My first post. And some of my fish

[chris1932]

Hello everyone My name is Chris. I have wanted to post on here for some time but I have been busy working on my fish room. Today I was tired and had some time so I took a slew of pictures. These are the better ones.

Apistogramma Borelli Male

Borelli Female with fry

Borelli Female again

Apistogramma Nijsseni Male

Apistogramma Agassizii pair

Apistogramma Gephyra

Apistogramma Gephyra

Some wild angelfish, fish in the background is a Mancaparu red shoulder there are more of them in there but this guy wanted to have his picture taken.

I wish this photo did not have camera reflection. The fish is a black spotted Peruvian wild angelfish and its just stunning.

The smallest of my Rio Unini Heckel discus

The largest and clearly the king of my Unini Heckels

A very shy Male Apistogramma Elizabetha

My show tank after a servere plant pruning. It will fill in again in a week or two. The tank has all wild south american fish in it. Sorry for the mixed in angel and discus pics.

 

[beleg]

Very nice! thanks for thx share..

 

[valice]

Wooo... The red cheeks of the A.borelli looks spectacular! :biggrin:

 

[georgedv]

Great show Chris. Your apistos make me wonder why these fish are not more common in stores.

Where are you located?
Is this a store or a private fish room.

Congrates on you fantastic collection.

 

[Apistomaster]

Hi Chris,
Good to see you here and your fish are looking good.
Here are my Heckels.

Another showing one of the males and a juvenile Sturisoma on the front glass.

Still adding discus so no more room for wild angels, regrettable. I hope yours spawn.
Regards,
Larry

 

[chris1932]

Larry,

What is the size of the tank you are keeping you're Heckels in? They are looking really nice. I have two pair of wild angels breeding at this time, I hope to have more in the near future. Black spotted Peruvians paired quickly but took their time spawning. Mancaparu took to captivity easily and I have an aggressive young pairing. There are quite a few apistos in my fish room right now and the following have been making fry nonstop.

Borelli Opal
Agassizii
Rupunini
Elizabethae
Gephyra

The following species I have not mastered the secret handshake just yet

Nijsseni
Vejita
Pertensis

Any advice??

 

[Apistomaster]

I have bred but not sucessfully wild caught A. nissenji and A. pertensis.
I know most nissenji now are Czech raised so maybe they are a little easier or more tolerant regarding the extreme conditions of their natural habitat. I think you will master those.

The pertensis are probably wild. I think you can't expect them to compromise and are going to need very acid water and devoid of TDS to speak of. I would use peat filtration since they are a Rio Negro water drainage black water species. I am struggling to get some wild A. iniridae to spawn. They are a closely related species to pertensis. Basically the Orinoco equivalent imo. At least pertensis did spawn just their eggs failed to hatch.

In your photos the first listed as gephyra sure looks like pertensis group fish to me. Don't gephyra resemble agassizi?

A. vijieta will breed for you. They aren't very hard to do. I would think maybe yours are too young/old or simply haven't gotten in the mood.

To some extent I have bailed on my Dwarf Cichlids and am in a transition to going back to my roots and start breeding wild discus again. I am keeping my Red Turquoise going because they help pay part of the expenses. I have eight wild semi-Royal Blues reserved from when they begin arriving this Fall. They(Blue/Brown Discus) are the easiest of the wild species for me to breed. If the three newly formed pairs of red turquoise produce in time I will be able to pick up eight wild red spotted greens this season, too.. Greens seem harder for me to breed but much easier than Heckels. I have yet to breed Heckels. Those shown are part of my collection of ten I raised from 3-1/4 inch size that I bought in 5-06.
They are 5 to 5-1/2 inches now. I have them in a 75 gallon which is crowded except I have another 25 gallons in my DIY wet/dry sump and that system is run on a MagDrive 9.5 at about 800gph, the an Eheim 2217 plus a large sponge filter driven with a MaxiJet 600 with air pumping into the venturi. I change 75 gallons 2 or 3 times a week.
There are a few juvenile Sturisoma that are overflow from the breeding tank.
They spawned again this morning. Every two weeks I have more Sturis.
Then there are five F1 young L46 Zebra Hypancistrus plecos. The Heckels are still growing especially working on their thickness so they are approaching maturity.
Chris and I have been trading notes this past year and he has made rapid progress with his Apistogrammas. I just don't remember talking about his plan to get Heckel Discus, probably just forgot. Here is a better overview of my Heckel tank.

 

[Mike Wise]

Chris,

You certainly have some nice looking fish and an exceptional aquarium. I'm sure you'll get the other apistos breeding for you. BTW the photos you have labeled as "A. gephyra" are actually not A. gephyra (it doesn't have a caudal spot for one) but A. cf. pertensis.

 

[chris1932]

I was wondering if they were in fact Gephyra? I have seen fish listed as Gephyra that do not have a spade tail. I have only had the Gephyra for a week or two so I dont have a really good feel for them just yet, I know they must be happy because they are laying eggs.

Larry
Sometimes Heckels just kind of happen. I really wasnt planning on them but I got a deal that was just too good to walk away from. I had been watching them at Marks for months, they kept looking better and better so it just kind of happened. Along with Geophagus Altifrons, Rio Negro "i think" Altifrons, and Taeniopareius. I have two of the Heckels and a bullied red spotted green in a 55 gallon tank. Everything in in flux and scheduled to be moving around in the next week or two. I have 22 more tanks to set up twelve, 15s eight 20s and four more 55s. This might get me some space. I am still looking for a cheap 150xh or 210.

 

[Tom C]

...BTW the photos you have labeled as "A. gephyra" are actually not A. gephyra (it doesn't have a caudal spot for one) but A. cf. pertensis.

The second photo labeled A. gephyra looks like a A. trifasciata to me.

 

[Mike Wise]

Yes, your are right Tom. The third, diagonal is visible.

 

[Apistomaster]

Chris,
It is interesting to me you combined the Geophagus with discus. I ried it long ago when Gepohagus cf. surinamensis began appearing which for me was circa 1970. I kept them with wild royal blues and it worked out well.

 

[chris1932]

I did it because I was out of tank space at the time. They dont bother each other at all and the Heckels compete well for food.

 

[Apistomaster]

It is interesting too, because Heckel Discus, more than any other species of discus, are heavy detritus feeders in the wild. They benefit from the sand sifting of the Geos by picking off bits of food stirred up. In many ways it is a very natural combination but not one many discus keepers would think of.

Have you tried earth worm sticks? I have been feeding it to mine daily for about 1-1/2 years. Most fish like it from Corys, plecos, Dwarf Cichlids and Discus. As the sticks swell and break apart the mid water feeders get in on it. It is one of those foods that seem to help fish put on weight and it is higher in fiber than most prepared fish foods which are more concentrated. It is well suited for constant feeders like Geophagus and Discus. A little goes a long ways.