Hello All;
I've great troubles in successfully breeding Apistogrammas. Lastly, I was having 1 agassizii female with a Tefe red back male in my 80 L display tank. Other fish in the display tank are:
I also have another agassizzi male which had lost its chance and resting in a 20 L quarantine tank alone. He had lost his chance because in the beginning they were together with the female in the display tank. There were more than 5-6 unsuccessful spawning trials by them in which the eggs were eaten always within 48 hours. So, I decided that the agassizii male is infertile or something and bought another male, the Tefe red back. (NOTE: I am not 100% sure about the id of the fish, I am only repeating what I have been told by the local fish store I bought them)
The Tefe red back male and agassizii female did quite good actually. The male was very aggressive at first and he was desperately looking for a chance to spawn. However, the female was the shy one and she was constantly escaping from him in the tank. One day, I noticed that the female is not around and I immediately checked the coconut shell cave. YES !!! She was there with another batch of eggs on the ceiling. In the first 24 hours, I noticed the interaction between the male and female. The male was trying to defend the close vicinity of the cave by darting on any Sterbai cories or Endler's guppies coming near. However, from time to time he was also causing the female to come out in a furious way by trying to get into the cave. Then, I decided to separate the male for the first time to give a try to this method. I put the Tefe red back male near the agassizii male in the quarantine tank, hoping that there are enough number of coconut shells, driftwood pieces and clay pots for the two of them to stay away from each other. (definitely was a wrong thought)
After the separation of the male and leaving a night lamp on all through the nights which is some kind of trick I learned from this forum, the relief on the female was quite obvious and this gave me more courage that this time the spawning will be successful. And it was. Finally, after numerous unsuccessful trials, I was able to see the free swimming fry around the female in 6 days time after the first day of spawning. There were more than 15 fry that I could not count correctly.
Everything was going perfect and I was spending most of the day watching the female protecting the fry like crazy from any other fish which is even close accidentally. The fry and the female were out of the coconut cave and they were right at the bottom on the lava rock crumbles, somehere open in the middle of the tank. Mostly it was the corydoras who was bothering them, since they were continously entering her area while searching for food with their heads down on the substrate. And the Endler's guppy fry was also very curious and although they were too small to be a threat, they were also having the share of the mother's fury. One thing to note is that I did not turn the lights of the tank on for the first 24 hours of the free swimming fry. I let them with the night lamp only, since I thought this low light situation will help the female in her trial of keeping away other fish. The first free swimmers were seen on July 24th morning. And I only turned the lamps on the next day (July 25th) afternoon. However, stress was building up on me because I was not able to see as many fry as yesterday. Only 4-5 of them I was able to see. Then I noticed that the female was going in and out of the coconut shell from time to time. And ı thought that the clever girl put the fry back inside the cave where it is more secure than open swimming area of the tank. Unfortunately, I think I was wrong. Because yesterday (July 26th) I spend the whole day without being able to see only one fry and even the behaviour of the female apisto has changed. She stopped guarding and she was disinterested about any other fish in the tank. These observations make me to believe that I have lost the fry again, although I was able to make them hatch out of their eggs. Where am I doing wrong? Please, any expert advice will be appreciated.
Some notes about the tank and water are:
Sorry for taking this much time of yours but I wanted to give you even the smallest detail in order to be sure to figure out where have I been wrong.
Thanks in advance.
