Bad mother

[Michael Kupetsky]

I have been trying to breed apisto aggazzis for a few months now. They have laid eggs five times now and i believe the female has eaten them all five times. I was told that maybe the male was infertile so i switched males in the tank and the same thing happened. I tried to take the eggs on the fourth spawn but fungus set in it was a loss as well. Any help would be appreciated

 

[Mike Wise]

My guess is that something is wrong with nutrition, tank lay out, water values or tank maintenance. A. agassizii is not hard to encourage breeding and raise offspring - if everything is good. We need more information.

 

[Michael Kupetsky]

20 gal long. Lots of floating plants,driftwood,sand bottom, catappa leaves used
Dark tanic water, ph 6.2, kh 8-9, temp 79-80°. Tankmates...4 small panda corys ( These were just introduced before the last failure). A few small ramshorn snails. Shes laying eggs in an apisto cave. Water changes approximately 25% every other week. She has no problem laying large clutches of eggs there a reddish burgundy color they seem healthy but then by the 2nd day she eats them

 

[Mike Wise]

You'll read here that corys in an apisto breeding tank are not a good idea, but that doesn't explain earlier failures. Things seem OK otherwise. Just 3 questions: what are you feeding the apistos? did the males seem to bother her when guarding eggs, and do you have dither fish in the tank?

 

[Michael Kupetsky]

I feed a variety of pellet as well as frozen foods and a constant supply of baby brine shrimp for all my fish. No dithers in the tank and the male cant fit into the apisto cave. Ted from teds fishroom Said that that situation would be fine as far as the male fertilizing the eggs he would flood the cave with his sperm

 

[Mike Wise]

Ted is right about male fertilization. I had a pair of aggies separated from each other by a mesh partition. I didn't want them breeding, but nature finds a way. Nice batch of fry 7 days later. Your female may be a bad mother, but this is unusual for apistos. My guess is that something is stressing the female.