What is proper temperature for a. sp Blutkehl ?

[anewbie]

When i look up the values of the water temperature of the named river (from tom's website) I'm finding temps from 82c to 87c; i've been keeping my pair at 79-80 so i'm a bit concern that maybe they should be a bit warmer. Hence this post. I can't seem to find any other reliable information on the species. Also do they have a winter season where i should lower the temp? This is the species in case there is question:

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The female picture is relatively new and male picture a bit older but he remains colourless. I've had them for approx 8 months but they came in as adults. The female to my knowledge has only bred twice though this brood is about 3 weeks old and is showing good progression.

 

[Apistoguy52]

I’d imagine they’re like many species…86-87 in the dry season highs, 69-73 rainy season monsoon lows, 78-79 avg.

 

[Mike Wise]

I hope you meant 82 - 87°F, not °C (= 180°+F). On the serious side, several years ago Dr. Römer published a paper on temperature preferences. In it he reported that dominant females chose breeding territories with the most ideal temperatures and relegated less dominant females to territories with less favorable water temperatures. Realize that water temperature will vary a few degrees with depth and location. What this means is that dominant females tend to produce equal numbers of fry of each sex, while females in cooler areas produce more females and females in warmer areas produce more males. The end result of all of this is that the area will produce equal numbers of each sex.

Your temperature seems to be the typical ideal for most apisto species (A. sp. Blutkehl has never been studied in a systematic manner) and you appear to be successful at that temperature. My philosophy: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" (or as my family tells me too often, "Don't touch it, you'll break it!"

 

[MacZ]

I concur with Mike. Unless it's not a very southern species like A. borellii the average tropical temp of roundabout 25°C is really working for most species, species from the Equator should work fine with 1-2 degree more.

 

[anewbie]

Ok thanks. I wasn't too concern about the sexes of the brood as i was about the health of the adults (hence the question if they needed a winter season with lower temps BUT i also took in that they haven't been studied in detailed so i will leave the temp where it is - while colourless i really like this species behavior - well more so than my puppy dog species that expect the food to be dropped in their open mouths

 

[anewbie]

Updated pictures of f1 showing a wide variance in colour. While this group has so far proven very docile with regards to aggression between adults they don't really like to sit still and pose for images; note that the parents earlier in this thread have no visible colour on their face while some f1 are blue/green and others have a lot of red; i have at least one with blue green and red specks not pictured:

 

[anewbie]

Another one i had put in a 10 to grow out has a blue line sailed fin but no colouring on the face.

Not sure why - maybe the aquarium is too warm at 79 but i seem to be male heavy.