Apistogramma Viejita

[newworldan06]

I want to trade in my Borelli and get viejita. Does anyone keep these and please give me any helpful information about them. What exactyle should i have in my tank for them to breed? Right now I have a planted tank with driftwood and some coconuts. My PH is around 7 and Kh is 6. I am working on lowering both.

Also what is the differnece between viejita 1 and 2. I like viejita 2 better is there a differnence at all between the water chemistry.


any help or information is appreciated

 

[cootwarm]

I was keeping my viejita II in a 30 gallon tank with peat water. The pH 4.5; GH4; and KH1or2.

I mixed my peat water using a 5 gallon pail of peat moss in a 30 gallon plastic barrel and fill with dechlorinated tap water and areate with an airstone. After about 3 to 5 days the pH and hardness are as I just stated above. I let the peat settle for a couple hours before siphoning off what I need. If you siphon through some cheese cloth, more peat particles are removed. But it's not necessary, the peat particles will settle from the water in a day or 2 anyhow.

I don't know if those extremely low values were necessary, but the viejita seemed to like it. At one point, I had 6 adult(3m3f) viejita, about 20 large fry, and about 20 small fry in that 30 gallon!

This tank was also packed with an over abundance of Java Moss, 1 large Amazon Sword, 3 coconut shell caves, a large piece of driftwood, a couple Java Ferns, 2 piles of oak leaves, and a small amount of floating hornwort. I use 2 sponge filters and no heater (I find the temp ranges from about 70C in winter to 80C in summer).

A 30 gallon Long will comfortably house (1m2f) or (1m3f). But if you set it up properly, with many hiding places 2m3f, should work fine. Even though there are many hiding places, they don't spend all their time hiding. Just knowing that there is always a hiding place nearby, gives them the courage to come out in the open more often. I've found that the extra male encourages the dominant male to display his nice fins and colors more often.

For tank mates I use 2 or 3 oto cats and a few Beckfordi Pencilfish as they don't harm the fry. These (dithers) help the viejita feel more secure in the tank and seems help ease some of the aggression amoungst themselves.

If you post where you're from, someone might be able to hook you up with some apisto sellers in your area.

Michael