How long should I wait?

[Corie Dora]

For a pair to spawn? I put two conditioned females into a divided tank each on their own side. Tank is bare bottomed, with a little java moss, weighted down vals, free floating loose plants, 2 flowerpot caves (one sideways, one inverted) and a sponge filter on each side.

It is a new setup, but I seeded the sponges with ceramic bio media from another tank, and half the makeup water is from the community where the females were living.

Temp. 76F, dkh 89.5, ph 7.2

I left them in there 3 days by themselves, fed them lots of bbs, then popped the male in with the larger of the two (which he spawned with not 2 weeks ago, in the community tank, all eggs were lost)

He's been in there almost 3 days now, and the female has been in and out of breeding colour. Both females actually seem to be eating much less than they were before and being sort of reclusive. The other female has been bright yellow the whole time though.

My goal is to have 2 spawns as close together as possible, so that I can grow the fry out together.

How long should I wait before I give up on female # 1 and move him in with #2?

And is this slightly reclusive behaviour indicative of requiring dithers?

Another thing I noticed is that although he is displaying, and behaving normally, the male's colour seems a little washed. Is this beacause of the bare-bottom and sparse furnishings in the tank?

Any help at all would be appreciated

 

[Mike Wise]

I hope your dGH is a typographical error. No apisto breeds in such liquid cement!

Apistos take some time to adjust to their surroundings, usually a day or 2, so you might see some activity soon.

I have always found that if both females are filled with eggs, the male (depending on the species) will spawn with both one after the other. If this was my set-up, I would have an open tank with the 2 females together. When they fill with eggs, I would introduce the male (make sure he will have a hiding place away from the females' caves. Once the females looked "broody" (yellow body color, staying in cave most of the time, chasing fish away from the cave), I would remove the male. If you want to keep the females separate, then add a divider between them.

 

[Corie Dora]

Thanks Mike,
Yes, it was a typo lol. 89.5 is the kh ppm. I just peeled the number off my chart, and dkh came from my head, so I guess I'm actually keeping track in ppm. Which means that the dkh is really 5. If the dkh actually was 89.5 I suppose it really would be cement!!!

I do add some tap water back to the ro to avoid ph swings in the community tank; I just followed through with the same process for the breeding setup, as they seemed to like the community water, and its the same water I used with the previous generation, so the females have been in it from day 1.

The reason I separated them is beacause when the first pair spawned in the community, the second female wouldn't leave the nest area alone, was always trying to lure the male away, and was trying to get into the nest. Subsequently, her sister was VERY agressive towards her, as was the male. I'd never actually seen this species be so agressive; perhaps the orginal pair I had (which I draw comparison to)were just really passive individuals.

Anyhow, I was concerned that in a smaller tank, the agression may result in one less female, so I decided to split them up ahead of time. The females are very important to me, as they are of much sounder stock than the male, and I've had their line in my keep for several years now.

Thanks again for all your time