First try with apistos

[CKfish]

Hi all,

I've kept rams before, but I just acquired my first apistos. I now have 6 juvenile cacatuoides that are 2 months old and vary between 1/3" and 3/4" long. Some are already showing a little color.

They are in an established 10 gallon tank with lots of java moss, which they immediately started picking infusoria out of. The previous inhabitants have been moved to other quarters. I would love to raise them successfully to adulthood and try to get a breeding pair out of the group. After growing them out the adults will eventually move to a 150 gallon planted tank.

How should I feed them when they are this size? I have Sera fry food, live black worms and white worms, frozen bloodworms and mysis shrimp, a variety of flake foods from Omega and Hikari micropellets in the house. If I need to get other live foods or mix up grated egg I could do that as well.

Also, my water is moderately hard with very little KH. pH tends to run around neutral. I might try to use some peat to soften it. My understanding is that peat will affect pH and KH more than GH, so is this step really necessary? If I add peat, do I need to prep it in any way, or can I just put it into the filter in a mesh bag?

Thanks for your thoughts!

CKfish

 

[Apisto ranch]

Frist Hi and welcome to the site hope to see your littles soon, Secound I'm not a pro at Apisto's by no means. But there pretty easy to keep . They will ajust to just about any water primes. I know my water is super hard. I have ome of the hardest water in the U.S. and they've ajusted just fine to it and have even breed in it. MY primes are
PH/ 7.5 to 8.0 depending on the time of month.
GH/ 300ppm
KH/ 250ppm also depending on the time of month
Nitrates/ -0-
Nitrites-0-
They add a lot of chlorine at the frist of the month at my water treatment center. I've gone and got a read out of the water test for my area and it shws a lot of stuff on it you'd need a PH in cimastre to under stand. But any way your's will do just and breed in your water. If your really worried about it you coud always add some distiled water from like wal-mart.
That wil lower your GH and KH enought to soften it up some. In my breeding tanks I add 75% distilled water. That works great. Good luck with your new guys and gals. One thing do you know how to sex them when they get older?

 

[nightowl1350]

I have some 2 mothn olds growing up and they eat a variety of things. I give them decap brine shrimp eggs still (I decap my own) crushed flakes (home made mixture of high protein growth, brine shrimp and tropical flakes) as well as NLS and HBH sinking pellets. At this age they seem to go for almost anything Good luck with them.

 

[fishgeek]

cacatoides will be happy in moderately harder water's, they are less demanding of soft water

if your kH is low as you suggest then the pH will change easily, be cautious if using peat that you do not push the pH to extreme's quickly
for these fish peat filtration is not needed


as for feeding i think you have listed more than enough suitable options, try them and see what they like
if they are fussy live foods usually work best

andrew

 

[CKfish]

Great, thanks guys! I'll posted again as they grow.

Cheers,

CKfish