Apisto panduro biotope : Plants?

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DTWGulo

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
May 23, 2016
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Managed to snag 4 of these great little Apistos at a local auction in November. Decided I'd try a biotope, so researched the heck out of their native range. I'm on the right track; not perfect. I really would like to have some plants in this tank, but I can't find much to suggest that there are any truly aquatic submerged plants in their primary habitat.

I'm open to suggestions.

This is a 20g long with a powerhead/sponge filter, old Marineland double-bright LED, plain sand bottom, lots of guava and Indian almond leaves, alder cones, catappa bark strips, and a coconut shell. Local driftwood, Malaysian driftwood, and local curly willow branches.

Yes, I know that 4 in a 20g is too many. When they get bigger and start pairing off, I'll remove the fish that haven't paired up. I've got plenty of other tanks to move them to later on. I needed to get all 4 of these out of my quarantine tank to make room for the Danio tinwini that I finally got ahold of. Also needed to give them grow time to find out if I got 2M/2F as the bag said, or 3M/1F as it appears to be. Got one that's tricky. Two males for sure.

Anyway, eager to hear what you may know about a suitable plant that's at least S. American, preferably Peruvian, and blackwater wooded stream/tributary native. I'm willing to do floating, submersed, partially emersed, whatever...
 

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I like that setup! I used to have some of these guys. What a show they put on during spawn. Amazing color and behavior. They're mean though, watch the group closely because that 4 could be one over night. As for plants.. anubias and java fern are my go to for stained water/low light. You could get some moss in there as well.
 
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