stocking levels for a very well filtered 10 gallon

[hixy]

I have a 10 gallon planted aqaurium.At the moment it has a pair of Apistogramma cacatuoides and 6 Pygmy Corys.It is filtered with an ehiem ecco 130 and today i have added a eheim 2213.Could i go over the top with stocking levels.


Cheers mick

 

[ceg4048]

Yeah, go for it. Remember that plants and fish like a clean tank so as long as your maintenance is commensurate with the stocking levels you should be fine.

CHeers,

 

[Ed Seeley]

If your pair of cacs breed you will find that a 10g tank is not healthy place for 6 catfish to share with a protective female cac. The male probably won't be very welcome either.

A good rule of thumb is that a male cichlid will defend a territory 10x his body length. Females a bit less but when breeding a female apisto will try and have a territory about 18" square. For a 10g tank I imagine that's most of the tank floor. If they breed you may very well need another tank to give the other fish some peace. And don't think that because you don't want the fry to survive or you don't want them to breed that they won't be that aggressive! The cichlids will try their hardest to reproduce whatever the situation.