• Hello guest! Are you an Apistogramma enthusiast? If so we invite you to join our community and see what it has to offer. Our site is specifically designed for you and it's a great place for Apisto enthusiasts to meet online. Once you join you'll be able to post messages, upload pictures of your fish and tanks and have a great time with other Apisto enthusiasts. Sign up today!

Search results

  1. boofeng

    Sphagnum peat bottom

    Re: mesh bags, you could also check out the marine section of fish stores - they use very fine sock-shaped filters (my local shops stock 200 microns) to "polish" the water as a final stage - these + a cable tie make pretty good peat bags.
  2. boofeng

    Live Foods

    Some people on the net say they don't die after many days in a jar - but mine often die in half a day when I harvest but forget to feed. Probably too many microworms in a tiny jar. A lot of microworms fall onto my substrate, but I've never had a problem with that - not sure whether they actually...
  3. boofeng

    Culturing live foods?

    I find grindal worms the easiest to culture. They are easy to care for and always recover even after neglect. I like microworms for when I can't/won't hatch baby brine shrimp for fry. Very easy to culture too. I also culture daphnia indoors (and greenwater for them, outdoors.) This is mostly...
  4. boofeng

    What to use to lower ph to 4

    That's interesting, TCMontium. I've no idea why your dicrossus ate the eggs. My candidi female always gets ripe and full, then disappears somewhere to (I guess) lay eggs, but always emerges a few days later without fry. She used to spit whitish things (fungused eggs?) out of her cave, but now I...
  5. boofeng

    Sphagnum peat bottom

    Hi I don't have a current picture, and photography is not one of my strong suits. This is a photo of the tank when I started it: The peat tank is on the left. Now the crypts' leaves are in worse condition. There's frogbit floating on top. The Syngonanthus on the bottom left grew about an...
  6. boofeng

    Sphagnum peat bottom

    I did start a peat bottom apisto tank a few months back, and have a pair of A. eremnopyge in it. They've since spawned, and the fry are doing well. The "problem" with that tank is I worry about the day I have to remove the fish. The energetic male throws up a spray of loose peat every time he...
  7. boofeng

    Tested all my tanks' GH and KH today

    Hi all Thanks everyone, for all the help and info. A little update with a happy ending - I have spawns! It's the diplotaenia and eremnopyge, free swimming fry emerging two days apart. After the series of tests in the original post, I dropped nylon stockings full of peat moss in a few tanks. I...
  8. boofeng

    Help with my water

    Indeed! Thanks for pointing that out. I'm just glad it's not bouncing up to 7 after I bring it down to 4+ anymore!
  9. boofeng

    Help with my water

    I have no idea what exactly is causing your pH creep, but I did experience something similar before. I used Aquael Aquadecoris fine quartz sand, which is labeled "won't affect pH" etc. Well I had nothing in the tank except wood, plants, HMF filter and the sand, but pH kept creeping up. This was...
  10. boofeng

    I'm new here...from Singapore

    Ouch - sorry to hear your fish aren't doing well. Any idea what caused it? Apistos seem to just get sick and die randomly. I've resigned myself to having the occasional casualty. For example, I've been having some disease trouble with my bitaeniata. I still can't figure out why they're getting...
  11. boofeng

    Tested all my tanks' GH and KH today

    You’re a treasure trove of knowledge, Darrel. Good to know soft water plants don’t do well with sodium. Is it the absolute quantity of sodium that matters, or the relative proportion of sodium vs potassium? (c.f. I often see calcium/magnesium ratios being talked about in the domains of...
  12. boofeng

    Tested all my tanks' GH and KH today

    Thanks for the tip, Darrel. My conductivity is still far from that (TDS reading is 115-145) as I've been a little busy and unable to get my DI unit back up and running. I plan to add an RO stage to it before installing it at my new place. That'll be in January if all goes according to plan...
  13. boofeng

    Tested all my tanks' GH and KH today

    Yes Mike indeed they do, and I'm going to see if adding peat moss will solve it - that seemed to work in the bitaeniata tank (it used to have bad water params before I started chucking peat granules about). So in love with peat moss right now! :D
  14. boofeng

    Tested all my tanks' GH and KH today

    So I finally tested all my tanks' GH and KH. Results first, and then some discussion. Methodology Test kit: recently opened API GH/KH test kit (drop test), expires 2018 and 2020. Procedure: very clumsily, with each tank tested only once Results Tank: eremnopyge 45x30 Substrate: 1.5 to 2...
  15. boofeng

    Apisto help!

    The Pantanal tank sounds like it'll be awesome! I personally love to see biotope tanks (that's why zoos are fun, right) - but keeping them is a whole other kettle of fish, so to speak. ;) Kudos to those who do them! I didn't set out to do a biotope with mine (still isn't - I keep random plants...
  16. boofeng

    Apisto help!

    Welcome to the forum, Apsnake. I think many people do keep apistos in colonies, and when I browsed Dr Romer's Cichlid Atlas he does mention that some apisto species aren't suitable for keeping as pairs, but rather as colonies (e.g. eremnopyge), to diffuse aggression. I keep my A. trifasciata...
  17. boofeng

    Soil

    Thanks for the rainwashing tip - I'll try that. It rains a lot here on the equator! :D
  18. boofeng

    peat granules to lower PH and soften water?

    I've let the water sit in the "peat filter" (a beverage dispenser actually) for 24++ hours before, and the measured TDS (or conductivity rather) doesn't go down appreciably more - at best the meter reads 90+, from a potential max of 130+ out the tap. So I think there is a lower bound on how much...
  19. boofeng

    Are these fungused eggs?

    Hmm, that cave was pulled from my Crenicichla tank. Maybe there was some junk in it and the candidi were cleaning house. Remember I had pushed peat granules into the cave to create that acidic microenvironment? Some of those granules were strewn around the cave entrance afterwards - so someone's...
  20. boofeng

    Soil

    Thanks Darrel. This is good to know. I'll be sure to report back if I ever have the opportunity to attempt a soil "recharge". I'm planning to use citric acid, mixed up from the dry form easily available at baking supply shops. Concentrated acids and lye are very strictly controlled here. Do you...
Top