water condition.

[Henrique]

Hello everybody,
Hello Mr.Z,remenber me?I am the brazilian man and I still looking for apistos.Great to read your name in this forum!
Someone can explain me what is "sexable fish"?Is change male to female or female to male?Please explain in details how we can change sex and why ?
Is true female more difficult to "born"(sorry!)
I need know the parameters of good water for apistosH,KH,GH,temperature.Is necessary use reverse osmose?
If I want breeding is the same water parameters?
Thanks

 

[Z Man]

Henrique, No it is not necessary to always use RO water BUT the water can not be hard water that is used for African Rift Lake cichlids. I bred many Apisto's in medium water (175ppm TDS) such as Cacatuoides, Borelli, MacMasteri among them. I always try to breed my Apisto's in my own water conditions before I add any RO water. Now there is a big question as to what causes more of either sex. Some say pH, some say hardness and others say a combination of both. The only cichlid that I have ever seen chage sex myself is Crenicara punctulatum. When born they all look like females but I have already had a female who laid eggs, turn into a male after the only male in the tank died. I have that article on my site.

 

[Neil]

I have heard stories of Apistogramma that changed sex, but there are no confirmations that I know of aside from C. punctulatum.
As far as I know, all apistos are either born male or female, or turn male or female in the first few days after "birth". However, many apistos are very non-dimorphic(look the same) and can carry attributes of the other through out their lives. But I don't think that their reproductive organs can change at some point, without a trip to Sweden ! Neil