40 Hex= Worth a try?

[Headrush]

I suppose rainbows could work because they could kinda swim in circles around the edge of the tank, but overall, I would say they are definitely not my first choice(for space reasons, not beauty... they are certainly a great display fish). If you want rainbows, go with a group of celebese or threadfins... they're real small, and they're great-lookin too... particularly the celebese, IMO. Probably wouldn't be bothered by the apistos, either.

We have just received the Apisto's this afternoon. she's home floating the bags now. Tiny little guys under an inch at the moment. Thanks for the suggestions Fishloverlivingspace guy

Love rainbows and I thought the bosemani's may run outta room too, so I will definitely look into the others you mentioned.

One more question...We're using pool sand for the substrate, it made the water VERY murky and cloudy when I put it in. I usually rinse gravel thoroughly but it's tough to do with sand. I don't suspect this will hurt the fish though will it? It's taken my AC70 HOB filter 2 days to get it mostly cleared up...is this normal? Suggestions as to how I can prevent this in the future. Thanks everyone you've been very helpful!!

 

[fishoverlivingspace]

If ever I find myself being too lazy to rinse sand before filling a tank, I do one of two things:

1. Dump it in, hope it's not cloudy(this never happens), and then fill the filters with cotton balls to remove particulates faster. This does a great job.
2. If it's a plastic bag that the sand came in, I just sink the bag to the bottom of the tank, then I put a 3-4 inch slice in the bag with a razor blade to allow the bag to fill up with water. After all that has settled out(maybe 10 minutes or so), I cut the bag from top to bottom and along the top and bottom seams so its basically just a pile of sand sitting on a plastic sheet. Then, slide the plastic out from underneath the pile and spread the sand very gently. The water is never crystal clear after this, but it is never more than a little bit cloudy, depending on what kind of sand you used. If you have sand that came in a paper bag, this method doesn't exactly work very well, but you could probably transfer the sand to a plastic bag

Now, as far as pool filter sand goes; keep up on your water changes, because those types of sands tend to leach silicates into the water which are great algae food. Not saying you made a mistake by putting that in there, but there's higher potential for an algae bloom than if you used regular aquarium sand. That stuff never works for me as I have very hard tap water so blooms happen easily to begin with, but I have a friend who's never had a problem with it.

Question: What kind of apistos are they?? I love those little guys.

When I said threadfin rainbows before, I believe what i meant to say was featherfin.

Congrats on the new tank, and good luck!!

 

[mike dunagan]

yea I want pics, I am going to get some now too!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Headrush]

I'l try to get some decent pics of them. Camera's gotta charge up first though. I was hunting turkeys yesterday and got a 23 lb Tom with a 9 1/2' beard. Took a bunch of photo's and the camera's dead.

We got Apistogramma cacatuoides "double reds" only about an inch right now so no real color. still hiding a lot too but starting to venture out of the rocks and wood we've put in there for em. only feeding spirulina at the moment, but will feed frz brine shrimp in a few days. Thats not too much protein is it? From what I've read I can mix in some protein here and there but not a steady diet of it.

these are the triple reds, similar to ours but these are adult males in the photos: http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_Apistogramma_cacatuoides_2.php