How to fatten up A. eremnopyge ??

[FWC]

I aquired a trio of A. eremnopyge almost a year ago now ,and got 2 males and 1 female. Sadly over the summer they did not care the best care in the world while I was away on vacation ,and all three were in pretty rough shape. The female was slimbut still in good health ,the smaller male about the same ,however the larger male got hit hard. His spine started to curve ,he formed a raised patch of scales ,and his stomach was always dented in. A few months after my return he passed away. It was quite sad as he seemed to be starting the pair the the female ,as well.

So now I have my one pair ,and chances are they are the last ones I will find in a long while. When I bought them was the first and last time I have seen them for sale in canada. So I would ideally like to spawn them.

The female is doing awesome ,she's put back on her weight ,and she maintains being queen of the tank.

Sadly my little male is doing not as well as I was hoping for. He's still to skinny for my likings ,and he doesn't seem to have grown to horribly much in the last year (he has grown ,but the female is still larger then him) He's also quite shy ,and the female is quite agressive towards him.

Anyways ,back to the point ,how can I got abouts getting the little guy fattened up and growing well ?? He feeds well on frozen stuff ,won't take prepared food ,and I would like to avoid live food ,if possible.

Here are several pictures of him to give you an idea ,and a few of the female (Also I've always had a feeling that she might not be an eremnopyge ,so could anyone confirm he species as well ??)

Her being agressive

 

[regani]

live foods would probably be the easiest way, some live foods can be purchased in small quantities from some shops while others are not that difficult to keep.
one possible reason why the fish doesn't get enough food could be that once it sinks to the bottom the fish can't reach it anymore. the substrate is fairly coarse, so the food will vanish into the gaps between the gravel (not so good for water quality either) and the individual pebbles may be too large to be moved about easily by the fish. if you switch to a sandy substrate the fish will still be able to get all the food sinking to the bottom by sifting through the sand. this may also make it possible to switch to prepared foods (flakes).

 

[Ruki]

You have a nice female of A. cacatuoides.

 

[merlin]

Hi.

The male certainly lacks a bit of colour. I have 3 pairs which are all spawning but the only one raising fry is in a community tank and the fry dont get a chance.
I feed mainly frozen foods ie. Daphnia, Artemis, mysis. Occaisionally Bloodworm. On occasion live daphnia or brine shrimp. The males are all good looking, the females are smaller.

Derek

 

[merlin]

A pic of one of my males from a few months ago. Looking at your fish they dont look right for eremnopyge. Itbis missing tge dark spot by the caudal fin

Derek

 

[bseitz234]

I'm not yet experienced enough to tell you what they are (although cacatuoides does look right for the female), but I'm pretty sure they aren't a pair. The male has a broken lateral band and a distinct, round spot on the caudal peduncle, while the female has a continuous lateral band that extends unbroken to the caudal fin (consistent with both of my cacatuoides females). This is enough to tell me you have two different fish.

 

[merlin]

Ruki
What gives you an impression of cacatuoides. I am not saying its not just want to ask why its a cac.

Derek

 

[FWC]

Thanks everyone !! I'm pretty bummed to find find out my female is a different species ,but I always suspected that. I guess I'll have to get her a boyfriend now

Also I'm quite positive that my is is indeed a true eremnopyge ,in the pictures he is showing a stress coloration ,when he "fires up" his color he gets the distinctive black tail markings.

I'mthinking that prehaps I should remove him from his current tank (community tank) and into a smaller tank by himself ,possibly with a few small surface dwelling fish ,and make sure that he's getting all the food he needs without being scared of the other fish or worrying about the female going after him.

 

[merlin]

Thats good about the male the blue line above the latteral looked good but I could not remember mine without the blotch. Hope you find a female.

Derek

 

[bseitz234]

I'm thinking that prehaps I should remove him from his current tank (community tank) and into a smaller tank by himself ,possibly with a few small surface dwelling fish ,and make sure that he's getting all the food he needs without being scared of the other fish or worrying about the female going after him.

Sounds like a good plan to me- pencilfish or hatchetfish usually stay pretty close to the surface, and in my experience won't chase sinking foods down the tank if you drop him a pellet or anything live and sinking...

 

[Ruki]

Ruki
What gives you an impression of cacatuoides. I am not saying its not just want to ask why its a cac.

Derek

Because that "female" -> http://i554.photobucket.com/albums/jj404/Fishy-Boy/Fish/DSCF5555_zps6ac427bf.jpg
simply looks like cac?:>It's not a A. allpahuayo(former Black-Chin) because caudal spot isn't separated from lateral band.

Female of A. eremnopyge looks like that:

 

[FWC]

Herm ,do you guys think my eremnopyge could perhaps be a female then ?? He's stayedquite small ,and now seeing the picture of the female...

His colors quite male like though.

 

[bseitz234]

He definitely has no black on his pelvic fins- I'd say he's a male, just a small, as-yet-undeveloped one.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

live foods would probably be the easiest way, some live foods can be purchased in small quantities from some shops while others are not that difficult to keep. one possible reason why the fish doesn't get enough food could be that once it sinks to the bottom the fish can't reach it anymore. the substrate is fairly coarse, so the food will vanish into the gaps between the gravel (not so good for water quality either) and the individual pebbles may be too large to be moved about easily by the fish. if you switch to a sandy substrate the fish will still be able to get all the food sinking to the bottom by sifting through the sand.

&

I feed mainly frozen foods ie. Daphnia, Artemis, mysis. Occaisionally Bloodworm. On occasion live daphnia or brine shrimp.

I agree with Regani and Merlin, until you get them in a more suitable tank with better food it is going to be difficult to say what the female is (I'm not sure what she is), but Ruki is pretty knowledgeable so I'd go with his ID. PM me if you are the UK, I can send a Grindal Worm culture to get you going.

Have a look a these pages, Bob is a member and they offer very good advice: <http://www.dwarfcichlid.com/index.php>. The ones on care are particularly useful <http://www.dwarfcichlid.com/Aquarium_care.php>.

cheers Darrel

 

[gerald]

If you'd rather not use live foods it's better to stick with easy captive-bred strains of cacatuoides, agassizi, macmasteri, "steel blue", panduro, etc. Many other Apisto species can be tricky to keep in good health without live foods, especially newly imported ones that may have been starved and stressed for a few weeks before you get them. Consider hatching Artemia eggs - an excellent easy live food for recovering stressed/skinny fish, and you don't need to maintain a culture. IMO mosquito larvae are the absolute best "recovery" food. In North Carolina I can net them from my rain barrels from about April to Oct.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

In North Carolina I can net them from my rain barrels from about April to Oct.

Same for me in the S. UK. I got probably my last harvest for 2012 this morning as we are due the first air frost of the autumn tonight. If you live in an area which doesn't have a prolonged freeze in the winter you can often harvest blood-worms (Chironomid midge larvae) through-out the winter. Method here: <http://www.apistogramma.com/forum/index.php?threads/starting-blood-worm-colony.10588/#post-57265>
and the catch:

cheers Darrel