need help! A. agassizii babies.

[jv_xbishop]

i need help. my apistogramma agassizii eggs should be hatching in a couple of days and i dont really know how to take care of them. i have no experience in breeding in any kind of fish. so i tried breeding A. agassizii and actually got them to mate! my tank set up is a 10 gallon tank with some brown gravel, java moss, 1 driftwood, anibias plant, oak leaves (took out already), 1 pot caves, regular 10 gallon filter, and a power head but now in use. water conditions are: pH = 6.0-6.2, hardness = 5-10, temp = 84 F. the female was fighting the male after they got done mating, after a while the female lost the fight then male kept chasing her around so i took out the male. the only fishs in the tank right now is the female and the eggs. here are some questions i need help with:

1. what do i feed the babies?
2. i can just leave the female with the babies till their full grown, right? do i seperat them or is there a certain time to seperate them?
3. do i need to switch the filter out for a sponge filter? should i do it now?
4. how ofter should i change the water after adding the sponge filter?
5. should i just keep the water conditions same as it is now or is there better conditions that i should change to?

please give me anyother advise i need to know. thankyou!

male A. agassizii

breeding tank

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[aquaticclarity]

Here are a few of the questions answered in down and dirty form:

first foods-freshly hatched baby brine shrimp is best. The fry will respond best to a small moving food source. Java Moss moved from another tank wil also help as it tends to be loaded with all sorts of little critters hat make great food.

water conditions-everything seems fine with what you have except the temperature. It's most likely to late to change it but warmer temps with Apistos lead to more male off-spring. Expect 85%+ males with temps in the low 80's. 76-78 F would be a great range to aim for in the future.

water changes-more fish=more food=more fish waste...frequient 2-3 times a week small water changes (1-2 gallons) would be great for the fry if you can do it.

filtration-seeded sponge filters are great for fry as they won't suck up and chew up the little fish. They also provide another place for little critters to grow adding to the places the fry can find food. At least put a sponge over the intake to the power filter to keep the fry from getting sucked up. And if the filterhas a fow rate controle dial it down to low.

fry removal-some Apistos are better parents then others. Domestic strain (like your very nice agassizi) are very hit and miss as to how good of parents they'll be. Normally I'll seperate the fry and parents after 2-3 weeks. That seems to be the point at which many Apistos start thinking about spawning again and often start to clean house. In some cases I'll pull the fry out and in others I remove the adults. Just depends on the tank space, the number of fry, the size of the group of adults, and other factors.

Good luck with your first Apisto off-spring!

Jeff

 

[Mike Wise]

water conditions-everything seems fine with what you have except the temperature. It's most likely to late to change it but warmer temps with Apistos lead to more male off-spring. Expect 85%+ males with temps in the low 80's. 76-78 F would be a great range to aim for in the future.

According to Römer's research, sex isn't immediately determined at the time of spawning. It appears that temperature during the first 6 weeks of life determines the sex of the fish. If it were my tank, I'd slowly drop the temperature to around 79ºF/26ºC over the next 5 days to a week.

 

[jv_xbishop]

one more question about baby's mother

jeff,
thankyou for the pointers. the mother agassizii is now just swimming around the tank almost like she didnt know she had eggs to take care of. is that normal? will she go back to taking care of them once they become free swimming? and no, i have not seen any frys yet. now if i dont see any frys for a couple more days, is it safe to pick up the pot cave and take a look inside? i think the eggs were layed 3 days ago, on monday. thanks.

jay

 

[Mike Wise]

Jay, it usually take 3 days for the eggs to hatch and a total of 7 day from spawning for the fry to become freeswimming. I would wait for the week to be over. If there aren't any fry, then the spawn wasn't successful. This isn't uncommon for the first few tries by the fish.

 

[jv_xbishop]

sad, no babies.

so i took a look around the tank for like 30 minutes to see if there was any babies and didnt find any baby A. agassiziis. the mother was still swimming around by herself. and she's been doing this for about 3 days, rarely going back to watch the eggs. i was thinking this wasnt the normal behavior. so i had to look under the pot cave, slowly picked it up and turning it over to see whats inside, there was no eggs, no babies, nothing. kinda sad. my conclusion, i'm not sure. this happen to anyone before?

jay