- Messages
- 181
- Location
- Germany, Kassel
I have 2 spawning pairs of Apistogramma atahualpa and Apistogramma mendezi. Both spawned at least 4 times, maybe even 5-7 times in the last 3-4 months. Neither hatched fry from these spawns or if they did (which is unlikely), the fry never survived to the free swimming stage.
I found a single white (didn’t seem fungus infested, seemed just white pigmented) egg remaining in A. atahualpa’s cave, twice. In both cases the egg was approx. 2-3 days old.
I never checked A. mendezi cave before the 5 day mark after the female’s belly shrinks in and she starts to stay in the cave, so I have never seen any eggs.
Until the last mendezi eggs, I thought these were caused by females being “unexperienced” or water parameters being bad or other tank mates disturbing the female (atahualpa pair only had 2 N. marginatus in a 60x30x30cm tank with so many plants and blackwater that I can’t see 2/3rd of the aquarium, marginatus are mostly non-existant to my eyes except feeding time).
But with the last mendezi eggs: this was her 4th/5th or maybe even 6th spawn. I removed all the N. marginatus and 2-3,5 cm long T. candidis, giving her all the peace she could have and the water parameters were all fine. TDS was lower than/equel to the RO water I use (I measured RO 6 ppm, mendezi water 5 ppm, maybe calibration is off but it IS lower/equal to RO), temp. 25-26° Celcius, pH 5.0-5.5, nitrates, ammonia, ammonium, nitrites, chlorines all 0 ppm. Everything should have been perfect, but no fry came out and she left the cave after 3/4 day mark. Right now, at the 4/5th day mark, she still shows brood coloration sometimes, but she mostly turned back to darker regular coloration.
Now, you might say that maybe I cannot measure some parameter correctly and it kills the eggs, or maybe even 1 other fish is enough to stress the female out or something else. But there is more:
T. candidis that were in the mendezi aquarium: After I put them in a many months but fishwise emptied 100 liter aquarium (so it is an established aquarium), with a fresh 80% RO water change, a female spawned the second day because of the peaceful aquarium and/or new water (on the suckion cup of the turned off heater, kinda hidden but I could see all the eggs clearly and close up from an angle). There were approx. 40 eggs, all white straight out of her. After approx. 12 hours, there was approx. 20 eggs left. At the approx. 30 hour mark, the number of eggs dwindled to 5, without any embryo developement I could detect or any fungus on the eggs. At the approx. 40 hours mark, today, there were no eggs left.
I do get fry from Copella arnoldi and Betta rubra with nearly 100% hatch rate. Nearly ever water parameter is the same in all aquariums, except TDS/conductivity, which is usually 15-40 ppm TDS as my device measures (depending on my water change frequency and amount on different aquariums). So the water in my aquariums are not likely poisoned by some other chemical.
My point is:
Both the atahualpa and candidi eggs are being eaten by the mother and are colored white, probably because of the dry food diet (ONLY Sera Discus Granulat daily, except some other dry food or frozen food once every other week or month). Mendezi eggs probably are the same.
Can it be that a simplified, dry food based diet, specificly Sera Discus Granulat, is causing infertility or early embryo fatality? I cannot find any other answer for all these unsuccessful spawns from specificly all my Apistogramma and Taeniacara.
I will feed the pairs with only frozen foods and sometimes BBS from now on to see the results.
I had fry with nearly 100% hatch rate (well, I never saw how many eggs were laid but fry count was decent) twice from Apistogramma cf. ortegai “Pebas” before, with only feeding the pair dry foods, but the staple food was Hikari Micro Pellets back then, no Sera Discus Granulat was fed to the A. cf. ortegai pair. So, I don’t think every dry food diet causes infertility or embryo mortality. But I can’t be sure about anything from just a few experiences, of course.
I found a single white (didn’t seem fungus infested, seemed just white pigmented) egg remaining in A. atahualpa’s cave, twice. In both cases the egg was approx. 2-3 days old.
I never checked A. mendezi cave before the 5 day mark after the female’s belly shrinks in and she starts to stay in the cave, so I have never seen any eggs.
Until the last mendezi eggs, I thought these were caused by females being “unexperienced” or water parameters being bad or other tank mates disturbing the female (atahualpa pair only had 2 N. marginatus in a 60x30x30cm tank with so many plants and blackwater that I can’t see 2/3rd of the aquarium, marginatus are mostly non-existant to my eyes except feeding time).
But with the last mendezi eggs: this was her 4th/5th or maybe even 6th spawn. I removed all the N. marginatus and 2-3,5 cm long T. candidis, giving her all the peace she could have and the water parameters were all fine. TDS was lower than/equel to the RO water I use (I measured RO 6 ppm, mendezi water 5 ppm, maybe calibration is off but it IS lower/equal to RO), temp. 25-26° Celcius, pH 5.0-5.5, nitrates, ammonia, ammonium, nitrites, chlorines all 0 ppm. Everything should have been perfect, but no fry came out and she left the cave after 3/4 day mark. Right now, at the 4/5th day mark, she still shows brood coloration sometimes, but she mostly turned back to darker regular coloration.
Now, you might say that maybe I cannot measure some parameter correctly and it kills the eggs, or maybe even 1 other fish is enough to stress the female out or something else. But there is more:
T. candidis that were in the mendezi aquarium: After I put them in a many months but fishwise emptied 100 liter aquarium (so it is an established aquarium), with a fresh 80% RO water change, a female spawned the second day because of the peaceful aquarium and/or new water (on the suckion cup of the turned off heater, kinda hidden but I could see all the eggs clearly and close up from an angle). There were approx. 40 eggs, all white straight out of her. After approx. 12 hours, there was approx. 20 eggs left. At the approx. 30 hour mark, the number of eggs dwindled to 5, without any embryo developement I could detect or any fungus on the eggs. At the approx. 40 hours mark, today, there were no eggs left.
I do get fry from Copella arnoldi and Betta rubra with nearly 100% hatch rate. Nearly ever water parameter is the same in all aquariums, except TDS/conductivity, which is usually 15-40 ppm TDS as my device measures (depending on my water change frequency and amount on different aquariums). So the water in my aquariums are not likely poisoned by some other chemical.
My point is:
Both the atahualpa and candidi eggs are being eaten by the mother and are colored white, probably because of the dry food diet (ONLY Sera Discus Granulat daily, except some other dry food or frozen food once every other week or month). Mendezi eggs probably are the same.
Can it be that a simplified, dry food based diet, specificly Sera Discus Granulat, is causing infertility or early embryo fatality? I cannot find any other answer for all these unsuccessful spawns from specificly all my Apistogramma and Taeniacara.
I will feed the pairs with only frozen foods and sometimes BBS from now on to see the results.
I had fry with nearly 100% hatch rate (well, I never saw how many eggs were laid but fry count was decent) twice from Apistogramma cf. ortegai “Pebas” before, with only feeding the pair dry foods, but the staple food was Hikari Micro Pellets back then, no Sera Discus Granulat was fed to the A. cf. ortegai pair. So, I don’t think every dry food diet causes infertility or embryo mortality. But I can’t be sure about anything from just a few experiences, of course.
I have never heard of mosquito larvae being found in just rain water deposits. I haven‘t even seen any water bins or anything like that to begin with. Do you know where I might find any? I don‘t have a garden, I can‘t buy one and having a “dirty“ water bin in the balcony isn’t going to work either as I live with a flatmate.
