A.Mouthbrooder

[Xanathos]

Hey,

I'm going to get my hands on 6 of those very nice fish and I was wondering about a few points ...

1- what kind of water it needs for keeping and breeding ? Soft, acidic or moderate ?
2- Since it's a moutbrooder, according to the other african ciclids that are mouthbrooder, is it a very agressive fish toward it's own specie and his tankmates ?
3- Does it needs a lot of water flow or a normal current is Okay?
4- Any information about it's biotope ? Is it a leaf litter dwelling ?

Anything you think is useful would help me a lot

Thanks guys
Philippe

 

[Neil]

You will have the best chance to spawn this very difficult species if you use very soft, acidic water with very clean water. It will also help to have fine substrate, but I have spawned them in a BB tank.
Haven't tried leaf litter, but it wouldn't hurt. However, I don't think that you should have much current in the tank.
They are a fairly aggressive species, but I have not found them to be ruthkless to tankmates. But you will do well to make sure that there is plenty of structure for the female at first and the male later.
Neil

 

[Xanathos]

Thanks again for the answer. Since I work only with RO water, it's no problem providing them a soft and acidic water.

So they are that hard to breed ? I kinda like challenge I'm not the top apisto breeder, but I bred some hard species before, like Apistogramoides pucallpaensis, so I guess I might give it a try to those mouthbrooders..

What do u mean by lot of structure for the female ?

Thanks for your answer, really appreciated
Phil