New member from the Netherlands

[Vincent van der Meij]

Hi everybody!
I recently joint this forum so it's about time I presented myself.

I started with a small aquarium at the age of 11. Since than (now 37 years old) I've been keeping fish (with a pauze for some years). My main interest has always been dwarf cichlids, keeping them in an aquarium set up to meet their demands. The largest cichlid I've had is Cleithracara maronii. Other cichlids are Mikrogeophagus ramirezi (my very first dwarf), Apistogramma velifera (than it was still called "sp. four stripes"), A. borellii, A. nijsseni, A. sp Abacaxis, Nannacara anomala and Leatacara curviceps. All of these species bred spontainiously in my tanks.

For two years now I changed my main tank (160x60x60 cm) from South America to Southeast Asia. As I started missing my dwrfs, I started a small tank I had in storage (60x30x30 cm). In this small tank I keep a pair one of my favourite Apisto's: Apistogramma sp. Abacaxis.
I would like to have them breeding aswell, but thusfar no results. There were two occasions (with only 8 days in between) that I thought to have had eggs in a coconut; the female was bright yellow (though still with the stripe, no single dot) en kept going in and out of the coconut, whenever she came out she waved her tail at the entrance. Until this far no fry. Maybe it's the water, which is quite hard here (soon I will be able to measure this).
This species shows behaviour I have never observed in Apisto's. Normally the female stays in the coconut for several days, doesn't hardly come out; this species (or at least my female) does seem to keep swimming around quite a bit. and just go in and out all the time.

Anyway. I hope with my previous experience I can attribute to this forum, and even more I hope to keep on learning of all you guys (m/f)!

Kind regards!
Vincent

 

[raymond82]

Welcome to the forum!

Very nice species, A. sp. Abacaxis! Like you said you probably need soft water for the eggs to develop, I understood from this forum that high pH and KH are usually what limits egg development. So even though the fish spawn, the eggs won't develop and the females leave the cave after a day or three. Anyway, given the species that you've bred I guess you know already!!

What Southeast-Asian species do you keep?

 

[lekkie0104]

Welcome!

 

[Vincent van der Meij]

Welcome to the forum!

Very nice species, A. sp. Abacaxis! Like you said you probably need soft water for the eggs to develop, I understood from this forum that high pH and KH are usually what limits egg development. So even though the fish spawn, the eggs won't develop and the females leave the cave after a day or three. Anyway, given the species that you've bred I guess you know already!!

I menage to get the pH down with oakleaf extract. Until know I kept it around 6. I will try lowering it even further (the nijsseni's spawned at pH 5.5). KH is close to 1 degree. The problem is the GH, that's remaining to high (around 10 degrees). Alle other species I kept and bred when I was living in the eastern part of the Netherlands. There I had soft water. Here, in the west, the wate is hard. I might try with reversed osmosis water or rain water (filtered over coal).
What do you think?

What Southeast-Asian species do you keep?

I keep Pethia padamya (school of 25), Yasuhikotakia sidthimunki (group of 7), Badis badis (2 males, 6 females), Dario dario (2 males, 4 females) and Trichopsis vittata (2 couples). I like the fish, although I'm somewhat disappointed an the Badis: the males are almost all the time hiding in their coconuts, and they're not as blue as the pictures I've seen. The Darios are brilliant fish: tiny but great!

Wouldn't suprise myself if somewhere this year I will change back to South-America...

@Lekkie0104: Thanks!

 

[Loriculus]

Vincent,

you acquired them recently ? Maybe @ Jim's place ? Then we might know each other

My 1,2 also spawned 3x with zero results. I knocking PH down to 5 now. Awaiting the next spawn.

 

[raymond82]

I keep Pethia padamya (school of 25), Yasuhikotakia sidthimunki (group of 7), Badis badis (2 males, 6 females), Dario dario (2 males, 4 females) and Trichopsis vittata (2 couples).

Sounds like a nice collection of fish, I also like the Dario's a lot but the Badis badis I had were usually quite aggressive.

I menage to get the pH down with oakleaf extract. Until know I kept it around 6. I will try lowering it even further (the nijsseni's spawned at pH 5.5). KH is close to 1 degree. The problem is the GH, that's remaining to high (around 10 degrees). Alle other species I kept and bred when I was living in the eastern part of the Netherlands. There I had soft water. Here, in the west, the wate is hard. I might try with reversed osmosis water or rain water (filtered over coal).
What do you think?

The water here in the west indeed is quite hard, I measured a pH of 8 and a KH of 8 in the tap water. I once bred A. nijsseni on a 50:50 mix of tap water and rainwater but after that I completely switched to pure RO water.

From what I understand (mainly from reading this forum) is that KH is the most important parameter for egg development. I've seen Apisto's spawn in tap water but then the eggs would never develop into freeswimming fry. It would be great to systematically vary the KH and pH to see what values are required for breeding but that would be a time consuming experiment.

Here are some threads where water hardness etc was discussed:
http://www.apistogramma.com/forum/index.php?threads/ok.12048/
http://www.apistogramma.com/forum/index.php?threads/keeping-low-ph.12720/#post-69846

Finally it probably also depends on what species of Apisto you have and whether they're wild caught.

 

[Vincent van der Meij]

Vincent,

you acquired them recently ? Maybe @ Jim's place ? Then we might know each other

My 1,2 also spawned 3x with zero results. I knocking PH down to 5 now. Awaiting the next spawn.

Hi Peter! Yes, it's me. I can't remember it: did you or did you not use reversed osmosis water?

Sounds like a nice collection of fish, I also like the Dario's a lot but the Badis badis I had were usually quite aggressive.

The agression my Badis badis show, is only addressed to individuals of the same species (unless they spawned). For the rest they're easy going fish.

The water here in the west indeed is quite hard, I measured a pH of 8 and a KH of 8 in the tap water. I once bred A. nijsseni on a 50:50 mix of tap water and rainwater but after that I completely switched to pure RO water.

From what I understand (mainly from reading this forum) is that KH is the most important parameter for egg development. I've seen Apisto's spawn in tap water but then the eggs would never develop into freeswimming fry. It would be great to systematically vary the KH and pH to see what values are required for breeding but that would be a time consuming experiment.

Here are some threads where water hardness etc was discussed:
http://www.apistogramma.com/forum/index.php?threads/ok.12048/
http://www.apistogramma.com/forum/index.php?threads/keeping-low-ph.12720/#post-69846

Finally it probably also depends on what species of Apisto you have and whether they're wild caught.

I'll keep on trying. Thanks for the info and threads!

 

[Loriculus]

Hi Vincent,

thought it was you

I use deionized water. But don't really check ti conductivity. Should be around 100 ms