Apistogramma gephyra

[Cichlids1]

Ok...I've had these guys for almost a year. 10 spawns, not a single fry to show for the effort. They spawned again last night and I pulled them this time. I used all water from the tank they spawned in to fill the 10g I am going to try to hatch them in. I've read in a few places that the pH needs to be down in order for the eggs to develope. But, it's rather vague. Doesn't say how low or at what pH the eggs stop developing. They spawned in a pH of 6. I'm hoping if that is good enough to spawn in, that will be good enough for the eggs.

These are wild fish I picked up from Oliver at the ACA last year. I've always had decent luck when allowing wild parents to raise the fry to at least free swimming. These guys aren't being that dilligent with the eggs. They will chase off the D. filamentosa and A. macmasteri, but will fan the eggs while ramshorn snails devour them.

They have to be getting close to the end of thier productive time. I'm guessing they are at least 18 months old now, I've had them for 12 months. If I'm lucky, they'll be around for another 6 months. I really want a seccessful spawn so they don't become extinct here in the basement. Can anyone see anything I might be overlooking? Any tips, tricks, hints, magic spells, etc. that I might be able to use?

Pics of the female and her eggs can be found at the bottom of the page on:

http://www.roundtownaquatics.com/newpics2.htm

 

[Z Man]

I have tried Gephyra a few times without success. Just like you, eggs but none hatched. In Romer's new book it states: "Breeding is only possible in very soft water, acidic (pH<5) water." I know I had the water soft enough but not the pH. What I did to breed Taeniacara candidi which needs low pH was to put straight RO water in 2-7gallon buckets with large handfuls of garden peat moss in each. After a few days I siphoned the water out through a 'brine shrimp' net and used that for water changes. After a few changes I had a 20ppm TDS & a pH of around 5 in which their spawns were successful. I have NEVER used any of those manufactured products to lower or adjust anything in any of my tanks. Good luck.
Z-Man

 

[Cichlids1]

Thanks Z...I browsed the Romer Atlas last night to see if anything jumped out at me that I may be missing. It's been about 12 hrs since I puleld them, no fungused/white eggs yet. I put in a few drop of methelyne blue to stave off the fungus that always happens.

I'm hoping I don't need it <5. I was trying to get some C. notophthalmus down there. Got it to the low 5's, then it crashed on me. Killed the pikes before I could get it up and stable. I'm using an R/O, Peat, Tap mix to adjust the pH's on the tanks. I don't use chemicals either, they tend to get me in trouble.

 

[Neil]

The only time I could get viable fry from gephyra was at 4.5pH with VERY little hardness. I do use chemicals to drive the pH down to this range, but I only do it temporarily for spawning. I guesstimate when they are ready to spawn and then bring the pH down from the mid 5's to the 4's (usually all at once) through a chemical added large water change. I then do follow-up water changes with the same chemical composition for the next couple of weeks if they spawn. At which time I start doing small pure RO water changes (unaltered) and let the pH creep up. Crashes will only occur if you use too much chemical of if you scrimp on the water changes. The fry tolerated a raise in pH after 1-2 weeks free-swimming and a raise in hardness after 3 weeks free-swimming. That is my SOP for all extremely soft water apistos and dwarfs. It has usually worked well for me.
Neil

 

[Cichlids1]

Looks like this spawn is a bust, literally. All the eggs look like they "popped" for lack of a better term. They have deflated and have string-like things hanging from them.

I guess I'll have to wait another month and try again...