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Share you breeding experience with Apistogramma Iniridae
- Thread starter aarhud
- Start date
- Messages
- 550
- Location
- Shawnee, KS
Great fish. I have experience keeping them alive. I have no experience breeding them. They have laid eggs multiple times, but I suspect that the water was too hard or not warm enough, because I never got fry. Good luck!
- Messages
- 132
- Location
- Groningen, Netherlands
I have experience in growing the A. Iniridae. My experience is that the breeding of this fish is fairly simple if your water is OK (as most Apistogramma). The nests of Iniridae can be very large. Sometimes well over one hundred eggs deposited in a cave. After about 9 days the young fish swim freely and they can be fed with Artemia. In order to breed them, the water needs to be soft (conductivity of about 150 to 200) with a pH of about 6 - 6.5.
- Messages
- 11,220
- Location
- Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
I haven't bred this fish since the late 70s, but recently got some juveniles growing up. My experience was very straight forward. I had a female continually produce fry at pH <6 and 3° dGH, 2° dKH. You must realize that this is a very monogamous species. A female can be very 'choosy' about the male. My dominant female would only breed with the smallest of 4 males in the tank. Breeding went smoothly until the other males finally beat the little male and it died. After that my female would not breed with any other male in the tank. I suggest that you start with several males/females instead of a pair. You will have a better chance to get a breeding pair.
Accidental happening.
About 2 months ago I was only a month back into the hobby after a 25 yr hiatus. Well, I joined a club, attended a meeting and bid $5.00 on a fish that was pretty small and that I didn't have a clue about. Well it turned out to be an agassizi.. So two weeks ago, I inherited 2 females. Yesterday, a bud came by to collect 6 discus of a dozen we jointly bought. As a gesture of good-will, I went to the apisto/ram tank and pulled out a potted Amazon Sword plant.. 3 inch pot.. 6 inch plant.. Well he drove the 2 hrs home and put the plant and another swap (Sydonis) cat (spelling).. and an hour or so later discovered 10 fry... Now identified as my agassizi's!... It came from a heavily planted tank so it was pretty easy to overlook the fry and breeding. The new "keeper" of the fry thinks they have to be a couple of weeks old which would make the breeding date a day or two after I inherited the fems. Luckily, the depression left in the substrate from removing the pot is now covered with a small piece of slate and the suspected momma is getting ready I think to lay another load!.. Bill in Va.
About 2 months ago I was only a month back into the hobby after a 25 yr hiatus. Well, I joined a club, attended a meeting and bid $5.00 on a fish that was pretty small and that I didn't have a clue about. Well it turned out to be an agassizi.. So two weeks ago, I inherited 2 females. Yesterday, a bud came by to collect 6 discus of a dozen we jointly bought. As a gesture of good-will, I went to the apisto/ram tank and pulled out a potted Amazon Sword plant.. 3 inch pot.. 6 inch plant.. Well he drove the 2 hrs home and put the plant and another swap (Sydonis) cat (spelling).. and an hour or so later discovered 10 fry... Now identified as my agassizi's!... It came from a heavily planted tank so it was pretty easy to overlook the fry and breeding. The new "keeper" of the fry thinks they have to be a couple of weeks old which would make the breeding date a day or two after I inherited the fems. Luckily, the depression left in the substrate from removing the pot is now covered with a small piece of slate and the suspected momma is getting ready I think to lay another load!.. Bill in Va.
- Messages
- 33
- Location
- Gastonia NC
Aaron, my experienced with this species about 2 years ago was terrible, specially because the person who shipped them to me bagging/shipping skills was horrible i got 8 in 1 bag. the water looked nasty... i managed to keep 4 a live for a little while then eventually they just perished on their own. now that you and I both got some From Scott i acclimated mine for 1 DAY (not joking) i brought home 2 pair myself, they are in a quarantine tank at the moment getting Dwormed, once this goes through my set up for them will most likely be my planted tank or a 10gal with a lot of leafs, caves, branches.
Juan
Juan
- Messages
- 33
- Location
- Gastonia NC
trev12
New Member
- Messages
- 9
I have purchased a wild caught pair of these awsome fish and was up for the challenge. About a month or less of the male harassing the female almost to death everything changed when the ph got down to 4.5 and the female stared being the boss. then she was no where to be seen for a few days then i saw her come out from a piece of wood and she had changed color but not the bright yellow that alot of apistos get. so i new she had a spawn and the male just stayed on the perimeter and this went on for 6 more days. then came home from work and there she was with a huge spawn swimming around. there was well over 100 fry. they ate bbs right away with no problem. oh the gh was under 1 and the tds was 20
after a week i moved the fry to a 10gal tank and messed up by adding 50% water from there tank and 50% tap water. ph shock was bad and lost 60 babies. so i am left with about 50 fry and they are doing great. growing fast too.
then the male beat the female and her tail was totally gone so i moved her and got her back to health and put them back together where they got along good and the female is now gone again with another batch.
moral of this story is pay attention and keep the ph low. they would not do anything til i got it under 5ph.
thanks
trev
after a week i moved the fry to a 10gal tank and messed up by adding 50% water from there tank and 50% tap water. ph shock was bad and lost 60 babies. so i am left with about 50 fry and they are doing great. growing fast too.
then the male beat the female and her tail was totally gone so i moved her and got her back to health and put them back together where they got along good and the female is now gone again with another batch.
moral of this story is pay attention and keep the ph low. they would not do anything til i got it under 5ph.
thanks
trev
