D. filamentosus advise?

[Fatts]

OK, time to ask for some advice. I have a pair of wild-caught checkerboards that just don't want to show any signs of breeding activity. The only thing that is going on is the male showing the female how tough he is. I have had them for about 5 months now.

Romer says that they are never found in blackwater, then he uses about 5 paragraphs to talk about them migrating with A eliza (which is a blackwater fish) so anyone with experience with these guys what were your water parameters?

I am feeding them frozen glassworms, frozen bloodworms, BBS, cyclops, golden pearls and frozen enriched brine shrimp. Temp is about 80F, PH of 5.8, EC of about 80-100. 60% water changes every other day, with exactly the same water.

Anyone have any recommendations? These guys are stubborn!!!!

 

[a.d.wood]

Hi Scott,

My wild checkerboards were breeding in:

pair were housed in 18"x18"x15" (LxBxH), play filter sand substrate, bog wood and potted (terracotta clay pots) amazon swords.
pH ~5.5
GH 1 degree
KH not detectable
Temp 26 degrees C

Water was 100% RO that had been filtered through peat for at least 24 hours prior to use. Water changes were approximately 20% once per week.

The female laid the eggs on the upper side of one of the amazon sword leaves and moved the eggs (and the wigglers) between a couple of leaves before they were free swimming.

Andrew

 

[Fatts]

Andrew,
Did the females show the red ventrals like Mayland and Bork say? The reason that I am asking is, I have not seen anything like that in my pair.

So your EC is definatly much lower? Maybe I will try to bring it down closer to 50. I will try to lower my PH more too.

I just don't get it. I find the most of the cichlids marked as "easy to breed" (a. caca, A. trif, a. agazissi) give me fits, and the "hard" (b. opercularius, t. candidi, a. elizabethae) ones take me a week or two.... my assumption was, hard to breed = 3 weeks and I should have eggs. Guess these will be the "rule breaker".

Thanks,
Scott