• Hello guest! Are you an Apistogramma enthusiast? If so we invite you to join our community and see what it has to offer. Our site is specifically designed for you and it's a great place for Apisto enthusiasts to meet online. Once you join you'll be able to post messages, upload pictures of your fish and tanks and have a great time with other Apisto enthusiasts. Sign up today!

Need some help

Andrew Jordan

New Member
Messages
23
Hello everyone, I have an established breeding pair of cacatuoides in a 29 gallon tank and all was going well until recently. My female spawned about 12 days ago, she raised them up to free swimming before they disappeared after about 6 days later due to not getting enough nutrition. Ever since losing her fry this time she has begun acting strangely, she is not coming out as often and is doing this weird thing when she eats where she'll spit food out multiple times and eventually swim away. I haven't noticed any obvious physical signs of disease but I'm wonder if I should be concerned with internal parasites? The tank is kept at 78-76 degrees Fahrenheit, 0 ammonia and nitrites and about 10 ppm nitrates I do a 30% water change consisting of RoDi water every 4 days or so. If anyone could give me some advice or just let me know if I'm being paranoid I would appreciate it!
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0108.JPG
    IMG_0108.JPG
    601.3 KB · Views: 308
  • IMG_0110.JPG
    IMG_0110.JPG
    514.7 KB · Views: 308
  • IMG_0112.JPG
    IMG_0112.JPG
    605.7 KB · Views: 287

Andrew Jordan

New Member
Messages
23
Feeding everything from live and frozen brine shrimp, frozen daphnia and they just recently started eating southern delight nano pellets. I alternate their feedings throughout the week
 

Yvonne G

Administrator
5 Year Member
Messages
193
Location
Clovis, CA
Pardon my ignorance, I know nothing about fish (I'm the spam detector), but is this a species that holds their young in their mouth? If so, could it be she's thinking maybe the food is her young, so she spits it out? Just ignore me if I'm all wet.
 

Andrew Jordan

New Member
Messages
23
From my knowledge they aren't mouthbrooders like African cichlids, they will pick and move around their fry in their mouths but they never hold them in there plus she doesn't have any fry right now!
 

Andrew Jordan

New Member
Messages
23
Hey Mike I haven't been able to find any solid references about apistos and live black worms. I figured since she wasn't eating what she usually does switching up her diet again might help and the live food may trigger her to start eating again what's your thoughts? I know bloodworms aren't the best but figured I could get your take on blackworms.
 

Andrew Jordan

New Member
Messages
23
Moderation being a few times a month? Or can they be fed once a week, I fed a few today and noticed my female actually ate and didn't spit them back out so it was good to see her eating again. I'm just hoping I can get her to start taking other foods as well now. Thank you for the info!
 

dw1305

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
2,755
Location
Wiltshire UK
Hi all,
Moderation being a few times a month? Or can they be fed once a week, I fed a few today and noticed my female actually ate and didn't spit them back out so it was good to see her eating again. I'm just hoping I can get her to start taking other foods as well now. Thank you for the info!
I'd probably go for once a week.

I used to feed either grindal and/or black-worms every day in the winter when I didn't have much other live food.

The culture method I use is in <"UKAPS: Blackworm and Asellus bucket">.

When I fed more Black-worms the fish did really well for ~18 months, coloured up and bred etc. but they tended to get fat, and very few of them made it past two years old.

cheers Darrel
 

Andrew Jordan

New Member
Messages
23
Okay thank you for the information I won't feed them all the time then, is it possible that my female has just gotten bored of her regular diet? I'm looking for new foods to try and feed on a consistent basis to get her eating more and more and not dependent on brine shrimp daphnia and pellets. I'm going to look into cultivating some grindal worms for them and see if they enjoy that, any other recommendations to try and tempt them. With the grindal worms can these be fed more regularly as opposed to black worms? Also in order to get them to try these new foods do you recommend letting them go without food for a few days and then slowly introducing multiple foods? Or is there a better alternative? Sorry for all the questions just trying to make my fish as happy as possible!
 

gerald

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
1,491
Location
Wake Forest NC, USA
Can you find mosquito larvae in your neighborhood? Check your neighbors' plant bots, bird baths, etc. Best ever "recovery" food for stressed or sick carnivorous and omnivorous fish. Small red earthworms (the kind you find in leaf piles) are also excellent, chopped to a suitable size.
 

Mike Wise

Moderator
Staff member
5 Year Member
Messages
11,202
Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
Agree with Gerald on mosquito larvae. It's a natural food for most apistos (small insect larvae). Any worm of suitable size is great for conditioning or encouraing fish to start eating, but they all have the same problem - high fat content. Overfeeding, like Darrel mentioned leads to obesity and early death.
 

Andrew Jordan

New Member
Messages
23
So once again is okay every now and then but not consistently similar to the black worms, and I'll see what I can do about the mosquito larva. I'm sure I'll be able to find some or worst comes to worst make my own standing water using a 5 gallon bucket and just harvest them that way. Thank you again guys!
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
17,915
Messages
116,200
Members
13,027
Latest member
tonc61

Latest profile posts

Josh wrote on anewbie's profile.
Testing
EDO
Longtime fish enthusiast for over 70years......keen on Apistos now. How do I post videos?
Looking for some help with fighting electric blue rams :(
Partial updated Peruvian list have more than this. Please PM FOR ANY QUESTIONS so hard to post with all the ads poping up every 2 seconds….
Top