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Thanks. Atahualpa hasn't shown up yet at the places I'm getting my fish and right now my tanks are pretty full anyway. There should however be more Apisto profiles coming in the next few months, as time allows.
Welcome John,
I've kept aquariums from a very young age but it took me a while to start keeping dwarf cichlids. They are a lot of fun to watch and you can learn a lot about nature by seeing how they behave and and be reading or watching videos of their natural world. Good luck with you tank!
Bart
I don't think that is written correctly. What I think they mean is that peat, the physical material, can act as a cation-exchanger, just like the ion exchange resins you can buy for your RODI "reverse osmosis deionised" setup. Basically the peat has negatively charged groups that weakly bind...
I would say you are doing everything right and the water hardness/pH is the thing I would work on most. I have 24 tanks on pure RO water and have not seen any issues with mineral deficiencies, but all my fish are South American from natural water as soft or softer than my tanks so they must have...
Your tap water sounds similar to mine and in addition to being hard probably also has a pH near 7.5-8. You don't tell us if your fish are wild caught but if not extensively adapted to harder tank water they may just not get into spawning condition without using RO or rain water. Since your tanks...
I recommend watching some of Ivan Mikolji's 'fish guy expedition" videos on youtubes. Parts 17 () and 18 are my favorites. Not necessarily heavy on the apistos, some others have more, but gives you an idea of biotopes.
Sounds like it. If she gets in the mood she will start to flare back and show her side and belly to the male while shaking. She will also get more yellow, especially after she comes out with fry. Good luck, they are fascinating to watch.
It's a macmasteri allright. More red on the shoulder then I would have expected if it was wild caught but I've only seen a few wild ones so perhaps there are more colourful ones out there. The male also looks rather pale, especially in the top image. I think a bit more hiding spots, plants, wood...
If you were at 24C I'd say boost it to 26C but you are already there. You can increase the temp more but egg/fry viability starts to go down as you go warmer than 26/27C. The temperature and pH effect on sex ratio is somewhat variable between apisto species so I don't think there is a fixed...
I'm breeding rubrolineata and the male looks like rubrolineata to me. Female as well though they have a more intense, but pale, yellow colour when guarding fry in my tanks. I would have to dig up some pictures to do a more direct comparison of lateral and tail base markings.
In this time of many reported and unreported degradations of the rainforest I am glad to see the occasional story like this one. I also find it hopeful that the initiative was largely driven by the local communities. The government may no be able to adequately monitor such a large area, or...
From my first group of 6 Abacaxis the dominant male killed off all others. Definitely the most aggressive apisto I've seen. A second batch from a different supplier has been quite mellow. I had 5 in a 40 gallon breeder with also a pair of A. allpahuayo and have not seen aggression. Both pairs...
A. rubrolineata
A. norberti
A. baenschi
A. sp. Melgar
A. allpahuayo
A. sp. Abacaxis
A. eremnopyge
A. panduro
And I have a breeding A. agassizii at the moment. Except for the panduro they are all wild caught so F1 fry.
Hi Crazy72, good to know there is a new generation of apisto lovers coming up. I consider Curtis Jerrom in Calgary as the best Canadian source for Apistos with Below Water (Oliver Lucanus) in Montreal being another source with sometimes very special species. Both sell mostly or exclusively wild...
Start with a small volume, like th 5 gallon you suggest. I think you will be disappointed how slowly the tank pH comes down. I've been doing this on a 30 gallon breeder with about half the ppm or less than what you have.
Like ButtNekkid I have a dedicate peat barrel that I fill with RO water in addition to a plain RO water bin. In the beginning I contained the peat in a wide-diameter tube with the idea to circulated water through it. Then I decided to just dump the loose peat into the bin and stir a few times...
My latest tanks have been long (up to 6 foot) and deep (up to 2 foot) but 10" or 12" inch tall. However, if you keep a group of apistos and subordinate individuals need a place to hide then in tall tanks they can go up and hide in the floater roots where the dominant fish doesn't seem to look as...