaning towards the 55G though  I'm too lazy to measure it and check. But it is planted with lots of driftwood. I posted a pic in the Rate the tank above topic under tank setups


----------



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

Your tank looks great! That amazon sword is awesome. It looks really healthy. I don't have enough knowledge to say whether or not 2 pairs of Bolivians and some apistos would work. I don't see why it wouldn't, but what do I know?  I was going to try a similar set up in my 4-foot 50 gallon actually. I'm breeding dwarf shrimp in there though, and the cichlids would eat the babies! One day down the line, I'll probably put some dwarf cichlids in there.

Good luck!


----------



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

I just felt like updating on the new guys (and girls). They're all accepting pellets and they come to the glass to wait for them when I come close to the tank  That means I'm on my way to fattening these guys up!

You know, I've owned many bolivian rams in the past year, but I've never seen any Bolivian as aggressive as my two new girls. They don't really chase each other. They both stare each other down, display to each other, lip lock, you name it. I've never seen anything like it! They also chase away anything that comes near---apistos, dwarf cories, celestial pearl danios, ANYTHING! The apistos will soon go into their new tank (which arrived cracked yesterday....they've shipped me a new one), but the dwarf cories and CPDs will be staying with the Bolivians. What do you make of this? I never expected the Bolivians to be so aggressive.


----------



## Cvurb (Apr 12, 2010)

Thanks about the tank! I have gone through so many ideas and plant placement, and that Sword is growing huge with just play sand under it... And my wpg is like 0.2... Hahahahahahaha, but they seem to thrive, I have only had the sword for about 3months, and most of the plants are new, but growing well, I do have DIY co2, but am very lazy, and don't add ferts. A low light tank with not so many low light plants :lol:

Do you use small cichlid pellets? I'm thinking of getting those and beefheart (Not bloodworms) for my fish...

So your two female Bolivians are going at it? Well, the only time my female is really mad is when she has babies, then she chases everything away withing 5 square inches. They could be maturing and figuring out who is top Ram, whoever wins gets dibs on everything, but chasing everything away? Thats weird...


----------



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

I know. It made sense when the bolivian females were bickering with each other, but it stopped making sense when they started chasing any living thing in their way. I'm sad 

I feed different pellet sizes for different sized fish.

Fish under an inch: Hikari micro pellets
Tetras, young bolivians, young apistos: Hikari micro wafers
Satanopercas and Geos: NLS cichlid pellets
My Rotkeil Severum: Hikari Cichlid Gold mini pellets (those are pretty big actually)

Of course the bigger fish eat the smaller stuff, but the smaller fish won't eat the next step up in pellet size. I don't feed flakes at all. I give pellets as all my fishes' main diet, and I give peas and mysis as 'treats'.


----------



## Cvurb (Apr 12, 2010)

I got a Cichlid pellet from petsmart today, but they don't sink  so i'll take that back, it doesn't say it floats, but I really want a sinking pellet.

So Hikari Micro wafers would be good? I'll look into those.


----------



## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

As we're talking cichlid diets. I feed all my apistos Hikari micro wafers, micro pellets, cichlid gold (baby pellet), and ground up cichlid bio-gold pellets. As well as, Tetra colour granules, NLS flake and I've just orded Sera vipagran to give it a try. I also feed Hikari frozen brine shrimp and frozen spirulina brine shrimp, and Australian dried black worms. I mix the dry food around a bit so there is no regimented feeding schedule. Basically I feed dry food one day and frozen or blackworms the next. The day I feed the black worms, I also feed ground up cichlid bio-gold.

I used to feed the NLS flake to my community tank only, for the Hatchetfish. Only problem was that the dwarf acaras and apistos in there would go for the flake as well, and they would eat all the flake before they touched the hikari pellets. So I tried the NLS flake in my apito tanks, and sure enough, they all like it. So if you have dwarves that are comfortable eating at the surface, I don't see anything wrong with feeding them a quality flake food.

Almost forgot. I feed fry Sera micron, then micropan untill they are larger enough to move on to Hikari micro pellets, wafers and frozen foods.


----------



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

Thanks for your input on cichlid diets  It's always great to hear from multiple people to see the possibilities. It seems that we feed our fish pretty similar diets though! Spirulina brine sounds like a good idea. I think I might get some!

Just thought I'd also update on my 'birthday tank'. This is the 12 gallon long that the apistos will be going in. It looks lovely, but it arrived chipped! I didn't notice it until after I took the first few pictures. I'm getting a replacement this Monday (at no charge, of course).


----------



## adam79 (Jun 27, 2007)

What a great little tank! What are the dimensions?


----------



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

Isn't it awesome? the dimensions are 35.4"x8.3"x9.4" tall.


----------



## Cvurb (Apr 12, 2010)

Wow! That is beautiful. Its weird calling a tank beautiful... lol


----------



## redblufffishguy (Jul 16, 2009)

Isis,

where do you gat a tank like that? it's cool as heck!


----------



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

It's a Mr. Aqua tank. There are a couple of places that sell them online. Mine is from marinedepot. They're super nice there and sent me a replacement tank the same day I called them. I'm quite happy with their service.

