Spawn in a community tank?

[yznj99]

Hi fairly new to apistos, I have a pair of bitaeniata in 50 gallon community tank with 1 pearl gourami, 8 cardinal tetras, 3 glowlite tetras, 4 bronze cories, 1 SAE and 4 otos, it's a planted tank with lots of driftwoods and plants, I also provide two wood caves, now the female colors up every few weeks but I've never seen any eggs, the male is dominating the whole tank but the female has yet to claim any territory of her own. what are the chances for them to spawn in a tank like this? I am setting up a 10 gallon just in case

 

[Randall]

Spawning Apistogramma bitaeniata

Hello Yznj,

If the water in your community tank is soft and acidic enough for Apistogramma bitaeniata, I see no reason why they should not spawn.

Good luck!

Randall Kohn

 

[yznj99]

Tank water: pH 6.4-6.8, General hardness ~50 ppm (got this from local water department report), the tap water typically has a pH of 9! I have to add sodium bisulfate during water changes, hope this can work out.

 

[Mike Wise]

My guess is that your bitaeniata will live well in your tank, but I doubt that there will be a lot of fry. Using sodium bisulfate to lower the pH has also raised the conductivity of the water. Soft water species like bitaeniata don't respond well to such breeding conditions. Your cardinal (red neon) tetras are masters at picking off any fry that might be produced. If you want to breed your bitaeniata, my suggestion is to use peat filtered water to reduce the pH (The water department must be using something to raise pH since soft water is rarely so basic) and breed them in a separate breeding tank. If you want to enjoy the community as is, just consider any fry a bonus. You can't go wrong either way.

 

[yznj99]

Just an update the female choose the bottom of surface extracter as her spawning site, it's a 1" diameter and 1" tall cylinder shaped object. The male is not interested in the female so far I think even if there are any eggs they are not fertilized. The female is brightly yellow colored with a black blotch in her body and is defending her little closet. I provided two large wood caves but I guess the entrances are too big. Anyway I just set up a 10 gallon and will move them there once that tank matures.

As for sodium bisulfate I went to home depot and their muriatic acid is 2 gallon size, I don't want that much corrosive acid in the apartment so I bought the PH Down unit from pool and spa section, maybe I'll go back and get the HCl.