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  1. Bart Hazes

    Advice on Tank Setup - 20 Gallon Long

    I've just put up a facebook post on my first attempt to reduce pH with peat (or ADA Africana soil) in an RO water bin. I sure brings the pH down in the RO bin and am just starting to use it for water replaments. A 10% change in a 50 gallon tank dropped pH from 6.6 to 6.2. RO water bin is pH 4.8...
  2. Bart Hazes

    Borellii fry

    I've had the same with a pair of Apistogramma sp. Melgar. The female would disappear for a week while guarding eggs & wrigglers and then show up bright yellow with fry. Within a day the male would badger her, seeming to want to spawn again, to the point she gave up on the fry. That happened 4 or...
  3. Bart Hazes

    Mike Wise's amazing 2017-revised list of more than 400 species / forms of Apistogramma

    Off all taxonomic levels (genus, family, etc) the species concept, independently evolving lineages, is the only one that is IMO not totally artificial although defining what constitutes independent evolution is at least open to different interpretations. The old-school approach "they are...
  4. Bart Hazes

    New Apisto Owner - Stocking Advice Please

    Don't forget to pick some oak leaves while it's still autumn. Almond leaves are nice for tannins and supposedly 'magical qualities' but to get a nice leaf litter on a tank the size as yours I'd use mostly oak leaves with some almond leaves mixed in.
  5. Bart Hazes

    Ideal temperature for ideal sex ratio

    Cichlid atlas 1 has a chapter on sex ratio of apistogramma. Some species are more sensitive than others but from memory 25/26C is optimal. If you go higher you get more/most males and productivity goes down. The other factor is pH with more acidic water biasing towards male, but the effect is...
  6. Bart Hazes

    New Apisto Owner - Stocking Advice Please

    In a 90 gallon I have kept three pairs, 2 A. rubrolineatus and 1 macmasteri, with a 15 rummynose one Bujurquina sp. and 3 male Dicrossus maculatus. All pairs mated and the rubrolineatus managed to raise some fry. But all three pairs are more docile than my typical apisto. One A. norberti pair...
  7. Bart Hazes

    Light Colored Sand/Substrate

    Not all play sands are created equal so impact on hardness is probably variable. In addition, you will only notice the impact on hardness if you aim for very soft water. My tanks are on pure RO water so I care. If I had tanks on tap water it wouldn't matter. I'm not sure if with 'keeping clean'...
  8. Bart Hazes

    Light Colored Sand/Substrate

    I use pool filter sand. It is a little too white to my taste and grains are a bit coarser than I'd prefer but meets your description. Other benefits is that it is super clean, so no need to rinse (I never do for any substrate anyway) and you can buy it in bags. It is also completely inert and...
  9. Bart Hazes

    The different shades of Apistogramma allpahuayo

    They are Peruvian, presumably from the Loreto district for the type material. I regularly see a 'wave of people' acquiring the same fish around the same time so it is probably just seasonal, with a batch of H. loretoensis coming into Iquitos and appearing on sellers lists around the world a few...
  10. Bart Hazes

    The different shades of Apistogramma allpahuayo

    Trade names are annoying if there is a well-established name, formal or informal, for the species. But A. juruensis is not a trade name and therefore truly misleading. Of course the incorrect name is always the one for the more rare and expensive species. So you need to do your homework but even...
  11. Bart Hazes

    Another Newbie here

    I run all my tanks without filter and rely on (floating) plants to absorb ammonia. Rather than remove nitrate by water changes I just remove a few handful of floating plants each week, which really cuts down on the amount of water changes. It also means nitrate levels are near zero rather than...
  12. Bart Hazes

    The different shades of Apistogramma allpahuayo

    Transplanted to aquaculture ponds or to streams out in the wild. The former is scary, the latter stupid scary.
  13. Bart Hazes

    Hello Apistogramma Community! :)

    All cichlids are territorial so some skirmishes are to be expected and add to the interest. If it becomes bullying then you can try to break lines of sight and provide hiding places so the bullied fish can get a time-out. Currently the driftwood is not helping so put a stone or something on it...
  14. Bart Hazes

    A. Panduro - How to determine when to move onto a new potential pair?

    First I don't think there is uncertainty about their sexes, clearly a male and female. I'm keeping several apisto pairs and some mate very soon, others later, and some have yet to do so. Sometimes I think trio's (1M+2F) work better, partly because it is more likely that at least one of the...
  15. Bart Hazes

    Ivanacara adoketa tankmates

    I have the opportunity to acquire some I. adoketa and was reading this thread with interest, in particular the issue around aggression. In the Cichlid Atlas, Uwe Romer describes them as "a very curious, 'tame' fish when it is kept in the company of other fishes. However, pairwise maintenance is...
  16. Bart Hazes

    New apisto owner questions

    I have had pairs of two species (A. allpahuayo & A. sp. Abacaxis) in a tank near your size (90x45x30) and get along very well and even both spawning (but only one pair continuing to guard their fry). I had another pair of A. sp. Abacaxis in a 120x60x25 and when I added a male baenschi he was...
  17. Bart Hazes

    Tips and trick when breeding apistogramma

    Do you find the matten filters to be a good food source for fry? I am planning to use 2" matten filters to separate a 180x60x25cm fry grow-out tank into multiple compartments and draw a very gentle current across them all. Hoping for some nice "aufwuchs" to develop.
  18. Bart Hazes

    Tips and trick when breeding apistogramma

    I don't find there to be much mystery, well at least not for most of them. Good food (most live and frozen), good water (100% RO in my case but depends on your tap water), a "jungle tank" that isn't kept too sterile, and not too much mucking around in the tanks. As a special feature I run all my...
  19. Bart Hazes

    WC Apisto. kullanderi pair starting at $1!!!

    http://www.tangledupincichlids.com/ has them listed for 'only' $200 (each) for wild-caught.
  20. Bart Hazes

    Setup Questions

    A 40 gallon breeder is a great tank (I have one) though I prefer the 30 gallon breeder (I have three) which has the same surface space just less tall. I can't help with the filtration as none of my 20+ tanks have any filtration and over the summer many even don't have any current. Just plants...
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