How do you set up your breeding tanks?

[Hanzo]

Hi!

after a fem MONTHS without any success what so ever breeding apisto's, I think it time that I really digg into this and gave it one last chance.

How should I set uo my tanks? Dark og light substrat, gravel or sand? Should I use as many plants as possible, og just a few to provide hidding places? Rock or driftwood?

Also, Should I trow in a bunch of dryed leaves? I think I found a picture of a apisto borellii in a natural hapitat, and the bottom was just a bunch of leaves. Is this anything I should try to copy? I have tons of almonds leavs left over from bredding betta's anyways, so no problem in getting good leaves atleast.

The fish i have is Trifasiata, borelli, agazzi, Cacatuoides & Gephyra.

 

[Tea]

breeding?

Hello there Hanzo, what are your water parameters and what size are your fish? Most apistos like soft and acidic water, my trifaciatas like to spawn in water with a Ph of 5.5 to 6.5. Sometimes it will take apisto's a couple of times to get things right. I have had fish that have spawned when they are very young and others that spwaned a dozen or so times before I see any fry.
I use 15 and 20 longs as breeder tanks and use sand as a substrate, just a thin layer for the fish to dig some pitts if they please. I try not to put to many plants becuase it makes it harder to clean up the uneaten food. As for hiding places I like clay pots turned upside down, I aslo put a small clump of java moss in so that if the fish get frighten the can hide in it. I use a sponge filter so that if there is babies then they won't get sucked up. I hope this helps but if not try doing a search on breeding apistos in the forum . good luck

 

[aspen]

hanzo, what exactly are your problems. are they spawning at all? are you having trouble keeping the eggs properly?

rick

 

[Hanzo]

Hi! Thanks for your replys!

When I first aquired my apisto's, I had them in my 120G plantet tank, and they would spawn, but something always happend to the eggs before they had the time to hatch. So I bought myself a ton of tanks, and got myself a fish room to play around with. But after I moved the apisto's down to this new setup, mostly 30G tanks, no luck at all. No eggs, no nothing

In my plantet tanks I'm running Co2, so the PH is around 6,7. In this tank I'm using just tap water, and that runs at about 7,2, Gh&Kh around 1.

I have used dark gravel, and light sand. Plants & coconuts. I feed them frozen food like Brine shrimp, black and red mosquitos and the occasionale flake food.

Should I try lowering the pH, and if so, how? I don't think I can get R/O water at the super marked here in norway.

 

[LyreTail]

My Apistogramma sp "Papagei" are just in a normal 2 foot long 20 gallon tank ( 74 liter)

Tank is planted with lower light and has lots of caves. Very small diameter gravel ( 2 mm)

GH is under 20 mg/l
KH is under 10 mg/l
pH was 7.0 - I have since lowered pH to 6.5 because I read fry survival rate will be better at lower ranges.
Temp 82 deg F

I was actually suprised they spawned and have 50+ fry as these were wild caught fish from Peru. The parents have doubled in size since getting them last May. I have not removed the male since he does not look too frazzeled and there are lots of caves to hide around, but I may remove him this week to see if he will spawn with my second female

 

[Zapisto]

my setup now is
- bare bottom tanks (easy to clean , easy to anything )
- sponge filter
- lot of cave or hiding space
- water change heheh
- and very high food diversity.
- temp

woila.