Keeping Apistogramma Healthy

[Genes]

Hi Guys

Some species of apistogramma are hardy and some are very susceptible to diseases. I have lost elizabethaes and candidis to sores or fungus infection. No luck with elizabethaes especially...

Was wondering how you guys keep your apistogrammas healthy. Currently, i feed my apistos hikari frozen brine melted with water mixed with dennerle S7 everyday.

Would love to hear your expert views.

 

[Mike Wise]

Keep them in water close to that in their natural habitat. Blackwater species come from waters that have very low bacterial counts. They are more suseptable to bacterial infections because they don't usually meet them in their biotopes.

 

[valice]

Meaning that the waters should have a pH of around 5.5? So can I say that bacteria will probably not survive in such pH levels?

 

[leeruisheng]

Meaning that the waters should have a pH of around 5.5? So can I say that bacteria will probably not survive in such pH levels?

I'm not really sure. I've recently lost a female eliz due to bacterial infection. It's a 2ft partition tank, housed together with Diplotaenia. But however diplo doing fine. And it is kept in peat water with ph around 5.5.

I was wondering if it could be from the source. Like how they were raised. I've lost usually females and find them somewhat weaker than the males.

 

[valice]

I am the opposite. I tend to lose the males...
Just lost another one to internal bacteria... :frown:

Most black waters in the Amazons (Brazil and Peru) are near to pH 5... Rio Negro tributaries can go down to 4.5... Wonder whether we can truly attain those levels...

 

[lab]

Lower pH leads to lower bacterial counts, and maybe just as important: Different species and strains of bacteria are present at different pH.

Lars

 

[leeruisheng]

I am the opposite. I tend to lose the males...
Just lost another one to internal bacteria... :frown:

Most black waters in the Amazons (Brazil and Peru) are near to pH 5... Rio Negro tributaries can go down to 4.5... Wonder whether we can truly attain those levels...

Possible. I use half contents of Sera super peat and manage to bring down ph of 2ft tank to 4.5.

 

[Zapisto]

i dont know about bacteria , but my observation (nothing scientific) since i kept apisto, is less you hand in the water less problems you got.

I have A. macmasteri , A. viejita , T. candidi in tank who is heavyly planted and i see the fish 1 or 2 times a days not more when the come eat or when they start chazing each of us.

my action to the tank is :
- feed
- water change

so mean stability is everything , i consider thoose tank very stable.
that's it that's all.

 

[Genes]

So we shouldn't do water change so frequent? Because doing that increases PH, which means we will have to peat the water over again or add more black water extract to bring down the PH. These fluctuations in water parameters may have cause the immue system of the apisto to go down perhaps? By the way, how much black water extract is considered too much for an apisto?

 

[Zapisto]

Most black waters in the Amazons (Brazil and Peru) are near to pH 5... Rio Negro tributaries can go down to 4.5... Wonder whether we can truly attain those levels...

my candidi is at 4.5 and maintain this value since a year or more.

 

[leeruisheng]

So we shouldn't do water change so frequent? Because doing that increases PH, which means we will have to peat the water over again or add more black water extract to bring down the PH. These fluctuations in water parameters may have cause the immue system of the apisto to go down perhaps? By the way, how much black water extract is considered too much for an apisto?

Unless you peat your replacement water before water change. That's what I did to maintain constant ph even after water change. Not so much fluctuation.

 

[koty]

Bacteria live in every pH on earth (including 1 and at temperatures of 70-90°C!).
However, the combination of very clean, mineral free, very acidic (less then 5) results with low bacterial counts, and you should reproduce these water conditions.
Indeed keeping these apistos is a challenge as you need to:
keep the pH low (< 5)
do many water changes
and keep the system stable
You should use R/O water mainly for water changes.
Do not overfeed
use any kind of peat extract as it is an essential ingredient.
Use plants that will survive in these conditions (echinodoras and such) and will scavenge the nitrates.