Spawning A. Trifasciatum.

[VITS]

I went into the fish this morning to find my trifasciatum have spawned. The pair seem to be ok with having the others in the tank at the moment but would it be advised to take the others out and also what should be fed to the babies when they hatch?

Baby brine shrimp or commercial flakes?

But my worst fear is should I need to add water due to evaporation how sensitive are the fry gonna be?

Breeding Apistos is a whole new ball game to me as I am used to having them in shared tanks as a feature not separator for breeding? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Mike Wise]

I don't suggest removing the fish this time. You will more likely stress the female and cause her to eat her fry by disturbing the tank. Depending on the other species in the tank, you may get some fry to survive, but they usually disappear slowly in community tanks. Rest assured, if they successfully produced fry this time, they will do it again. If you want to breed apistos, it is best to do so in a tank set up for breeding with no other bottom-dwelling fish and only a few top-dwelling dither/target fish. Schooling tetras often make short work of newly freeswimming fry. Most breeders use pencilfish or hatchetfish.

A. trifasciata fry are fairly tolerant of water chemistry, more so than most apistos. You should have no problems with water changes of 25% or less, or topping off the aquarium. I'm not a fan of topping off tanks. Water evaporates but leaves all the dissolved minerals and organics behind. Continued topping off just leads to a harder, more organic-rich soup.

Apisto fry do best on live foods. They are attracted to movement. Baby brine shrimp are what most people use, but any small live food will work. If you can't get live foods, then frozen/powder foods can be used. Just don't expect the same survival rate for the fry. Good luck with your fish!

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
The most important thing this forum has taught me is "listen to Mike", and I'd definitely carry on with the water changes and leave the female alone with the fry. It will depend what the other fish are how well she can defend them.

If you have some available? a really big lump of slightly dirty "java moss" is a great aid to fry survival.

If you can get a micro-worm culture, they are very low maintenance and provide an extra fry food, one advantage of them is that they wriggle, stimulating the feeding response. Because I don't have many fry, I now feed decapsulated BS and microworms, followed by decapsulated BS, microworms, powered red astax crumb (or earthworm flake etc) and Grindal worms when the fry are a bit bigger and it should be pretty plain sailing after that.

I also culture Red worms (Lumbricus rubellus), they are much easier to work with than White worms, and the small ones are not much bigger, and I feed any Daphnia, live Blood-worm/Gnat larvae/Mosquito larvae/Glass-worm/Swimming Mayfly/Ostracods etc that I can catch (I "ranch" Daphnia and Bloodworms in outside rain-water buckets as well).

If you are really struggling for fry food, a squeezed out filter sponge is good for rotifers, I swirl the sponge in a beaker with water and then when the waste has accumulated in the middle of the beaker I pipette the filter gunge into the fry cloud.

I also like to have a slightly dirty sponge filter in the tank as a potential feeding surface, this can be an air filter sponge, HMF, or pre-filter on an external or power head etc. and finally I like some dead leaves in the tankand I leave them to skeletonize, providing another browsing opportunity for fry (and Dwarf Cories, Otocinclus, shrimps etc).

cheers Darrel

 

[VITS]

Thank you both Mike and Darrel that has given some tasks ahead to get ready for the arrival of the fry soon. In this tank I don't have any other species other than A. Trifasciatum but the pair is not alone. In total there is 6 A. Trifasciatum. Mike when I got these fish there was A. Trifasciatum and A. Trifasciata are they different or the same. They look the same but the shades of richness is the main difference I see in them trifasciata are lighter than the others?

I spoke to my local and they have both brine shrimp eggs that I can hatch and microform cultures so I'll be getting some tomorrow ready.

 

[Mike Wise]

"A. trifasciatum" is the name used by scientists until the 1980s. Then Kullander determined that the genus name Apistogramma is feminine and all species names need to have feminine endings. Therefore A. trifasciatum changed to A. trifasciata. They are one and the same species. A. trifasciata has a very extensive range throughout the Río Paraguay/Paraná & Río Guaporé systems, from Argentina in the south to Brazil/Bolivia in the north. Over this range there are several different populations that show different color variations.

 

[VITS]

Oh I see, thank you for clarifiing that for me. I will still be keeping both lots as they color difference is nice.

 

[Mike Wise]

A very good idea!

 

[VITS]

Well the eggs are now wriggly's and dad has been given his orders and there very clear everyone other than him and his partner are not allowed anywhere near that side of the tank. The other 2 pairs of A. Trifasciata and bristlenoses are now restricted to 1 third of the tank size. Tomorrow I'm going to attempt to get the stranded ones out as the female hasn't brought the babies out of hiding yet.