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Frustrated by none of my apistos breeding.

Jhays79

New Member
Messages
11
I have MacMasteri, Agasizzi, and Hongsloi in three tanks. All tank paremeters are the same. I use R.O. water and my ph is between 5-6, with very little hardness. My agassizii spawned a bunch of times and ate the eggs until they figured it out. I let raise a batch of about 15 fry to 3 weeks old and either the male or the female ate them. I managed to save one but that's it. They haven't spawned since and it's been over a month. The Macmasteri haven't spawned nor the Honglsoi. My tanks are 15 and 20gs with tons of leaf litter, caves, and potted plants. I also grow pothos out of them and the nitrates never build up. The tanks are all at about 80 degrees. I've been feeding all of them tons of live blackworms, white worms. hatched baby brine shrimp, frozen brine shrimp, and Extreme cichlid pellets. They all have great colors and are totally healthy. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I tried doing a few cold water changes to trigger some to spawn but that didn't work either. Between losing that 3 week old batch of fry and only saving one from getting eaten, to having no action in any of the other tanks I'm just at that point I want to pull my hair out. Anything I'm missing or doing wrong?
 

MacZ

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,591
Location
Germany
2 things to consider:
- How old are the fish? If you don't know, how long have you had them and were they adults when you got them?

- Are we talking domestic breeds or wild type? If domestic the genetic degenerative traits may have rendered them unable to produce offspring at an earlier age than in wild type fish.

If you are not sure about either, post pictures.

Additionally: How much are you working on and around the tanks, it is absolutely possible they don't feel safe due to too much ruckus around the tank.
 

Jhays79

New Member
Messages
11
2 things to consider:
- How old are the fish? If you don't know, how long have you had them and were they adults when you got them?

- Are we talking domestic breeds or wild type? If domestic the genetic degenerative traits may have rendered them unable to produce offspring at an earlier age than in wild type fish.

If you are not sure about either, post pictures.

Additionally: How much are you working on and around the tanks, it is absolutely possible they don't feel safe due to too much ruckus around the tank.
Most of them were juveniles when I got them, domestically bred. The MacMasteri i've had for a couple months. When I got them they were smaller and weren't very colored up. Now they're all colored up and have put on a lot more size. The male has been displaying more lately but no spawns yet. The Hongsloi are a little older. My Agassizii are my oldest. They spawned four or five times in the past and ate the eggs, then they spawned and raised the fry until they ate them 3 weeks later. They haven't spawned since.
All of my fish are in my little fishroom in the side of my basement, so for the majorty of the day there's nobody around while I'm at work. I don't think they're skitish or easily spooked. They generally come up to the glass and want to be fed everytime I see them.
 

anewbie

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,883
My experience is that it can take from being 1 inch and as soon as they touch the water (a. wolli); to over a year (if purchased as 1 inch) as was the case for one of my domestic female hongsloi - which i thought was a male as did most people.
-
I currently have 2 species for around 6 months that appear to be nearly or completely full grown that have not bred or attempted to breed as far as i can tell. For one species i had (a. winkelfleck) the female was not successful and rarely tried to breed so i picked up another female and she has bred twice in 2 months.

I am frustrated by 2 groups i have - for those who have seen my posts - but there doesn't seem to be a fixed pattern. However i've become very negative of domestics and will no longer buy them. When hobby bred f1 and wc fishes would last for years and domestic kept dying on me i decided the problem was with the fish and not the care - though i'm probably not a great person at caring for my fish. I do religiously do 50% water changes every week - for better or worse.
 

