Ivanacara bimaculata eggs

[illumnae]

My last post was not approved by moderators so I guess the link I posted to the wood I intended to get was somehow frowned upon.

Here's a recap:

Being in a tropical country mosquitoes (and dengue fever) are a concern, and my neighbour just behind my fish room doesn't properly maintain his backyard, leading to lots of mosquitoes breeding there. I have to keep the windows shut and hence air conditioning is on 24/7 due to the humidity. The air conditioner is set at 25 degrees celcius but the water tends to settle slightly lower. I don't really want to run a heater in each tank on the rack.

The initial vision for the tank is that each upright flowerpot (which has soil in it) would have hardy plants growing out of them to provide more vertical cover and sight breakage. Unfortunately a few months down the road the plants have instead mostly died out. I will, when I have the time, remove all the upright pots (the sideways pots acting as caves will remain) and instead put a piece of blocky wood into each tank.

Update: after some consideration I don't think I'll put wood into the tanks. I'm thinking of using "pleco condo" and shelter structures instead so as not to add more organic load into the tanks and make it easier to clean them. Personal preference over wood.

Another update: artificial hatching attempt is a failure. Most of the eggs have turned white/fungused by day 3. Even shorter lifespan than leaving them with the parents.

 

[preben]

I think we have similar experiences for both species.

My bimaculata just keep eating their eggs, though in my case I think the eggs are fertilized - they are always in a flowerpot and last 3-5 days without turning white until one day they are just all eaten. By my estimation, it's usually when they hatch into wrigglers that the female gets spooked and eats them. 6 spawns all with the same pattern (the 6th spawn just got eaten overnight, which is day 3-4 for this batch - it's one of the 2 spawns I didn't pull out to artificially hatch).

For my ladislao pair, they also took a couple of months to pair up but they now get along well with each other. The female has been bright yellow for a few weeks already, but unfortunately still hasn't actually laid any eggs. My rositae female was also yellow for ages before finally laying her first eggs so I'm hopeful for the ladislao pair to deliver eventually. My fish room is air conditioned so water temperature is about 22-23 degrees celcius in those tanks.

Do you have low ph? My ivanacara bimaculata eggs dont survive at ph above 5.5. On ph5 and lower i have 100% hatch rate and all fry survives.

 

[illumnae]

I don't measure my ph, but I use RO water with no remineralization and I drop a few catappa leaves into the tanks every couple of weeks

 

[illumnae]

Trying to troubleshoot my issues here. I'm thinking of implementing one or more of the following changes:

1) I can free up some of the larger tanks (20 gallons instead of the current 15 gallons) and move maybe 2 of the pairs there. The larger tanks are also placed in the upper tier of the rack, so probably less distractions when my wife and I enter the room to hatch brine shrimp, harvest and feed them.

2) I can raise the temperature of the air conditioning to about 27-28 degrees Celcius, which will hopefully increase the water temperature of the tanks to maybe 25 degrees Celsius.

3) I'm currently in Hong Kong and there are Nannostomus marilynae available here. I can bring back maybe a group of 7-10 to add to each tank as dithers that will hopefully make the Ivanacara bimaculata less skittish and not so likely to be spooked into eating the eggs.

Would one or more of the above changes be recommended?

Separate question on the Nannostomus marilynae - should I add them to my other breeding tanks too? I suspect that my uaupesi and elizabethae pairs have also been laying and eating eggs. Several times already the females have turned bright yellow, disappeared into hiding for a few days then reappeared noticeably thinner and no longer yellow. Also, my vielfleck pair co-exist but I think could use some help with bonding. Ladislao female turns very yellow periodically but doesn't disappear and reappear like the uaupesi and elizabethae. So far only my rositae pair has successfully raised fry. I'm wondering if adding dithers would help in any way. The breeding tanks are 15 gallons.

 

[Mike Wise]

I think #1 would be best, especially raising the tanks higher. If your 20 gallon tanks have the same bottom dimensions as your 15 gallon tanks then there will not be a lot of difference. 20 Long tanks would be better.

 

[rasmusW]

Yeah!
I think #1 and #2, would be my best guesses aswell.
I have never kept n. Marylinae, so i can’t say anything about those.
Good luck.

Edit: it’s quite a species list you have. I would love to see some pictures of them all.

-r

 

[illumnae]

My big tanks are longer side to side than the small tanks with the same water height, so slightly more floor space. They're custom made to fit the space, so they don't follow standard US tank dimensions.

I can implement both #1 and #2 together, which I will do after I'm back from my trip. In relation to #3, would it cause any harm if I add the pencils to the bimaculata and other apistogramma tanks? I got the idea from a suggestion in an earlier post in this thread - the initial plan was always just dwarf cichlid pairs in the breeding tanks based on recommendations in other threads on this forum, but I'm always happy to add more fish if it won't affect the breeding efforts. The marilynae also just became available in Singapore at less than half the price in Hong Kong, so I won't need to bring any back from Hong Kong.

The lights are too dim and the water too tinted in the tanks for my mobile phone to take any photos (I think I mentioned this in my other thread on my Wallaciia regani), and my Olympus mirrorless camera(EM1 Mark ii) and macro lens haven't left the dry cabinet since before COVID. I think I may need to work out an overhead wireless flash rig if I want to take proper pictures with my camera. I've been thinking of getting a Sony just for fish macro shots because of better compatibility with wireless flash systems, but I haven't gotten round to doing so. It'll be expensive to do so as well. Might be more cost effective to get a new OM system body and wireless flashes if I can find compatible ones.

