Apistogramma Hippolytae Spawn

[Gage]

Hello, new to the forum. I have a pair of Apistogramma Hippolytae and to my surprise they've spawned for me recently and fry were first seen last night. I'm pretty excited as this is the first time I've had any fish spawn for me in one of my own aquariums. I have them in a 75g fairly well planted with a lot of large driftwood and some river stones. Tank mates are a school of about 25-30 green fire tetras, 5-6 darter tetras, around 17 cory catfish, mostly pandas, a few otto's and two hoplo catfish. I wasn't exactly planning for any breeding but now that may change. After a rough count I'm estimating that there are between 100 and 125 fry. The little I've read so far have been people keeping pairs in 30g tanks or smaller. The male so far seems to be doing a pretty good job of assisting the female protect the fry, he seems to patrol the cave area about 8"-10" from the female while she patrols the immediate area out side the cave. I'm going to be feeding frozen baby brine shrimp and Hikari First Bites.

I'll update more as I can but I'm hoping anyone can give me some advice for anything that may not be common knowledge. I'm also wondering when do apisto fry tend to be large enough to fend for them self?

 

[Mike Wise]

Congratulations. I'm always amazed at how many fry A. hippolytae have in a spawn. I'm sure you've read here about survivability of fry in community tanks. I wouldn't expect more than 10% to survive until they grow large enough to not be considered food by other members of the community. Also live foods are best, but I've gotten some fry to survive on prepared foods to. I suggest you try your best with what you now have and see how everything works out. Good luck.