Trouble raising fry

[brad]

I'm having trouble getting my cacatuoides fry past a week or so old. I'm on my 3rd spawn and they are dying off quite quckly. They eat bbs but not with much gusto. At around the 3 day mark, they'll dart for a bbs, then go back to resting on whatever they can. They never seem very active.

Water conditions:
PH: 7.4
nitrites: 0
ammonia: 0
nitrates 0-5 when supplemented for plants.
gh:10
kh 12

The fry from both females seem to have the same problem.

 

[farm41]

what are the other inhabitants of the tank?

 

[brad]

2 corydoras and an african butterfly.

 

[tjd]

Just a thought, but what are you doing for filtration? If there are strong currents the fry will hug the bottom more and will tire from fighting the current.

 

[brad]

Just a sponge filter. If I don`t thin out my plants often enough, there`s no noticable current at all.

 

[Randall]

Raising fry

Hello Brad,

With GH 10 and KH 12, your water may be too hard and/or the conductivity may be too high to rear Apistogramma fry successfully. In addition to weekly, partial water changes, I recommend feeding the fry several times per day and softening the water a bit.

Good luck!

Randall Kohn

 

[brad]

Thanks Randall

 

[David]

Hi Brad,

I don't consider myself an expert, but i just had some succes with breeding cacs. I agree with the remark above, that your water is a bit on the hard side for apisto's. My water has a GH=8 and a KH=4 which seems to be okay. Also i find that it helps to have a matured tank, with lots of plant surface, where you can have lots of one-celled, which are excellent food for all small fry.

 

[mervin]

yup, have to agree with Randall and David there.
water is way too hard for apistos and perhaps u just might want to remove the corys and african butterfly.

try to keep the Ph down to at least 6.5

good luck and have fun
cheers

 

[brad]

Thanks guys. I`m going to start bring water home from work. The water here is gh6 kh4. That should be be good enough.

I`m going to remove the cories and the male. He`s not getting picked on by the females. Actually the opposite. He keeps fighting with one of them. She hits him hard and fast, but he doesn`t care. He`s gonna move for both their safety.

The african butterfly is going on aquabid soon.

Thanks for the help guys. I appreciate it.

 

[mervin]

if u remove the male....how are they going to spawn ?

 

[brad]

When I remove the fry, the male will go back. He`s just stressing out the females `cause he doesn`t get the point to stay away from the fry. With new fry, the females won`t spawn anyway.

I`m not totally sold on this approach. As long as I can get a few fry from time to time, I`m happy. I`d much rather see 2 fry live and not work too hard, than see 50 live and lots of maintenance. May sound cruel but.... It`s more of an option. if the male is going to be a pain in the butt while there are fry in the tank, I have no problem relocating him temporarily. If he can be tolerated by the females, I`m all for that.