A. ortegai not hatching

[cgjedi]

I have a pair of A. ortegai "Pebas" in a 15 gallon tank. 6.8pH. 77 temp. oak leaves. clay pots. drift wood.

Still trying to figure out what is going wrong with the breeding process. They've probably gone through the breeding cycle 6 times now - but never any fry. Although I've never seen any eggs, from the behaviour of the female, there must have been some. They tolerate each other until just after I notice they have gone into a clay pot to breed. After about a day, the female starts chasing the male to a far corner and will not let him out. I have to rescue the male at that point. The female will keep swimming into the pot to check on the eggs, I assume. But after 3 days this stops and there aren't any fry. So something goes wrong at that point. I just can't figure it out and can't find any information about what to do about it. Anybody have any suggestions?

 

[Mike Wise]

pH 6.8 is a bit on the high side, and you don't mention the water hardness. A. cf. ortegai (Pebas) is a bit less demanding than A. ortegai, but still occurs in mixed clear/blackwater environments. Perhaps the water values aren't good enough for successful hatching of eggs. It would help to know more about the breeding tank, maintenance, other occupants, and foods, too. All can affect breeding success.

 

[cgjedi]

I didn't think to list water hardness since as far as I know that isn't the problem. The water is naturally very soft. Outside of breeding I change 20% water weekly - always with water that has been standing for more than a day. During the breeding period I change 20% every 2-3 days. I take out more water than put in until the level is roughly 50% and let it be like that for a few days. Then I restore the water level and within a couple of days, they mate.
During this time, I feed bloodworms in evening. In morning I alternate between grindal worms, pellets, and flake. There are 2 harlequin rasboras as dither and they stay out of the way.
I assume the water is fine since my sister has had another pair with successful spawns with the same local water. She's not actively breeding, they just happen to have successful hatches (although just a few fry).

 

[Mike Wise]

Everything appears good, water-wise, although I personally wouldn't do as many water changes as do you. You might see better results if you lowered the pH a bit, say around pH 6.0.

 

[chris1805]

This sounds strange to me. I have bred my wild caught Apistogramma ortegai in a ph of 7.0 with a kh of 2-3. It may be that like Mike said your kh is to high. Could it also be that the male may not fertilizes the eggs and that this is the reason the female is chasing the male? I remember my female to be very agressive as well eventhough the male was twice her size.

 

[Mike Wise]

When I collected A. cf. ortegai (Pebas) outside of the town of Pebas the water was soft and slightly below pH 6. This seems common for Peruvian apistos. I imagine that your male could be 'shooting blanks', but this is rare in apistos - especially wild-caught fish. Many things can affect successful reproduction besides water quality/values.