• Hello guest! Are you an Apistogramma enthusiast? If so we invite you to join our community and see what it has to offer. Our site is specifically designed for you and it's a great place for Apisto enthusiasts to meet online. Once you join you'll be able to post messages, upload pictures of your fish and tanks and have a great time with other Apisto enthusiasts. Sign up today!

Breeding Ivancara Adoketa

tolstoy21

New Member
Messages
8
Question for all of you how have had successful spawns of I. Adoketa.

I've had an F2 pair for maybe a year and a half. In that time, they have spawned numerous times--I can fairly reliably trigger them at this point--but, I never get any viable fry.

When I check the eggs in the tank that the female is guarding, many of them seem infertile and turn white, with only a few remaining pink. Within a day or two, they are slowly consumed by the female. I don't believe she consumes the eggs until they are visibly white, so I don't think she an uncaring egg gobbler.

Twice I have tried removing the eggs and hatching them in a breeder box, and then in an egg tumbler with a gentle flow rate. Both of these attempts have resulted in a maybe 3 or 4 wrigglers, but none of these survive past a few days. I have only once successfully raised a single fry, but it ultimately displayed swim bladder issues. I still have that fish, but it's small and definitely and a bottom hugger. But as my first and only success, they are near and dear to my heart.

Tank setup:
  • 20g high
  • No substrate
  • Decorated with rock and driftwood
  • Water is RO
  • Ph is dropped and held between 4.5 & 5 through the use of Fluval peat pellets in a box filter, black water extract and sometimes oak leaf litter (this gets messy so I stoped using it in favor of extract)
  • TDS is negligible. Kh and Gh likewise negligible
  • Water temp is 77-79F
  • Overall tank flow is mild
Any advice? Could it simply be that my male is infertile or terrible at fertilizing eggs? Or are my water parameters an issue? I hear some folks obtain success by running a UV sterilizer. Does anyone have any experience with using one in this scenario?

Anyway, thank in advance for any advice or experience anyone can share. It is greatly appreciated.

-- Nicholas
 

MacZ

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,958
Location
Germany
TDS is negligible. Kh and Gh likewise negligible
Care to give numbers?

Also: What do you feed?

Temp could maybe be higher up to 28°C.

It is possible sand and leaf litter might do the trick.

I hear some folks obtain success by running a UV sterilizer.
You have very low pH and (I have no numbers, but suspect so) low EC/TDS. That has the same effect as a UV (keeping pathogens and bacteria counts low), I doubt you can really push anything adding one.
 

Apistoguy52

Active Member
Messages
275
Question for all of you how have had successful spawns of I. Adoketa.

I've had an F2 pair for maybe a year and a half. In that time, they have spawned numerous times--I can fairly reliably trigger them at this point--but, I never get any viable fry.

When I check the eggs in the tank that the female is guarding, many of them seem infertile and turn white, with only a few remaining pink. Within a day or two, they are slowly consumed by the female. I don't believe she consumes the eggs until they are visibly white, so I don't think she an uncaring egg gobbler.

Twice I have tried removing the eggs and hatching them in a breeder box, and then in an egg tumbler with a gentle flow rate. Both of these attempts have resulted in a maybe 3 or 4 wrigglers, but none of these survive past a few days. I have only once successfully raised a single fry, but it ultimately displayed swim bladder issues. I still have that fish, but it's small and definitely and a bottom hugger. But as my first and only success, they are near and dear to my heart.

Tank setup:
  • 20g high
  • No substrate
  • Decorated with rock and driftwood
  • Water is RO
  • Ph is dropped and held between 4.5 & 5 through the use of Fluval peat pellets in a box filter, black water extract and sometimes oak leaf litter (this gets messy so I stoped using it in favor of extract)
  • TDS is negligible. Kh and Gh likewise negligible
  • Water temp is 77-79F
  • Overall tank flow is mild
Any advice? Could it simply be that my male is infertile or terrible at fertilizing eggs? Or are my water parameters an issue? I hear some folks obtain success by running a UV sterilizer. Does anyone have any experience with using one in this scenario?

Anyway, thank in advance for any advice or experience anyone can share. It is greatly appreciated.

-- Nicholas
By the numbers, pH and EC are right where you want them. Temp seems a bit high to me, tank seems quite small. I’ve been doing all my spawning in 30 longs (36x12 footprint), and 40 breeders (35x18), ph 4.5-5.5, 60-100 us/cm, 23.5-24.5*c.
 

tolstoy21

New Member
Messages
8
By the numbers, pH and EC are right where you want them. Temp seems a bit high to me, tank seems quite small. I’ve been doing all my spawning in 30 longs (36x12 footprint), and 40 breeders (35x18), ph 4.5-5.5, 60-100 us/cm, 23.5-24.5*c.

Thanks for the reply.

I was actually thinking about moving them to a 40 breeder (the 20g seems a tad small for them at this point) and introducing sand substrate.

Like I said, I have no problem getting them to spawn, I just have problems getting the eggs to hatch, and those few eggs I can get to hatch, the fry don't survive very long.

It's a tad hard to lower the tank temp as 76-78 is what I keep the fishroom at.
 

anewbie

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,366
For blackwater species as a general rule if the eggs are laid but don't hatch you need lower tds; however it could also be at a young age the male hasn't learned out to fertilize them.
 

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
17,916
Messages
116,204
Members
13,028
Latest member
JaconieMalonie

Latest profile posts

Josh wrote on anewbie's profile.
Testing
EDO
Longtime fish enthusiast for over 70years......keen on Apistos now. How do I post videos?
Looking for some help with fighting electric blue rams :(
Partial updated Peruvian list have more than this. Please PM FOR ANY QUESTIONS so hard to post with all the ads poping up every 2 seconds….
Top