Species combination
We once talked about combining species, and I would like to start this topic again as I combined several species the last months due to lack of space. Here they are:
Alldontichthys zonistius "Arroyo Ahuacapan" + Ilyodon cortesae: ok
Allodontichthys zonistius "Rio Ayuquila" + "Xenotoca" sp. "San Marcos": ok
Allotoca dugesii "Rio Santiago" + Zoogoneticus quitzeoensis "Zacapu": ok
Allotoca dugesii "Rancho el Molino" + Zoogoneticus purhepechus "La Luz": no: Zoogoneticus bit the tales of the Allotoca!!
Allotoca dugesii "Ranco el Molino" + Skiffia multipunctata "Tangancicuaro" : ok
Alloophorus robustus + Ameca spendens (same size): ok
Allotoca goslinei + Goodea atripinnis "Maravatio": ok
Xenotoca variata "Rio Lerma" + Characodon lateralis "Los Berros": ok
Characodon audax "El Toboso" + Xenoophorus captivus "Ilescas": ok
Zoogoneticus tequila + Ameca splendens + Skiffia sp. "Sayula": ok
Skiffia multipunctata "Camecuaro" + Zoogoneticus quitzeoensis "Tarajero": ok
Characodon audax "Guadalupe Aguilera" + Xenoctoa variata "Jesus Maria": ok
Chapalichthys pardalis + "Xenotoca" melanosoma:ok
Neotoca bilineata "Irapuato" + Hubbsina ireneae: ok
Chapalichthys encaustus + Xenotoca variata + Goodea atripiniis "Patzcuaro" + Xenotaenia resolanae: ok
Allodontichthys polylepis + "Xenotoca" sp. "San Marcos" + Goodea atripinnis "Patzcuearo: ok
As you can see: many combinations work, very good are doing Skiffia with Zoogoneticus and Allodontichthys with Ilyodon and "Xenotoca", also Allotoca and Skiffia do very well. Problems occured again with a purhepechus strain (la Luz), similar troubles, I had once with purhepechus (also La Luz, not El Fuerte, as I thought once) with Ameca spendens. I never saw them attacking, but after exchanging the Zoogoneticus with the Skiffia, the damages stopped immediately. All in all, combining 2 species in bigger tanks and isolating gravid females gave me better results than monospecific smaller tanks.
Fry, I combine often more than 2 species, but usually not more than 3 (only rare times 4), and then species easily to separate again (not different Zoogoneticus strains e.g.), normally not even from the same genus (no Allotoca meeki with goslinei or dugesii or so), but I try to combine individuals and species of similar size (no big Xenotoca with tiny Neotoca).
Mike
Species Combination
Currently, we have Ataeniobius toweri, Ameca splendens and Ilyodon furcidens, together in a display tank, with no ill effects. In fact in the last few weeks I have had fry drops from all three species in the tank. All three species of fry are easily distingushed as well.
Shaun.
Based on the former
Based on the former discussion I put Ameca splendens, Characodon lateralis and Xenotoca "San Marcos" together. I had these together in a 200 L aquarium for 1,5 year. No fish died, no fish suffered any visible damage from fights and the interactions between the species were definately interesting. All three species reproduced, but very few juvenile C. lateralis survived to adulthood and adults of this species suffered from some unidentified disease, which caused increased slime-production (especially visible on the fins). This might be stress-related.I separated C. lateralis, but I think too late and lost the females of this species. Then I separated Xenotoca as well, so I have now an aquarium with Ameca and another with Xenotoca. In both aquaria there are still 1-2 male Characodon. By feeling both Ameca and Xenotoca are doing better than before! I cannot say if this is because there are half less fish in each aquarium, or because they were somehow causing stress to each other. By feeling Ameca were eating faster, so Xenotoca might gotten less food, but, as said, both were reproducing sucessfully.The combination-aquarium was densely planted and it was difficult to count fish of all species, genders and age-classes. I aimed for 6 males and 6 females in reproductive age + a school of juveniles and subadults, but in practise there were more to be "on the safe side". Catching surplus fish was difficult and time consuming, because Xenotoca are much easier to catch and by the time I had caught Xenotoca's, Ameca's were very stressed and almost impossible to catch.So, in retrospect: I am not sure about Characodon, but Ameca and Xenotoca did survive well together. Despite this, I am more happy to have both species separated. This implies that I will stop keeping Characodon, which illustrates the main advantage of having species together: you can house more species in the same space.