I'm going to be bringing back D24 and D39 from Hong Kong to add to my collection. They'll be taking over the Apistogramma psammophila tanks, as I have given up on that species - I bought 4 "pairs" from Glaser and ended up with 6 males, only 1 female and 1 wrong species fish. I think the female has also gotten killed by one of the males. I'm currently only left with what I think are 2 males. They're going into the "leftovers" tank to free up tanks for the 2 new species. The seller in Hong Kong has psammophila too, but I'm too demoralised to try again for now.

 

[preben]

Trying to troubleshoot my issues here. I'm thinking of implementing one or more of the following changes:

1) I can free up some of the larger tanks (20 gallons instead of the current 15 gallons) and move maybe 2 of the pairs there. The larger tanks are also placed in the upper tier of the rack, so probably less distractions when my wife and I enter the room to hatch brine shrimp, harvest and feed them.

2) I can raise the temperature of the air conditioning to about 27-28 degrees Celcius, which will hopefully increase the water temperature of the tanks to maybe 25 degrees Celsius.

3) I'm currently in Hong Kong and there are Nannostomus marilynae available here. I can bring back maybe a group of 7-10 to add to each tank as dithers that will hopefully make the Ivanacara bimaculata less skittish and not so likely to be spooked into eating the eggs.

Would one or more of the above changes be recommended?

Separate question on the Nannostomus marilynae - should I add them to my other breeding tanks too? I suspect that my uaupesi and elizabethae pairs have also been laying and eating eggs. Several times already the females have turned bright yellow, disappeared into hiding for a few days then reappeared noticeably thinner and no longer yellow. Also, my vielfleck pair co-exist but I think could use some help with bonding. Ladislao female turns very yellow periodically but doesn't disappear and reappear like the uaupesi and elizabethae. So far only my rositae pair has successfully raised fry. I'm wondering if adding dithers would help in any way. The breeding tanks are 15 gallons.

I breed my ivanacara bimaculata in a 60L tank. And i always have 25-27 degrees and low ph for spawning succesfully

 

[Cockatoofreak]

This is the subforum for non-apisto SA dwarf cichlids.

On another note, if I want a species that are not sexed for whatever reason I will always buy at least 6. Statistically this gives you a 96% chance of getting both sexes. Of course it requires that the original population is about even for each sex.

Sadly, my experience with I. bimaculata was not a good one. The pair I purchased ($60 plus $50 overnight shipping) quickly became ill with, what appeared to be, an internal parasitic infection. While I treated them, they ceased eating, hid in a cave and both passed...all within a few weeks of receiving them.

My conclusion was that these fish, offered for sale in the US, are extremely inbred. The few specimens, originally imported into Sweden, are into multiple generations and have weakened immune systems.

I won't bother with these again and have moved on to L. Dorsigera.

 

[anewbie]

Sadly, my experience with I. bimaculata was not a good one. The pair I purchased ($60 plus $50 overnight shipping) quickly became ill with, what appeared to be, an internal parasitic infection. While I treated them, they ceased eating, hid in a cave and both passed...all within a few weeks of receiving them.

My conclusion was that these fish, offered for sale in the US, are extremely inbred. The few specimens, originally imported into Sweden, are into multiple generations and have weakened immune systems.

I won't bother with these again and have moved on to L. Dorsigera.

They haven't been around long enough to be extremely inbred.

Almost all l. dorsigera that are domestic are likely inbred if sold by a chain store to a much greater extent. Having said that it will be along time before wc i bimaculata are brought back as they are in a no export location (i've been told) and you can still get wc l. dorsigera though not common.

 

[illumnae]

I'm sorry for your experience, but mine has been different. I have 8 fish formed into 4 pairs and purchased from 2 different retailers in different countries (5 from Hong Kong and 3 from Singapore). One of the pairs is formed between fish from different retailers. I understand that they all originated from the same group of fish collected several years back, but I agree with anewbie that they haven't been around long enough to be badly inbred. Mixing fish from different sources won't revitalise the bloodline, but I think it helps a little.

My fish have been very healthy and eat well, and all have put on significant size since I got them. The only issue I have is that all of them, though laying eggs regularly also regularly eat all their eggs. I've had more spawns since I last posted and still no fry. Currently 2 pairs are guarding eggs so we'll see if anything changes this time around, but I'm no longer hopeful. I found one set of eggs on Monday which has since reduced in numbers noticeably and another set found on Tuesday that still seems numerous. We'll see if there's anything left over the weekend I guess.

 

[Cockatoofreak]

Well, perhaps your suppliers took better care of their fish as opposed to mine does here in the US.

Let me know if you or your suppliers export to the US!

 

[anewbie]

Well, perhaps your suppliers took better care of their fish as opposed to mine does here in the US.

Let me know if you or your suppliers export to the US!

There are many quality sellers in usa htat have this species. Furthermore the chances of receiving a healthy fish from a quality seller in the usa is much higher than one overseas (if you can get them to ship it to you).

 

[Cockatoofreak]

There are many quality sellers in usa htat have this species. Furthermore the chances of receiving a healthy fish from a quality seller in the usa is much higher than one overseas (if you can get them to ship it to you).

I have to see if my ignore button is working...

 

[illumnae]

So either raising the temperature or moving the fish to the top tier of the rack worked. I raised the room temperature and moved 1 pair to the top tier, and that pair has finally successfully hatched fry. This was the 5th or 6th attempt for this pair.

I have another pair not in the top tier that was guarding eggs for 4 days, then disappeared behind the pots and haven't reappeared yet so there's hope that they're hiding/guarding wrigglers too, but we'll see.

 

[rasmusW]

Huge congrats.

-r

 

[illumnae]

Thank you!