Reply With QuoteI've seen quite alot of post regarding apisto and info is needed therefore i decided to touch on abit more for easier access to information.
Breeding:
Firstly are many things that will be touched on in this very topic. Often, people say that the Apisto is fairly easy to breed, while others think it is one of the hardest. Which ever school you fall into, this article will, hopefully clear up some uncertainties you might have.
Media: What kind of stuff should I actually put inside the tank for a breeding pair? This question frequently pops up in every breeders' mind. The basic thing the Apisto needs is actually a piece of driftwood. I've tried this method once and had hoped for the best. I used a driftwood the size of a palm in a 1 ft tank filled with gravel. To date, the cacatuoides pair have bred 4 times! The water was not changed for about 2months If you would like to create an environment resembling the origin of the apisto, try adding oak leaves into the tank. Oak leaves, however, don't come by easily in Singapore. As a substitute, you can use Sea Almond leaves. Many have also used inverted chipped flowerpot as a breeding place for the apisto. Though this will work just as well, I personally don't think it looks natural.There are many medias as i've suggested above that can be used to build a cave , wood , stone, synthetic materials can aslo be used. Apisto can be quite small and will choose a spawning media as small as itself. i've tried putting in a plastic tube those we got from sponge filter. I bury half the tube into the gravel and leaving the other open. Once the apisto female laid her eggs and is fertilise by the male, she covers part of the entrance with gravel to narrow the entrance further.
Food: Good diet for the breeding pair is very important. The phrase 'the more the better' does not apply here. Careful feeding 2 to3 times a day will do. Possible food are bloodworms, beefheart, brine shrimps and some vegetable. For the vegetable, try smashing some spinach and mix it with beefheart and bind them together.
Tank size: Try to use the biggest tank you can get your hands on because you can actually put more then a pair of apisto in it. Usually the male to female ratio is 1:3 or 1:4 . Cover the tank densely and they will breed happily. A small 1ft will do but water conditions will never be at its peak for breeding. Frequent water changes is the only way to keep them at it's peak. Breeding the pair in a smaller tank and transferring the fries over to a bigger tank will also do.
water condition: Apisto trive and breed in soft and acidic water but how are we going to archive such water condition similar to their natural habitat? Using new age tec, Ion exchanger and RO units are being used to provide them with ideal water parameters. Don't be dishearted if we can't afford the IE or RO units. Apisto will spawn and live in our tap water(Singapore) once suited to our water parameters, they will happily spawn for you.
reproductive behaviour:dispite apisto wide distribution, their breeding habits are some how quite unified. They spawn in hiding places or caves with strong territorial behaviour. raising the fry is so called the male-mother-family where the female is the one who will take care of the fry alone, whereas the male will guard the territory.Female will turn golden yellow once they start to lay eggs, i've seen them change from normal colour till they chase away the male.
The vectral fin is a tell tale sign about her readiness to breed. The blacker the vectral fin the more she is ready to spawn. It's just tell us that she has eggs in her body but not ready to spawn cos of the quantities.
Once she is fully ready, aga can lay up to more then a 100 eggs. Usually i've seen 80 or so eggs nothing more then a 100. Due to their size it's very difficult for them to produce so many eggs.
In a bigger tank, we can see the behaviour of some heram apisto brooders where one male will spawn with many females. The female will form their own breeding places whle the male will guard the whole area
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