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To culture mine I use a 50x25x25cm tank with a couple of centimeters of dark pea gravel on on half of the tank. I have the temperature around 18-23 degrees celcius, and I have an airpump on the tank to circulate and aerate the water. The pH of the water is around 8 or so I think.
To feed the...
Beautiful biotope!:)
I think for the pair of Apistos you should go for something nice and small. Bitaeniata, elizabethae or trifasciata are a few suggestions that would look great!
Sorry to deviate from the topic of the thread, but I must say you have a gorgeous looking tank there!:) I especially love the red tiger lotus. What are the dimensions of the tank, and what lighting/filtration etc. do you use?
Here's some new photos from last night:)
The clear patches on his dorsal and anal fin are starting to disappear and the black colouration has been improving. Also the front rays on his dorsal fin are starting to develope quite nicely. You can see that the fourth ray is starting to turn orange...
I positioned a mirror on the outside of the tank for him to flare at when I took those photos. When he flares his colours change a bit. Don't worry, he's perfectly healthy and eating just fine;) I've been feeding him lots of blackworms and he is behaving normally.
I don't have a planted tank...
I've now put him in his own tank because I have put my trifasciata back into the 140L tank as I had no luck breeding them (next time I will remove the fry from the 140L tank and raise them in a seperate tank).
Thanks so much for sharing this:) Very interesting read. The cacatuoides that won first prize is gorgeous!
I think its weird though that the show organizers are specific about fish species. It would have been even cooler if all types of dwarf cichlids were allowed to be entered in the show.
I've used California Blackworms (Lumbriculus variegatus) as the staple diet for all of my fish for over a year with great success. IME they are the easiest worm to culture and really bring out the colours in the fish:)
My understanding is that Triple Reds have coloured (either red or orange) dorsal, anal and caudal fins, and Super Reds are the same except one or both of the ventral fins are coloured.
He's still only around 3-4cm total length so he's still got lots of growing to do.
The thing that really bothers me is that large clear patch at the base of his tail, and the clear patches in the middle of those black spots on his tail. Other photos I've seen of fish from this import don't have...
His colour is starting to improve. I've noticed that some of the clear areas, like at the front of the base of his anal fin, and on his ventral fins, are starting to turn orange. The black pigmentation also looks to be improving slightly.
Also I've popped him in the isolation net because he is...
Beautiful fish you have there, and lovely photos too :)
I can only hope then that with good care and feeding the black on his fins will improve. And I can always just find a female and breed them and see what sort of offspring I get ;)
Here's a pic from a couple of minutes ago:
He's looking really healthy and is eating heaps. Although I have noticed that the black on the tail and the end of the dorsal fin isn't very intense, and in some parts the tail is transparent (like that big chunk of black missing from the band at the...
Is is necessary to boild oak leaves (to kill any bacteria and bugs on them) before adding them to the tank? I've always done this with mine but I read somewhere that boiling isn't needed and they can just be dumped straight into the tank. I'm confused.