Mr. Aqua also makes a 13.3 gallon bowfront that's 23.6"x11.4"x11.4". I think that one is also a really great size. It's definitely not big enough for most dwarf cichlids, but maybe a blue ram pair? I don't know though. I might eventually replace my 5.5 gallon with this one. I'm tired of having tanks that don't serve a good purpose. The 5.5 has shrimp in it but it's so small and requires a LOT of maintenance. Since i have some sensitive shrimp in there, I 'feel' the instability of having a small tank. Having the 13.3 instead will reduce my stress level (plus, who can complain about tank upgrades?)


----------



## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

Hey *Isis24*.

That little bowfront is just a little smaller than a standard 15 gallon, 2x1x1 tank. I keep all my pairs of apistos in 15 gallon tanks. That 3 foot tank is awesome though for a trio of apistos. can't waite to see it set up. I am wondering what type of filtration you're going to use on it though.


----------



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

Eheim 2213  intake at one end, outflow at the other. It took me a long time to come to that decision. I was apprehensive about spending the money on it, but I know it'll be better than having an AC on the tank. If I still have issues with flow, I have a very small power head that I can add.


----------



## Cvurb (Apr 12, 2010)

Dwarf cichlids like slow moving waters


----------



## shef (Oct 3, 2004)

I really like the little dario! I wish I could find those here!


----------



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

Cvurb said:


> Dwarf cichlids like slow moving waters


I know that. I just need sufficient flow to keep things looking clean.


----------



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

shef said:


> I really like the little dario! I wish I could find those here!


Thanks! I think they're awesome, too. They're really picky and only eat live food. I had them in a 5.5 gallon and they were looking thin. I only had time to get live brine shrimp every two weeks, so they weren't getting enough to eat. I put them in this tank, and I haven't fed them in months! They look as healthy and colorful as ever. They must be finding small organisms to eat.


----------



## shef (Oct 3, 2004)

They look awesome, neat little fish


----------



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

I was cleaning the tank today and decided to move the piece of wood on the left side of the tank to the apistos' new home. I quickly put the wood back after a surprising discovery.

Apisto eggs!!!!! I was so wrapped up in final exams that I failed to notice any behavior that would suggest a spawn in the near future. I am so unbelievably excited. This means that I definitely have at least one female in there! I'm so happy


----------



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

I have even more good news! The other female laid eggs, too! I have TWO batches of eggs in the tank. I can't believe this! I'm really excited


----------



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

I have wigglers!!

First, here's Papa:








Mama with wigglers (bad pic, I know):








Wigglers:








Wiggler video (you don't see them move until the end):


----------



## ladybugzcrunch (Jul 26, 2009)

Isis24 said:


> Thanks for your input on cichlid diets  It's always great to hear from multiple people to see the possibilities. It seems that we feed our fish pretty similar diets though! Spirulina brine sounds like a good idea. I think I might get some!
> 
> Just thought I'd also update on my 'birthday tank'. This is the 12 gallon long that the apistos will be going in. It looks lovely, but it arrived chipped! I didn't notice it until after I took the first few pictures. I'm getting a replacement this Monday (at no charge, of course).


Can you tell me about the light arrangement you have on that tank? How does the top work? I absolutely think I have to replace one of my other tanks with one of those!!


----------



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

There is no top, just the coralife T5NO fixture. It has little metal extensions on the side that allow it to rest on the sides of the tank  I love this tank. In fact, I just set it up fully and though I'm not done planting it, here it is for now:


----------



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

Babies are still there, but not free swimming yet. How long is it supposed to take? These guys hatched just over two days ago. The female is such a good mother! She allows the male to take a peek at the eggs. He doesn't seem too interested in them.

I might have hallucinated the other clutch of eggs, because they're not there anymore. It might've just been hopeful thinking--I didn't get a really good look the first time. The male chases the other female a lot, but I'm not sure what that means. This female (without the wigglers) has turned a dark brown color over the past few days. I wonder if that's stress coloration?

Also, I've realized that the new tank isn't really adequately 'scaped for a trio of apistos. I don't know what I'll do about that. I really like the tank the way it is, so I might keep it that way for a little while and move the apistos in later. I feel like the apistos are REALLY happy in their 24 gallon home, even with the two bolivian females. I wonder if a bolivian pair and apisto trio could live there together comfortably? The tank's footprint is 32"x12". There are SO many places to hide--the pictures don't give you a good impression of that though. I should take more later.

What do you think?


----------



## redblufffishguy (Jul 16, 2009)

Awesome tank!


----------



## PepoLD (Dec 9, 2009)

loved it


----------



## redblufffishguy (Jul 16, 2009)

What filter are you using?


----------



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

I've been using an AC 50 on this tank for a couple of years now. It does the job, but sometimes I wonder if an AC 70 would be better.


----------



## redblufffishguy (Jul 16, 2009)

It looks like a canister, green hoses and fittings....


----------



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

ohhh, on the 12 gallon. Yes, you're right, it's an Eheim 2213. I think the flow is a little too much, but it's already set up, so I'll leave it. Once it's full of gunk, the flow will slow a little and it will be perfect


----------



## zcfish (Jan 31, 2009)

Isis24 - would you mind telling us where you got the tank from?


----------



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

The 12 gallon is from marinedepot.com, and the 25 gallon is from somewhere in Canada. It's a hagen waterhome.


----------

