The 75g planted hopeful

[Nautilus291]

Thanks for the suggestion, you guys definitely gave me some great options! I figured I'd go with one school of fish in this tank to help keep maintenance down, and to keep the business down in the tank. My past tanks tended to have a variety of fish in them, so I'm trying to go a different route with this one although it's hard!

I'm definitely leaning towards the Odessa Barb's or rumy nose tetras. I think both look pretty amazing! I know there aren't too many apisto owners on here, but my only concern with the Barb's is they have a similar body shape to my apistos, and I am wondering what the apistos will think of them? I'll try to find some more information online about that.

I saw some weather loaches in the lfs the other day, and it's why I brought the loaches up in my original post. They do so many funny things I love watching them. I think I'd rather go with the mid to upper schooling fish though.

[Nautilus291]

Well I may be going in a different direction then I had planned. I'm not sure what direction that is yet, but I was talking to my wife about the schooling fish idea and she doesn't like it. She said that right now we have peaceful (slower moving) fish as the focus of the tank, and she feels the school will take away from that. I enjoy that she is taking interest in my hobby, and I do feel she has a point, so I'm going to scratch the tetra or Barb plan.

Idk what I want to do now, but I noticed I can order a female hongsloi apisto from my lfs so I may go ahead and do that. I was reading that it can be better to have more females then males so the males aren't just picking on one female. As for any other fish, I'm back to square one lol.

[angelcraze2]

So will you be swapping a male or getting more females? I agree, two males and one female might not be a good idea. Usually two females to one male for apisto. I keep 3 female GBRs to one male now.

[Nautilus291]

So will you be swapping a male or getting more females? I agree, two males and one female might not be a good idea. Usually two females to one male for apisto. I keep 3 female GBRs to one male now.

Amazon Joe thinks my other apisto is a female. So if I ordered one or two more that would leave me with one male and 2 to 3 females if he is correct. I don't think I'd try to raise any fry, but I feel like it would help the female that's in the tank at the moment.

She gets a lot of pressure from him. She seems ok as she has "her side of the tank" but I think it would do her good if he had some more girls to show off to haha. It is really interesting behavior!

[Nautilus291]

Also I have some stargrass back in the tank! We will see how it goes... The plants in this tank seem to be taking a hit for some reason. Some of them are doing pretty good, but others seem like they are going to fade away. I'm trying my best not to touch them and see if they will perk back up with time.

I pulled all of the bacopa out of the tank as I've had it in my tank maybe 3 to 4 months now and none of them have grown any new leaves. Once pulled I noticed some of them had maybe 3 to 6mm roots on them. Doesn't seem like much after that long. The water wisteria definitely grows, but it seems pretty slow. At least from what I read about this plant online.

[SueD]

I don't know anything about the acara, but what about 2-3 angelfish. Might they be compatible? They occupy the top half of the tank, are beautiful and personable, and move much more slowly than a tetra school would. And once they get to decent size they'll make a nice statement in that tank.

[steeler58]

Well I may be going in a different direction then I had planned. I'm not sure what direction that is yet, but I was talking to my wife about the schooling fish idea and she doesn't like it. She said that right now we have peaceful (slower moving) fish as the focus of the tank, and she feels the school will take away from that. I enjoy that she is taking interest in my hobby, and I do feel she has a point, so I'm going to scratch the tetra or Barb plan.

Idk what I want to do now, but I noticed I can order a female hongsloi apisto from my lfs so I may go ahead and do that. I was reading that it can be better to have more females then males so the males aren't just picking on one female. As for any other fish, I'm back to square one lol.

One last pitch for the Rummy nose; they and most tetra's are more tranquil schoolers/swimmers than barbs and danios which are almost manic and for that matter many rasbora's.

Here's a video to show her and MAYBE change her mind ;-)

[Slaphppy7]

^^^ This, yes please

And-3 more female apistos

I've no experience with acara, but maybe a few gouramis would be OK.............?

[angelcraze2]

Nice! Love stargrass too! Such a great easy to grow fast growing versatile plant! If your fish don't pull it out and eat the leaves lol! Still a staple in my other tanks and for setting up a new one for fast growth. Dwarf sag just isn't the same.

[Nautilus291]

One last pitch for the Rummy nose; they and most tetra's are more tranquil schoolers/swimmers than barbs and danios which are almost manic and for that matter many rasbora's.

Here's a video to show her and MAYBE change her mind ;-)

I'll show her ;)

@SueD I've heard eb acaras are a hybrid of German blue Rams and the blue acara. Even though mine is 4 inches long I think she thinks she is a 1.5 inch ram. Very peaceful, she's never showed any aggression towards the tiny apistos. That may be a good idea! I was considering angels when I first set up this tank, maybe I could still end up with some.

@Slaphppy7 gouramis would also be a good choice I feel! I'll have to do some looking around and see if anything pops out at me.