Stocking suggestions?

[wolf13]

Need some feedback on a stocking idea, been looking at blue acara's but i just don't have enough info on em.

sample list

1 x Blue Acara
1 x angel
1 x Bristlenose pleco
4 x dwarf cory's
pair of apisto Panduro
trio of apisto agassazzi or other dwarf cichlid group
10 x cardianl tetra's

The acara is the one I don't know much about behavior wise. How will they respond to the smaller species? going to dominate the angel? To much, too little?

Tank is well planted with Swords, pennywort and lots of driftwood. Line of site is heavily broken up at ground level and the first 10 inches of the tank then opening up more towards the top but still spires and sword leaves for cover. foorprint is 36x18x20 55g, running eheim 2213 and 2217 for mechanical filtration.

What is the growth rate for a blue acara?

[7itanium]

How many gallons is this tank?

[wolf13]

oops, 55g

[7itanium]

I personally think your gonna have problems with the acara and the tetras.. but im gonna bump this for an expert to answer

[wolf13]

thats one thing i am really concerned about. I love cardinals as dithers, but slim bodies can be a problem i know (already have some cardinals, so another reason i'd like to use em). perhaps another tetra species if the cardianls won't work?

[severum mama]

I think you'll have problems keeping 2 species of apistos in a 36x18 footprint. I'm really not sure about the blue acara... I think you might have aggression issues with the BA and the angel, but I might be wrong.

[wolf13]

the apisto's are actually something i feel fairly comfortable on after watching my panduro's and their fry grow up and seeing how they responded (panduros are pretty aggressive to their own kind, once the kids were partly grown the parents kept em out of their territory very aggressivly (roughly 1/4 to 1/3rd of the tank). I would not add another nijassani group; however, signifigantly differnt bodied apisto's are supposed to get along ok with panduro's once territories are claimed) to each other around the tank layout (lots of broken LOS and hiding spots). The fact that I won't have three pleco's claiming spots as well will be a bonus although they mostly coexisted easily with the panduro's except when there were fry the panduro's were protecting.

my previous stocking lacked centerpeice fish although Papa Panduro did a good job of trying to claim the title. The more I look at acara pics, the more I would take one over an angel I think; but I get a lot of conflicting information and not a lot of first hand knowledge or experiance.