Jhays79

New Member
Messages
11
thanks for the advice. I’m just going to keep on trying. I have a good amount of live food cultures to continue feeding them so I’ll keep doing that and hope I can get some e results eventually.
 

anewbie

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,883
I don't know - i picked up a pair of 3/4 inch wild caught nijjensi 3 weeks ago and yesterday it appears they bred. I only been feeding them bug bites and once in 3 weeks some frozen foods. I only knew they bred because i did a health check on the female when i didn't see her after all i thought they were a bit too young to be breeding as they will get significantly larger over time.
 

apisto_newb

New Member
Messages
4
My experience is that it can take from being 1 inch and as soon as they touch the water (a. wolli); to over a year (if purchased as 1 inch) as was the case for one of my domestic female hongsloi - which i thought was a male as did most people.
-
I currently have 2 species for around 6 months that appear to be nearly or completely full grown that have not bred or attempted to breed as far as i can tell. For one species i had (a. winkelfleck) the female was not successful and rarely tried to breed so i picked up another female and she has bred twice in 2 months.

I am frustrated by 2 groups i have - for those who have seen my posts - but there doesn't seem to be a fixed pattern. However i've become very negative of domestics and will no longer buy them. When hobby bred f1 and wc fishes would last for years and domestic kept dying on me i decided the problem was with the fish and not the care - though i'm probably not a great person at caring for my fish. I do religiously do 50% water changes every week - for better or worse.
I think there may be something to that. The only apistogramma I have experience with are Borelli Opal. So far, I haven't had any live long lives. I started with juveniles, so no sure of the full age, but I've had lots of fry born in my tanks. I just lost one yesterday that was probably 10 months old, but it was also in a tank that has had issues with unknown diseases that no treatments seemed to work for. He was great until a week or so ago. I've had some others that looked great always all over the tank and eating well just start hiding out in the plants and then I find them dead a week later.

As for the original post questions, I still currently have two males and two females that I've raised from fry since last winter. They were born in a 29 gallon heavily planted community tank they shared with black neons, neons, and pencilfish. I had lots of breeding in that tank. <6 pH, very soft water. I sucked them out after they were free swimming for a couple of weeks and started them in a 1 gallon breeder box. I moved them to a 1.5 gallon tank where they stayed for way too long due to me having no where to put them. They bred once in that tiny tank when I thought they were way too young to breed and they ate the eggs. I was able to get the dominant male out and into a 5 gallon tank where he thrived with CPDs as tankmates. I now have two 20 gallon tanks I recently built. I put the dominant male in with the two females into the tank I built with lots of vegetation and wood. I put the lesser male into the other 20 gallon with the CPDs. It's been a couple of weeks and the males is definitely interested in the ladies. One of them turned bright yellow the other day and I don't see her much, so I assume there are some eggs somewhere.

Anyway, if I were you, I'd try adding some dither fish like pencil fish. There is a possibility that your apistos feel too secure. They are safe and don't have the survival instinct to reproduce. They are too comfortable. Maybe some other fish in there will get them moving.
 

apisto_fan4evr

New Member
Messages
17
Location
San Jose, CA
I've ran into similar issues. I moved each pairs to different tanks and after 1-2 weeks, most of the pairs began breeding again. To avoid the fries from being eaten (in my case by the male), I separated the male as soon as I see the fries hatch. Separating the male helps the female from being stressed out by the male. Hope this helps.
 

anewbie

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,883
I've ran into similar issues. I moved each pairs to different tanks and after 1-2 weeks, most of the pairs began breeding again. To avoid the fries from being eaten (in my case by the male), I separated the male as soon as I see the fries hatch. Separating the male helps the female from being stressed out by the male. Hope this helps.
I think this is species or perhaps individual specific as i don't seem to have a problem with the male eating frys with either my a. winkelfleck or a. Blutkehl; in fact i kind of which the blutkehl would eat a few given the very large number in the aquarium.
 

apisto_fan4evr

New Member
Messages
17
Location
San Jose, CA
I think this is species or perhaps individual specific as i don't seem to have a problem with the male eating frys with either my a. winkelfleck or a. Blutkehl; in fact i kind of which the blutkehl would eat a few given the very large number in the aquarium.
I think you are correct. I don't have a problem with my cacatuoides, sunrise, agassizii, but do have problems with Macmasteri, Opal, and Hongsloi.
 

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