Hi all,
I have been trying some Apistogramma species since November with very bad luck. The first ones I tried were A. cacatuoides. The male I got died in one day. I did not quarantine them and within a few days I lost 5 Nannacara anomala with that male Apistogramma. 1 Nannacara survived along with the female.
The only thing of note is that I had noticed once they got home that the male was very unhappy looking, clamped fins etc... I figured it was the stress of bringing them home. A month later I ship in a pair of A. agassizii. I learned my lesson and quarantined in a separate tank. The male died the next day and the female died within a day or two afterwards. Two weeks ago I tried with tank raised A. borellii and both are dead as of today. All of them lived in different fish tanks. They were all of them alone, in quarantine. I did regular water changes, but I don't know, maybe not enough. The A. borellii tank looked a little dirty today, so maybe I was not keeping up with it as much as I thought. These looked very healthy and young when they arrived. I'm chalking this lose up to bad husbandry.
What is the science of keeping these guys alive. Should I be medicating them as soon as I get them? I've never medicated fish before.
The only other dwarf cichlids I own are Nannacara anomala. I replaced the ones I lost, and now I have those 6 (in two tanks) plus the lone surviving male from the first batch. They seem fine with my husbandry. They grew fast, look healthy etc...
I used distilled water and aged tap. 9 distilled -1 tap mix. I keep the temp between 75-78. Sometimes I play with the temp settings to see what works better. I feed two varieties of cichlid pellets and a brine shrimp based flake food. I keep Ammonia and Nitrite at 0. My nitrates were climbing as of late, but when I get 20ppm I panic and change ten gallons of water, thats 50% for the Nannacara tank and 75% for the other quarantine tanks.
My grand plan. I have a 75 gallon display tank. I just set it up and have a ton of tiny new plants from tissue culture. I hope to have a heavily planted tank. I was hoping to keep a peaceful species of Apistogramma. I like the colours on the A. agassizi Orange types, I love the A. borelliis. I picture a tank with lots of Cardinal tetras, Corys and somekind of dwarf cichlid.
So, have I just had bad luck, bad husbandry, a mix of the two or what? I want to learn how to keep these guys successfully.
Any and all advice is welcome.
I have been trying some Apistogramma species since November with very bad luck. The first ones I tried were A. cacatuoides. The male I got died in one day. I did not quarantine them and within a few days I lost 5 Nannacara anomala with that male Apistogramma. 1 Nannacara survived along with the female.
The only thing of note is that I had noticed once they got home that the male was very unhappy looking, clamped fins etc... I figured it was the stress of bringing them home. A month later I ship in a pair of A. agassizii. I learned my lesson and quarantined in a separate tank. The male died the next day and the female died within a day or two afterwards. Two weeks ago I tried with tank raised A. borellii and both are dead as of today. All of them lived in different fish tanks. They were all of them alone, in quarantine. I did regular water changes, but I don't know, maybe not enough. The A. borellii tank looked a little dirty today, so maybe I was not keeping up with it as much as I thought. These looked very healthy and young when they arrived. I'm chalking this lose up to bad husbandry.
What is the science of keeping these guys alive. Should I be medicating them as soon as I get them? I've never medicated fish before.
The only other dwarf cichlids I own are Nannacara anomala. I replaced the ones I lost, and now I have those 6 (in two tanks) plus the lone surviving male from the first batch. They seem fine with my husbandry. They grew fast, look healthy etc...
I used distilled water and aged tap. 9 distilled -1 tap mix. I keep the temp between 75-78. Sometimes I play with the temp settings to see what works better. I feed two varieties of cichlid pellets and a brine shrimp based flake food. I keep Ammonia and Nitrite at 0. My nitrates were climbing as of late, but when I get 20ppm I panic and change ten gallons of water, thats 50% for the Nannacara tank and 75% for the other quarantine tanks.
My grand plan. I have a 75 gallon display tank. I just set it up and have a ton of tiny new plants from tissue culture. I hope to have a heavily planted tank. I was hoping to keep a peaceful species of Apistogramma. I like the colours on the A. agassizi Orange types, I love the A. borelliis. I picture a tank with lots of Cardinal tetras, Corys and somekind of dwarf cichlid.
So, have I just had bad luck, bad husbandry, a mix of the two or what? I want to learn how to keep these guys successfully.
Any and all advice is welcome.
