Breeding Orange Flash Cac. and others

[creighton]

I looked but couldn't find what I was looking for.I have a 20 gallon with 3 pair of Or. Flash and lots of driftwood. The water is pretty hard and the pH is around 7-8. Do I need to get some RO water to lower the hardness, or can I boil some peat moss and add the "extract" to lower the pH? I have places to move some pairs if it's too crowded.
I also have pairs of trifiastia,panduro, and piexto that I would like to spawn. Is there a databank of breeder info somewhere?

Sorry if this has been asked before.
thanks,
Creighton

 

[Mike Wise]

Welcome to the forum. Personally 3 males in a 20 High is too many. I would remove 2 males and 1 of the females. You don't mention your water hardness, but based on the pH I would suggest checking it. It might be too hard for successful breeding. Adding peat extract might help to lower the pH, but it really depends on your carbonate hardness (dKH).

Check "Species Profiles" (upper left corner of the forum page) on how to breed the different species. When you get really into dwarf cichlids, I recommend you buy Römer's "Cichlid Atlas 1" when it is reissued.

 

[creighton]

What is a good way to lower the dKH without RO/DI? My water dKH is around 8 german degrees. I was under the impression that peat moss lowered the KH and GH of the water. Is that true?

thanks,
Creighton

 

[creighton]

I looked on amazon.com for cichlid atlas 1 and it was $180!!! Where can I get this book for the best price? Could I just get cichlid atlas 2?

thanks,
Creighton

 

[Mike Wise]

You should be able to breed A. cacatuoides at 8º dKH, but they will be more productive < 5º dKH. You could run some sphagnum peat in a power filter. I should drop you pH and hardness a bit - probably enough to get good result from your apistos.

Cichlid Atlas 1 will probably sell for about $75.00 when it is re-issued next year. Until then, it is rather rare in the English version. Even $75.00 might sound expensive, but the book is over 1300 pages long. I would suggest waiting for the new edition of CA1. As for CA2, it will not be nearly as useful as the first volume. Much of the front part of the book is more scientific than hobby - and in my opinion more confusing than helpful. It definitely is not a good fit with a beginning dwarf cichlid person.

If you can find a good used copy of Linke & Staeck's book "American Cichlids I: Dwarf Cichlids" or Mayland & Bork's book "South American Dwarf Cichlids", they will be useful, too.

 

[creighton]

Last night I boiled approx 500g of sphagnum peat in 2 liters of water. I added 700ml of the extract over a period of 12hrs. I'm running a sponge filter + a small power head for circulation on my 20 gal so I don't really have a filter to put it in. Is boiling peat and using the water a good way to do it?

thanks Mike for the advice

Creighton

 

[Mike Wise]

It should work. Now you need to monitor the pH values over then next few days. If it rises, then you will need to lower the dKH before it will become stable.

 

[chris1932]

What is your water source? City, Well? How much water do you need to produce on an average day to fulfill the needs of your aquariums?

Chris

 

[creighton]

I'm breeding fish in a 20gal and 30 gal. I haven't taken pH and KH readings yet since I added the boiled peat water. I'll do that tonight. I'm not really sure how much I exactly need, but I used about a gallon of it.

 

[creighton]

I just tested my water.

Out of tap: 6 dKH
20 Gal: 6 dKH
30 Gal: 6 dKH

Hmmmmm....... I don't think it worked to well at reducing the KH value.
What else can I do to lower the KH. What about just leaving a bag of peat moss in the tank? I have a RO/DI unit but the stupid thing is broken. I live at home and I don't even think I could convince my parents to let me put it back into use. I guess I could make more "peat tea" but is their an easier solution. I'm going to add some leaf liter that will hopefully soften the water a little.

One more thing, does GH matter? Or is KH the main thing to worry about?

thanks for your advice,
Creighton

 

[chris1932]

You can use ion exchange resins to lower both values. In low quantities of production small Kent refillable cartridges are all you should need. Like this:

http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/197912/product.web

If you need resins let me know. I can get you enough to fill a canister or two.
PM me if you are interested.