New bitaeniata

[Mazan]

After many months I decided to abandon the dwarf pike breeding project as a lost cause. I put the pair back in the big tank, freeing up the 240l tank for small fishes again. And for the first time in ages saw some wild Apistogrammas advertised and decided to give them a go. I ordered 6 juveniles. Not sure if I will be able to keep them all permanently in this tank but if necessary I could move some at a later date. The tank measures 120 x 40 x 50 cm and is well established, though to catch the pike cichlids I had to take out many plants and decided to move two big sword plants that had become too big for the tank and were pressed against the glass, they both had small offspring that I planted instead, so the tank is not yet as overgrown as it was, but does have plenty of structure with branches moss and leaf litter. The pH is about 6 and TDS about 19.

It didn't take long for the biggest Apistogramma to become dominant and establish a small territory at one end of the tank, from where he will chase the others if they come too close, luckily he does not pursue them once they leave his area. The others are usually behaving more cryptically at the other half of the tank. staying amongst the branches and leaves. But on a few occasions I have seen all of them come together (at the opposite part of the tank to the dominant males main area), all with fins erect and slowly moving around each other. After a minute or so the group disperses and they go about doing their own things with no real aggression. I haven't seen this sort of behaviour before and did manage to get a few shots of this "meeting" and one of the dominant male

:

 

[rasmusW]

Beautiful fish!!
Looks like you got 3 pairs, but I could be wrong.
I hope you get better luck with these. -Well, if you plan on breeding them.

Uhh! And can we see the whole tank, please?

-r

 

[MacZ]

Uhh! And can we see the whole tank, please?

Yes please !

 

[Mazan]

Sure - I will take photo of the whole tank later - too many reflections just now. Breeding - we will see, it would be interesting but not necessarily a main goal. I do have some other fish in the tank, some N.marginatus, ruby tetras and a few Copellas, also the same person I got these from says he will be bringing som Trochilocarax ornatus which I would definitely want to get. But the tank is far from crowded I don't think there are enough other fish to create too much stress if the Apistos do decide to breed.

 

[anewbie]

I kept 6 in a 100 (30inchx48inch floor) without too much issue for 2 years though now some have passed on and i think i have 2 males left though there might be a large female somewhere - problem with complex aquariums is you can't find anything - they are scared of the little norbertts i added a couple of months go to replace them - those little guy (largest male is 1/3 the size and the females 1/2 that); but you know a little motor boat can do a lot of damage to a battleship In truth when i purcahsed the norberts i thought i was down to one bitaeniata My bitaeniata looked nothing like yours they were much darker sort of a gold on black colouring. The large males i have left are quite nice looking and maybe one day before they pass i'll figure out how to get a decent picture of them.

anyway back to your question it will be a tight fit for 6 of them in your container but a bit depends on sexes and such still i think you might want to eventually move a couple to your larger aquarium.

As for the dithers - they won't take up much space as they will occupy a higher region and for the most part they will be ignored as long as you don't have so many dithers that water quality goes down. Those little tetra at won't add much and the marginatus are a little larger than the marilyn but pretty small.

If you do get the t. ornatus you will want at least 10 and 15 or 20 would be better as they really like to form a nice school - not sure if they will eventually stop schooling as they get more comfortable. The only negative is you have to kneel down and look up to see them

The most peaceful species i own are the a. sp bluketa; they are incredibly docile in a large group.

 

[anewbie]

The most peaceful species i own are the a. sp bluketa; they are incredibly docile in a large group.

And talk about polar opposite my litlte 1/4 inch nijjensi are already showing some teeth as they say....

 

[KenL]

Lovely fish.

 

[Mazan]

Here is the whole tank, not a great shot and I think the glass needs cleaning! As I mentioned, it is a bit more bare than usual, the plants, including the floating plants, which usually have much longer roots, are only just growing back since I took the whole tank apart recently. I want to get some almond leaves and make the water darker, the leaves I collect here do not stain the water.

 

[Mazan]

Well its been a long time since I posted an update on these fish. I have had a lot going on recently and have not spent as much time on the forums. Anyway, in September I moved all the small fish to a bigger tank - 130 x 50 x 50 cm, 325l or about 86 gallons. I moved all the plants wood; leaves etc. and added more, the fish settled down quickly. The tank is quite lightly stocked for its size. Along with the 6 Apistogrammas are 10 N. marginatus, about 12 ruby tetras, 2 pygmy Corydoras, a Rineloricaria and a very small blue phantom pleco, which should not be there, but arrived much too tiny to put with the bigger cichlids. And ramshorn snails. Very little aggression between the Apistogrammas most of the time, as there are plenty of hiding places and line of sight breaks, though when I feed them with mosquito larvae. they do get quite excited and sometimes aggressive. I have seen quite a few displays with couple of females bright yellow. Anyway, just over a week ago I noticed that a yellow female was about half way up the tank posturing and chasing any of the pencilfish that came close, on closer inspection I saw a small cluster of eggs on a branch under the female, only slightly covered with a piece of moss, here is a picture, the eggs are just below the female:

This surprised me - I thought they should spawn close to the substrate in a cave or under a leaf or something - there were plenty of what I thought were suitable places...

The next time I looked, about an hour later, the eggs and female had gone from there, but the female was still guarding something near the back of the tank, but in a very hidden spot this time at ground level (I am assuming it was the same female). Can/do the females move the eggs??

Well yesterday that female (or another?) appeared at the front of th tank with a small group of fry - I took a video as I knew the fry would not show in a photo, and for the first time in my life put it on YouTube so I could post it here:

I don't suppose the fry will last long, though at least some are still there today.

 

[Mazan]

As of last night there were still a few fry with the female. Another female also has fry, but I see her only rarely as she is mainly staying in a very dark secluded area of the tank. The first female comes out in the open at the front quite frequently.

 

[rasmusW]

Congrats with the fry.

-r

 

[Mazan]

Its interesting to watch them, but what was really strange was the female putting the eggs on that high up branch...and then she must have moved them.