Apisto. cacatuoid clean up crew?

[Dow]

I was watching my peacocks with my new addition of albino cories (who are dead, now :( )

So, I figured, for my 30g, planted apisto tank, that maybe cories wouldn't be such a good addition with these guys. What would be a good bottom feeder? Are there fish that I can buy that will pick food out of the plants? For a pleco, I plan to get a long fin bristle nose. So far, the list I've decided to place in the tank is as follows:

2-4 Male apisto. cac. w/6-8 females
a school of 5-10 neon tetras
1 spiney peacock eel (I figure he'll stay out of the way in the sand as he does in the other tank)
1-2 long fin plecos

I understand that the bioload on the filter will be huge, if I put that many fish in, however, I plan on getting a large canister filter (40-60g). I also do WCs 2-3 times a week depending on the load in the tank and gravel vacuuming 1-2 times a week.

What clean up crew would go well with this list of fish?

ALSO: Need suggestions and things of the sort to help piece together this tank. Currently, the only thing I have in it is filter media, gravel in socks, water, and a pickle jar of Java Fern. And a Fany gold fish that has been doing wonderfully. I do daily water changes, putting water from the existing tank into this one, so the water is all cycled water... I just need a filter and such.

[Darbex]

Just from my personal experience. A heavily planted tank would be the best way to go the reason is Rams and Apistos love aged water and dont really care for large and frequent water changes. A heavily planted tank allows for less wc because the plants will help filter the water for you. An issue I see is that I dont think you are going to have success having that many Apistos in a 30G tank that is too many with very little territory. All you are probably going to be able to keep is one male and maybe 4 females. Although dwarf cichlids are viewed as peaceful and shy from my experience they are very territorial amongst each other and males in the wild occupy a large area as their territory. If you are to do a heavily planted tank which i strongly recommend then I would go with cherry shrimp and pygmy corys as CUC. Lastly is the poll for what type of Apistos you should get or was it supposed to be what kind of CUC to get? Your thread title would seem to be the latter. For Apistos I have always loved MacMasteri and Cacatouides.

[Darbex]

Side note this should be in General or SA forum as Apistos arent African.

[Dow]

Ah! Really? Oops.. I must need to do some research at a different source 'cause my current resource is terrible! Everything you've said is different from that source.

[armthehomeless]

I've moved this to the SA forum.

:)

For what it is worth, I've always been partial to Borellis

[wesleydnunder]

I wouldn't put a peacock eel in with them either... it will eat the fry. You my try a couple of small loaches in the tank like skunks or sids.

Mark

[Dow]

Thank you for moving the thread!

Well, I'm not really going for fry right now, just getting the experience set up, then I might remove him for some fry but he needs a place to go, the poor thing.

I just can't decide between the three. I wish I could have all three in there but it's better to keep them spereate, from what I've heard and read.

[Darbex]

Dow my post is purely from my experience. It doesnt mean it wont work any other way its just that I have tried it both ways and I was successful only in the way I stated. One thing I have learned in fish keeping is that there is never a 100% correct way of doing things. Take Discus a lot of people say they need to be in soft acidic water and a bare bottom tank is the best. Well I am keeping wilds in Houston tap water and a planted tank. It just takes more patience and experience the harder you make it. In short to make it easy on yourself I would recommend the full planted tank with a small population for that size tank.

[Dow]

Oh, Darbex, I figure that but the source I had said they were African. What plants should I start out with? What substrate/gravel/sand should I use?

[Darbex]

Oh I thought you meant the source was talking about how to keep them not that they were African. I guess I wouldnt trust a source that says Apistos are from Africa because that is completely false. How to start the planted tank is up to you. What kind of plants do you want? What is your budget? How hi-tech do you want it? If you want easy then I would just do anubias, ferns, and swords. I always recommend ADA soil but Eco-complete is good too.

[Dow]

At the moment, until I've got my Eheim, the budget's pretty low. I'm willing to go in between hi- and low-tech. I was going to put Argonite sand in from PetSmart but something that would hold the plants down and encourage roots would be great.

[Dow]

I think I'll go with Eco, cause a LFS has some. Thank you!

[seminoleranch]

Just from my personal experience. A heavily planted tank would be the best way to go the reason is Rams and Apistos love aged water and dont really care for large and frequent water changes. A heavily planted tank allows for less wc because the plants will help filter the water for you..

I have to agree with Darbex on this. I have made a mistake before and done a larger water change than I should have with my Rams. Although the did not die they did however stress very badly. They lost all their pretty color for almost a week but seem to slowly come back around. I agree too that every tank is different and what may work for some may not work for others. Here is one of the links I followed when I got my Rams

http://www.fishlore.com/aquariummagazine/dec07/blue-ram-cichlid.htm

[Dow]

I was going to do a heavily planted tank, no matter what I did. I just needed to have some opinions, and personal experiences for the tank. would an Eheim 2213 be enough filtration?