Breeding a. winkelfleck?

[anewbie]

I have three a. sp winkefleck (picture of male attached); 1 male 2 female. yesterday the female laid eggs and i saw the male with her but less than 12 hours later she abandoned the eggs. I"m not too sure what the issue is - the tank temp is 78, the tds is 49 (i put in fertilizer after weekly water change since the aquarium is heavily planted). Not sure of the actual ph but suspect it is mid 6.

Not sure if the male is infertilize or if there is some other issue. The 2nd female is newly added (5 weeks ago) she is a bit smaller and mostly ignored within some rules. Even if the eggs weren't fertile i would think she would sit on them a bit longer.


Not sure if there is something i should tweak here to help them out. I've had the initial pair for around 6 months:

 

[Mike Wise]

Really not given enough information. I doubt that the male is infertile (very unusual). Things we need include tank size, other fish in the tank, location of the tank (including height above the floor) and how busy it is around the tank.

 

[anewbie]

Really not given enough information. I doubt that the male is infertile (very unusual). Things we need include tank size, other fish in the tank, location of the tank (including height above the floor) and how busy it is around the tank.

it is a 29; tank mates are some pangio of various species (4 or 5); it is metal stand 29 inches high - it is entry to my office but is relatively tranquile. - it is about 2 feet pushed back from the door way. The filtration is air pushed (matten filter).

 

[Mike Wise]

OK, you have basically a community tank. Remove the loaches. Other bottom-dwelling fish are not welcome in a breeding tank.

 

[anewbie]

OK, you have basically a community tank. Remove the loaches. Other bottom-dwelling fish are not welcome in a breeding tank.

The loaches don't approach the breeding area - they stay on the other side. While they might be the issue i have bred other apisto including a. pucallpaensis with them. I can remove them if they are the root issue but finding a different home will be difficult; basically when i moved i collected all the remaining pangio (I think 4) and put them in there - i suppose i could put them back with the a. pucallpaensis since i know they don't have a problem with them. if you are pretty sure that is the issue i'll take a stab at it next water change. I guess my reluctants is the aquarium sizes as this is a 29 and the a. pucallpanesis are in a 10.

Actually i can put the pangio in the 180 with the b. cupido; it is a 200 gallon aquarium with very little stocking.

 

[Mike Wise]

You know my mantra: a community tank - and yours is - is not a breeding tank. If you don't think your loaches are a problem then give your Winkelfleck 2 or 3 more chances before making changes.

 

[anewbie]

You know my mantra: a community tank - and yours is - is not a breeding tank. If you don't think your loaches are a problem then give your Winkelfleck 2 or 3 more chances before making changes.

I'll keep an eye - it is just my history with the pangio and breeding fishes hasn't been a problem so far but perhaps they are spooking her - in any event this is a species i want to breed and i can move them to the cupido aquarium - just will be a bit messy to catch them.