Breeding Apistos, Questions.

[Memeboi]

I have a few questions about breeding Apistos, more specifically about rasing the Fry.

1. When Do Apistogramma Borellii Fry become large enough to Eat BBS (ideally frozen BBS)
2. How fast does A.Borellii Grow.
3. What tank mates are fry safe and compatible with hard water, Philidelphia water is practically composed of liquid bricks and has a ph of ~7.7

I have a 29 Gallon tank with a large sponge filter that I will be using, I am planning on keeping the water at about 75 degrees, 25 degress for all you freedom haters out there.
The tank has a good amount of rocks and A *Massive* peice of driftwood and I will add more plants.

 

[Aquaticloch]

1. They can eat them right away, microworms also work but are not nearly as easy to feed or as nutritional.
2. Quite fast depending on what you feed and how often, they'll be sexually mature in 3-5 months .
3. Bluntly, im struggling here. That's quite high for any apisto, even borelli. For myself it is difficult to think of a fish which won't eat any fry and likes "Liquid bricks." Hopefully others can help further.

 

[Apistoguy52]

1) the day they free swim. Live is better than frozen.
2) In my experience, very slowly*
* while they grow very slowly, they are sexually mature at a very small size (1/2”)
3) not sure. If you’re going to be breeding, skip the tank mates

 

[Memeboi]

1. They can eat them right away, microworms also work but are not nearly as easy to feed or as nutritional.
2. Quite fast depending on what you feed and how often, they'll be sexually mature in 3-5 months .
3. Bluntly, im struggling here. That's quite high for any apisto, even borelli. For myself it is difficult to think of a fish which won't eat any fry and likes "Liquid bricks." Hopefully others can help further.

So From what I have heard fry need movement to trigger feeding, i,e Frozen BBS can't work, is this true? Apisto Fry do seem to eat fry powder and that doesn't move much.
Secondly, I did a retake and as it turns out when I first used the test strip I read it incorrectly, just basic reasarch on philly water shows a dGH of 8, Not Nearly the 12 dGH I had estimated Earlier, so not really liquid brick, but still hard. I've been looking into Celestial Pearl Danio's but frankly from what I understand with danio's it doesn't seem that feasable of an option.

 

[Mike Wise]

So From what I have heard fry need movement to trigger feeding, i,e Frozen BBS can't work, is this true?

No, not true. Fry are orient toward movement and grow stronger, better, and faster on live foods however

Apisto Fry do seem to eat fry powder and that doesn't move much.

True, but exclusive use of dry foods slows growth in my experience. I also found it produced more food waste that required more tank maintenance.

 

[Memeboi]

True, but exclusive use of dry foods slows growth in my experience. I also found it produced more food waste that required more tank maintenance.

Honestly personally I hate dry foods, really just using as a talking point, From experience when I buy dry food It almost always is either.

• To big for my fish to eat, (My Hikari Cichlid Pellets are literally the size of the females head (useless)
• Not liked by my fish (again with my borellii, even crushed up they spit it out)
• Sinks too fast.

I am really much more mentally concerned (probably wrong word for that but whatever) with dithers for the apistos In the breeding tank, again from what I said earler, I love danio's but they are basically the optimal fry preadator, and most tetra's that are fry safe need soft, low ph water.

 

[Aquaticloch]

You don't need dithers if they have enough space, hides and sight-blocks. Don't stress over something you don't need, if you want dithers go ahead but you will have to go through a long acclimation process before you find something that can live in such a high pH (and I assume TDS.)

 

[Memeboi]

You don't need dithers if they have enough space, hides and sight-blocks. Don't stress over something you don't need, if you want dithers go ahead but you will have to go through a long acclimation process before you find something that can live in such a high pH (and I assume TDS.)

Well Ok, I think I probably won't use dither fish after all then, I have a good amount of rocks in the tank, and a MASSIVE peice of driftwood, + I can separate them in the 10g