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I also must mention this...
A friend of mine got a quite young A. baenschi-pair from me a couple of years ago..(2-3cm/ 0,8-1 in.).. they had spawned 2-3 times in my tank..
..so they then knew the spawning/guarding/aggression behaviours of one another (?) !!
He put them in a small plastic...
Ok .. That may be too much in total amount.. 1-2 times/day should be enough..
I would strictly focus on feeding the female/s.. Males are often strong enough to "steal" some food anyway..:)
and.. I would also change to feeding with "Worms" to 2-4 times a week!!! ..
..and instead feed the rest...
I would say approx.a planted "decorated" 5 feet to be sure of any fry-results.. but in such a tank I advise you to keep even more Apistos ( 6-8 pcs(?) / 1 male +4-5 females )+ dithers ..or just one pair..+dithers !!
But then again.. I have kept many youngsters (2cm) who are familiar to...
My experience is that if only keeping the 2 parents, they rarely eat their own eggs/fry the 1st week.. Later on.. the size of the tank + new spawning behaviours from the male may cause problems+ the female defense aggression.. at least in smaller tanks!!
This is why Mike W. normally says.. "...
Hi gerald + all..
..Thanks... , but I actually poured some new water in that tank just to see if the cyano-carpet would "take off" .. and it sure did..!!:D.. that was 7-8 months ago..after having raised some Apisto-fry for 6months or so in it..
And that/this is also what I wanted to show.. the...
Yepp.. females in all the pics..
But as long as you have any grey/white mucus-like substance in/on the sand+roots.. (bacteria!!??), I guess you will have to do something with the water-quality!! .. Maybe try waterchanges more often, but not extremely large ones.. 10-25 % ???
This white-grey...
Actually I can not see any "fully"-developed cyanos in any of the pics..(like a carpet covering everything..) I only see some "slimy greenish" algae... ;)
But as themountain says .. cyanos are bacteria!!!!
.. and some times you just will have to wait for a new tank to "mature" ecologically.. the best tanks are often the ones
which are 2-3 months "old" since started!!! .. or older!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:)
I also think that one risk with 2 females of large size may be that the females sometimes spawn together.. without the male..
..leaving you with dead eggs (after 1-2 days) + the dominant female guarding the eggs anyway...
Large Apisto-females may not always find small males "strong enough" for...
If possible.. I would try to get some substances/restproducts from the sand out of the tank..(1st pic ).. with the help of a siphon-tube.. ( I would recommend little by little.. small amounts of waterchanges.. 10-15% at a time..)..and also add some more kind of plants in the tank (floating or...
If you will still get more algae than appreciated, I would decrease/stop the amount of added ferts/nutrients for the plants..
I keep similar plants in several of my tanks without any xtra /added fertilizers ... but none of them are really "fast-growing" plants.. like many "stem"-plants are...
Can you post a pic of the tank/tanks.. with this info it will be much easier to help you out..
There are many different factors that may make the difference in a tank..
(Waterquality, type of sand, snails or catfishes/dither fishes.., size/area of the tank..,interior set-up.., or sometimes it is...
When I have done this treat I have mostly had "large" tanks (200-300 liters/ 55-75 gallons ) , but the tactic should be the same..
3-4 service-rounds.. every/every 2nd day ..whatever works in your life-scedule..
Keep up the good work and keep us updated if you can/feel for it..!! Little by...
OK Chris... I can see the problem with entering any small algae-eating creatures then.. (the risk of a quick death..?, if attacked by the tetras + Dicrossus sp.)
In the pic/this situation it also seems like you have got a quite " strong" light effect/set-up (for such a shallow/small tank), so...