Cheers
I've great troubles in successfully breeding Apistogrammas. Lastly, I was having 1 agassizii female with a Tefe red back male in my 80 L display tank. Other fish in the display tank are:
- 7 Harlequin rasboras
- 3 Sterbai corydoras
- 1 pair of Endler's guppies with more than 20 fry which were born only a week ago
- 3 otocinclus
I also have another agassizzi male which had lost its chance and resting in a 20 L quarantine tank alone. He had lost his chance because in the beginning they were together with the female in the display tank. There were more than 5-6 unsuccessful spawning trials by them in which the eggs were eaten always within 48 hours. So, I decided that the agassizii male is infertile or something and bought another male, the Tefe red back. (NOTE: I am not 100% sure about the id of the fish, I am only repeating what I have been told by the local fish store I bought them)
The Tefe red back male and agassizii female did quite good actually. The male was very aggressive at first and he was desperately looking for a chance to spawn. However, the female was the shy one and she was constantly escaping from him in the tank. One day, I noticed that the female is not around and I immediately checked the coconut shell cave. YES !!! She was there with another batch of eggs on the ceiling. In the first 24 hours, I noticed the interaction between the male and female. The male was trying to defend the close vicinity of the cave by darting on any Sterbai cories or Endler's guppies coming near. However, from time to time he was also causing the female to come out in a furious way by trying to get into the cave. Then, I decided to separate the male for the first time to give a try to this method. I put the Tefe red back male near the agassizii male in the quarantine tank, hoping that there are enough number of coconut shells, driftwood pieces and clay pots for the two of them to stay away from each other. (definitely was a wrong thought)
After the separation of the male and leaving a night lamp on all through the nights which is some kind of trick I learned from this forum, the relief on the female was quite obvious and this gave me more courage that this time the spawning will be successful. And it was. Finally, after numerous unsuccessful trials, I was able to see the free swimming fry around the female in 6 days time after the first day of spawning. There were more than 15 fry that I could not count correctly.
Everything was going perfect and I was spending most of the day watching the female protecting the fry like crazy from any other fish which is even close accidentally. The fry and the female were out of the coconut cave and they were right at the bottom on the lava rock crumbles, somehere open in the middle of the tank. Mostly it was the corydoras who was bothering them, since they were continously entering her area while searching for food with their heads down on the substrate. And the Endler's guppy fry was also very curious and although they were too small to be a threat, they were also having the share of the mother's fury. One thing to note is that I did not turn the lights of the tank on for the first 24 hours of the free swimming fry. I let them with the night lamp only, since I thought this low light situation will help the female in her trial of keeping away other fish. The first free swimmers were seen on July 24th morning. And I only turned the lamps on the next day (July 25th) afternoon. However, stress was building up on me because I was not able to see as many fry as yesterday. Only 4-5 of them I was able to see. Then I noticed that the female was going in and out of the coconut shell from time to time. And ı thought that the clever girl put the fry back inside the cave where it is more secure than open swimming area of the tank. Unfortunately, I think I was wrong. Because yesterday (July 26th) I spend the whole day without being able to see only one fry and even the behaviour of the female apisto has changed. She stopped guarding and she was disinterested about any other fish in the tank. These observations make me to believe that I have lost the fry again, although I was able to make them hatch out of their eggs. Where am I doing wrong? Please, any expert advice will be appreciated.
Some notes about the tank and water are:
- tank is heavily planted with live plants
- CO2 injection by a yeast/sugar system is being made
- 100 % Reverse Osmosis water is used
- GH and kH are around 1-1,5 degrees and pH is around 6
- an Eheim external filter is used which is way higher in capacity than the tank size. It is run in less than its half capacity not to have to much current
- temperature of the tank is aroun 27 degrees Celcius (no heater is on, only 1-1,5 degrees changes occur during morning-night ambient temperature cahnges)
- Brustmann Humacid, SeaChem Fresh Trace, SeaChem Flouris, SeaChem Flouris Excel, SeaChem Flourish Nitrogen, Aquarium Münster Stress Protect are some of the water conditioners/additives being used
- before the free swimming fry were observed, some SeaChem Acid Regulator were disolved and added into the tanks since the pH was measured to be slightly higher than 6.
- no water change had been performed during this 1 week of spawning period. Only fresh R/O water is added to compensate the evaporation
Sorry for taking this much time of yours but I wanted to give you even the smallest detail in order to be sure to figure out where have I been wrong.
Thanks in advance.
Cheers