How to go about trying to breed my dwarf pike cichlids

[Mazan]

I have a pair, well a male and a female anyway, in my large cichlid tank, they are I think Wallaciia cf nothopthalmus sp Orinoco. I have had them well over a year now, I did have another female but unfortunately she died not long ago. I was speaking to someone else who also bought some at the same time as I did, and his have all died too, all with the same symptoms, bloating, loss of colour, hiding and not coming out to feed. Anyway we were discussing the possibility of getting mine to breed as these are unlikely to be available again, they just came as a one off shipment from Colombia, anyway it would be very interesting. But apart from some displaying with the female getting a pink belly soon after I got them, they have shown no interest in breeding and pretty much ignore each other. Once I have sold some baby Guianacaras (next week) and moved a few more fish I can put the pair in a planted 240l tank, but wondering what I can do to encourage them to breed. I have a few thoughts:

1. Reduce the pH - currently 6.6- 6.8, but as my water is already very soft (KH 0-1, GH 1-2, TDS below 20 from the tap), I don’t really want to be messing with RO. Once I tried using peat in the filter, and I usually use leaf litter and driftwood, but the pH never changed, perhaps as I was using tap water from water changes? Any advice how to lower it?

2. Should I increase the temperature? Currently they are kept at 26-27C (though lately we have been having power rationing so the tanks have been getting a bit cooler)

3. Should I keep them on their own or with a few suitable dither fish?

4. Snails - there a quite a lot of small ones in the tank I will put them in, the pikes will eat them but it may not be a good idea for them to gorge themselves on too many snails straight away - should I try to remove most of the snails first?

On that subject I am not sure if they are currently too fat as they are quite greedy and it’s difficult to control what they eat in the big tank.

5. Any other ideas?

 

[Darren K]

I know this is a bit late but I hope it may be of some help.

I would try to recreate their habitat as best as you can. Lots of leaf litter and lots of twigs and wood. Oliver Lucanus from Below Water on youtube has a great video with the Orinoco Dwarfs in the wild from a few years back. You could try looking at photos and breeding reports of apistos and other fish from the orinoco on here to get an idea of potential spawning triggers or changes.

As for tank mates/dithers, make sure that they are bigger and taller fish. I have had good luck with lemons tetras and bleeding hearts, but be warned that I one of my females killed a nearly full sized H. bentosi by grabbing and crushing its head. Any narrow/elongated fish will be slurped up like a noodle. As they are cave spawners I wouldn't keep them with anything that will disturb them or the eggs when breeding such as other dwarf cichlids or catfish.

In my time them and other related dwarfs I found they respond best to lots of live food in the form of brine shrimp, moina, and fairy shrimp as well as meaty frozen foods like mysis. There are also reports of them being fry predators and mine always relish my fry culls and excess convict fry. I wouldn't worry too much about the snails if they are already well fed.

Good Luck!