Apistogramma abacaxis

[Aquaman074]

Hello,

I am currently in the process of getting a pair of Apistogramma abacaxis and I am building a tank for them. Are these fish from clear or black water? I will be using roots, tree branches, catappa leaves, banana leaves, pods, fine gravel, some live plants and rocks. I currently use RO water in all my tanks mix with 10% tap. Do you guys any advise on keeping these fish successfully, they are very pricey.

Regards,

 

[Mike Wise]

This is a true blackwater species. Although they can live in less extreme conditions, I found that they only produced viable fry at a pH <5.8 and extremely soft water, ~35 µS/cm @ 26°C/79°F.

 

[ButtNekkid]

Hi,

That´s a nice Apisto. I keep them in blackwater. I´ve had many spawns,even on dry food only.
But yes, they were quite expensive.

 

[Aquaman074]

Thanks Mike! ButtNekkid what PH did you had? I will post pictures of the tank I am building for them.

 

[ButtNekkid]

Hi,

I have no idea about the PH. I´ll just try to keep the conductivity under 100 µS.
Those purple throats are amazing!

 

[anewbie]

Nice looking fish can you post pictures of yours ?

 

[I am the Apistogram]

Hello,

I am currently in the process of getting a pair of Apistogramma abacaxis and I am building a tank for them. Are these fish from clear or black water? I will be using roots, tree branches, catappa leaves, banana leaves, pods, fine gravel, some live plants and rocks. I currently use RO water in all my tanks mix with 10% tap. Do you guys any advise on keeping these fish successfully, they are very pricey.

Regards,

I wouldn’t worry too much about the “black water” As long as you mimic the water parameters from the area they have been documented they will be happy.

 

[grayfox55]

Hello,

I am currently in the process of getting a pair of Apistogramma abacaxis and I am building a tank for them. Are these fish from clear or black water? I will be using roots, tree branches, catappa leaves, banana leaves, pods, fine gravel, some live plants and rocks. I currently use RO water in all my tanks mix with 10% tap. Do you guys any advise on keeping these fish successfully, they are very pricey.

Regards,

I am currently breeding these fish, and I have bred them for the last seven years. My experience has been that if they are wild then your best chance is to replicate their natural living conditions. But, my original pair were F1 and I was able to successfully breed them with decent size spawns with water parameters being pH 6.0 and 120 Ppm. And these parameters did very because I never Checked them regularly.
That said, your set up seems ideal and I would not change anything. Just my 2 cents.

 

[anewbie]

When you say 120ppm what does that mean? Is that 120ppm tds ? Is that 12 gh ?

I am currently breeding these fish, and I have bred them for the last seven years. My experience has been that if they are wild then your best chance is to replicate their natural living conditions. But, my original pair were F1 and I was able to successfully breed them with decent size spawns with water parameters being pH 6.0 and 120 Ppm. And these parameters did very because I never Checked them regularly.
That said, your set up seems ideal and I would not change anything. Just my 2 cents.

 

[I am the Apistogram]

When you say 120ppm what does that mean? Is that 120ppm tds ? Is that 12 gh ?

He means 120ppm “tds”you can get a cheap tds meter and check it that way. I have a couple different ways to check my parameters.

 

[Mike Wise]

A 'quick and dirty' conversion I use is 17 ppm TDS per 1°dGH, so 120 ppm is roughly 7° dGH.

 

[anewbie]

Interesting so they do not require extremely soft water. My tap is 120ppm but i was thinking mixing it 50% with RO water to reduce it to around 60 or 70. These are on my list so i've been reading up on them and i was scared that they would require 20-30ppm water to thrive. I was thinking they would be a lot more difficult than nijjensi.

 

[Mike Wise]

IMHO lower conductivity, roughly equivalent to carbonate hardness, is a more important factor. Try to reduce your conductivity to ~35 µS/cm and you should have no problem breeding Abacaxis. As for the two species you mention, I found A. nijsseni more difficult to reproduce only because they are more 'picky' about breeding partners. Otherwise, I used similar water values and was successful with both.

 

[anewbie]

is ~35 uS/cm 30 TDS ?

 

[Mike Wise]

No, there is no 'true' equivalence between conductivity and total dissolved solids hardness. Most TDS meters measure conductivity and use a formula to convert it to TDS (approximately). Chemical/strips cannot measure conductivity as far as I know. Additionally, "30 TDS" (=30 ppm TDS?)) means nothing to the aquarist without knowing what part is carbonate hardness. Before getting a conductivity meter I had to use 2 hardness kits to understand my water hardness values: GH or total (gesampt) and KH cr carbonate hardness. With the number of tanks that I have it is more cost-effective to use a conductivity meter.

 

[anewbie]

I have a gh/kh kit but you use conductivity which i cannot convert. What conductivity meter do you use ? I have a tds meter but i cannot relate it to your conductivity value and when i try to find conductivity meters they seem to be like $800.

 

[Ben Rhau]

For freshwater, most people use a conversion factor of 0.64. i.e., a measured conductivity of 100 uS is approximately 64 ppm TDS.

 

[anewbie]

So 30uS is approx 20 tds ?

 

[Ben Rhau]

Yup.