Newbie questions, Apistos just spawned!

[SanDiegoFishes]

Hello everyone,
About two weeks ago I purchased 5 small wild caught Apistogramma trifasciata, and these are my first apistos. (Have tons of other fish that I keep and breed). Today, I pulled out some caves to clean in their tank and we have eggs! Was NOT expecting that so darned soon, the females are so small, figured it would be awhile til they were ready, guess they had other ideas, LOL!
My questions are:
Since I don't even know where this cave was in the tank (there are many), I figure I can't try to put it back, no idea where it goes. So I have placed it in a 6 gallon tank with an airstone running current across the eggs, same set up to hatch other chichlid eggs. Will this work? What is the hatching time for this species? And what temperature would you guys recommend I keep the eggs at? They are currently at 82 degrees. Any advice appreciated, I would love to see these hatch. There is somewhere between 75-100 eggs too.
I am very excited about this, so any thoughts on hatching without the mom greatly appreciated, thanks!
Fishes

 

[Neil]

SanDiegoFishes,

WELCOME TO THE FORUM

Fishes,
Congratulations on this spawn. You have 2 choices. You could put the single cave back in the tank. She will find it! How quickly, I don't know. Whether or not she will eat the eggs, I don't know either. But the sooner you do this, the more likely it will be that she goes back to caring for the eggs. She probably is looking for them and the cave in the tank.
The second is to keep the eggs in a second tank with bubbles near, but not directly on the eggs. You will probably also need to add an anti-fungal agent, like Meth. blue or Acriflavin.
Both alternatives have a chance of working. But remember that once she has laid, it is likely that she will again soon. So don't worry too much if one or the other fails.
Good luck,
Neil

 

[apistodave]

Neils advice is correct--time for an apisto story. This happened yesterday. I moved some eunotus from one tank to another. One female had larvae in her cave. I picked the cave up and held the water in with the larvae and moved it to another tank. I then caught the female and released her next to the cave, she went in and resumed where she had left off. Today they are all swimming.
Another one. I had a large tank divided in half and had females with larvae in caves in both sides. One female died, so what to do? I picked the cave up and put it next to the other females. She did a kind of double take, you know like where did those come from? She then picked them up and added them to hers, when they all started swimming it was about 300 fry!

 

[SanDiegoFishes]

Many thanks you guys! I now have wigglers! Most of the eggs were infertile, but about 10% have hatched, yeah! When should I expect the egg sacks to be absorbed and fry ready to eat? (These are A.Trifasciata). Also, what would you say the average time might be before she might lay again? I found the eggs on Sunday, they hatched today (Tuesday), however, I do not know how old they were when I found them. They looked pretty fresh to me, all pink, no development that I could see. I have the eggs at 82 degrees, is 2 days the hatching time for this species?
Now that I know they are laying, I will be more careful in my water change, tank cleaning, LOL!
I have wigglers, I have wigglers, yeah!
Thanks again, and any advice greatly appreciated, these are my very first Apistos!
Fishes

 

[Randall]

Wrigglers

Dear San Diego,

Congrats on your first apisto spawn!

Wrigglers usually start swimming free after about five days at 78 degrees F. At 82, however, this may happen sooner.

Next time, it might be a good idea to drop the temperature to 78. 82 degrees is a tad on the warm side for some apistos.

Good luck!

Randall Kohn