Reply With QuoteHi
Sorry to hear about your fish - did it survive? I've lost my share of apistos and I remember how depressing it was at the start. My solution has been to set up more tanks so I always have good things happening in some tanks at any point in time (I'm raising some diplotaenia and eremnopyge fry now).
Apistos seem to succumb more easily than average fish to bacterial infections and internal parasites. Especially when stressed (shipping, tank mate aggression, inappropriate water parameters, etc). I have lost every single apisto that started displaying obvious symptoms of illness, in spite of treatment with Praziquental and Metronidazole, and in bloat cases, Epsom salt baths.
Your fish's belly isn't as sunken as mine were (mine were a pair of trifasciata - sunken belly appearing several months apart). I also had a tank of bitaeniata where the fish took turns getting bloat and dying once every couple of months. My mistake was adding fish to that tank instead of decomming it. It's got a last seemingly healthy male living in it, and will be decommed and nuked before future use again.
With apistos, the key, I think, is to buy healthy stock, keep them in super-appropriate conditions, and be prepared to lose a few fish here and there for no apparent reason. The consolation I guess is that once conditions are appropriate, you don't lose any fish and they breed fast and often.
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