like a breath of fresh air

[aspen]

i want to breed my apistogramma cacatuoides.

ok, so i bought a pair of a. cacautoides about 3 weeks ago. i put them in a bare bottomed 15 gal tank, gh8, kh 4, ph 7.8 temp 82 deg. filter: 1 ac mini, with a sponge on the intake. i have treated them for flukes, and will de-worm them in the next 2 days or so. amm=0, nitrite= 0. nitrates =<10 ppm.

the fish have shown breeding signs, but have not bred yet (male 'showing' female yellow). on the weekend i am going to upgrade the lighting and plant the tank they are in. i want to grow a lawn of dwarf saggitari, or glossostigma. i plan to start softening the water (mix r/o and tap) and running some peat in the holding tank. do i want to add water of a lower temp, ie 78 deg, or as low as 75 deg, and move the temp towards 80 deg. or do i want to do water changes of water 75 deg, and allow the water temp to creep back up to 82 deg?

i want to try this 'breath of fresh air' theory, by making the conditions much better all of a sudden and maintain them so for the time it takes to make these fish breed. anybody have any ideas on this?

tia, rick

 

[Neil]

aspen,
I think that I would be inclined to try it in small doses. Do the water change at 78 degrees if it is a large water change or 75 degrees if it small. It might be a little too much to "jerk" the temp. 7 degrees at once, but 4 or 5 is reasonable. All that you are concerned with is "triggering" the fish to spawn. Not necessarily changing the conditions long term. I have usually had better success at a little higher temp. though. And the conditions in you tank are fine for cacatuoides. You might just want to apply the "breath of fresh air" theory to similar water, but just a larger water change. I have gotten stubborn fish to spawn before by changing 50% of the tank water 3 days in a row!. I think one of the iimportant things here is the TDS or KH in the tank. So the RO water change will affect that. Good luck, Neil