Back into Apistos.. with a slight problem

[stormhawk]

Took a video of my caca during the spawning. The female kept enticing the male to enter her "love nest".

YouTube- Caca.3GP

My female agassizii decides to make an appearance. She's ready to spawn but I haven't found the "perfect" male companion for her yet.

[riltz]

maybe you should remove the extra female first? casue the female looks very busy chasing her away. she might be over stressed after the fries become free swimming.

[stormhawk]

It's a community tank so I have no choice. In any case, the spawning female controls a fair bit of territory surrounding the coconut husk you see in the video. She spent about 1-2 hours enticing the male to spawn, but many times he chased her away. If I have to, I'll move the pair to their own tank. There's 2 other caca females, one being really small because it's constantly bullied by the female in the video, and the Orange Flash female. I have no other male caca in the tank.

[riltz]

Do you intend to keep the fries? If its a community tank will you remove the fries after they are of suitable size? Twenty over fries in a tank adds a lot of bioload and may be difficult for you to feed them.

[stormhawk]

It's a 4 foot community planted tank. If they do spawn again I'll remove the coconut husk and place it in a separate container. I know how it's like to feed the fry, but I do have a bulb syringe specifically for feeding them directly.

I did place the pair in a separate 1 foot breeding tank, but after I got the wilhelmi pair from wychay, I moved them back into the 4 foot tank.

[stormhawk]

The guys who guessed my other bitaeniata was a sneaker male, you were right.

I finally saw it growing the extensions. Today it was flaring at this new bitaeniata "female" I bought from C328 about a night ago:





Now I'm fairly certain I have a female. This one ignores the mirror, and almost always has that mid-body blotch, like brooding female bitaeniata. It has fairly short fins, with no dorsal extensions from what I see. Almost always hiding away from the 2 males.

So what do you guys think? Do I finally have a female?

[johnlim]

Hey guys, I just purchased what I think is a true pair of Apistogramma cacatuoides Triple Red from C328.



Best shot I got, since he keeps hiding and very seldom stays in one spot for long.



Close-up of the bugger hiding amongst my Vallisneria.

However I'm unsure if the "female" is a real female, or just another random sleeper/subdominant juvenile male. Have a look and let me know your opinions.


Outside her home.


Best shot I got so far, since she isn't cooperating very well.

Don't wish to clog up the sticky on sexing cacas so might as well post a new thread. By the way, the female's first 3 dorsal rays are lacking the extensions or lappets if you wish. She has a slightly truncate tail, with the upper tip gone. Probably got chomped sometime back. Has no extensions to the dorsal or anal fins. Her pelvic fins have that powder blue colour when she's not stressed, but back at the store they had black edges.

I tried feeding them with NLS pellets, but they ignored those. Guess it's time to get some frozen BW, maybe frozen Daphnia, and get me a BBS hatchery going.

hi how much you buy this true pair of Apistogramma cacatuoides Triple Red from 328 ...

[stormhawk]

I can't tell you the price, but it is affordable. However, many times they are not 1M/1F pairs, but instead 2M pairs. The smaller one in the packets/tanks can be sleeper/sneaker males.

[genes]

Female bitaeniata. She ignores the mirror probably because she is still new in your tank. Can see from the stress coloration. Once accustomed, females will also flare as much as the males.

[stormhawk]

Thanks for the confirmation genes. My friend told me separately via MSN that this time, my pick was correct.

I have to separate her from the alpha male, because he is extremely aggressive. He's been beating the other male into submission. I seriously need to get a bigger tank with dividers.

[joopsg]

That's what happen when you have a reverse trio.

[stormhawk]

Well setting up a new 2 ft tank like altezza's setup over this coming weekend. It'll be shared by the wilhelmi and bitaeniata pairs over 2-4 partitions. Depending on how I need it to be.

I'm moving the extra male to my 4 ft community tank, since I'm not planning on using him for breeding. Besides, if by some bad luck the bigger male conks out, at least I have a replacement male.

[stormhawk]

Okay guys, I just purchased a new 2 footer with the dividers and stuff:



Originally planned to get the low version of the 2 ft tank, but C328 didn't have dividers for that size so I bought a regular 2ft tank instead.

Now the thing is, I'm not sure whether to use sponge filters since I still have my Hailea 4-way airpump, or to resurrect my Eheim 2222 to filter the entire tank, since I'll probably seal off the gaps like what altezza did to his new tank. I'm still considering whether to use an Eden 501 instead.

I can't decide on the soil to use either, since I think there's very little difference between the GEX and ADA soils.

What would you guys recommend?

Planning to move the wilhelmi, bitaeniata and a newly acquired trifasciata pair (F2 from wild Bolivian stock) into this tank. I will leave 1 partition empty, perhaps to grow out any fry. Big thank you to retro_gk for the trifasciata pair and 3 young fry.

[doppelbanddwarf]

I would definitely go for ADA africana as substrate since it seems to be able to give the lowest pH. This way even if you get species which requires very low pH in the future you wouldn't have to change the substrate.

As for filtration I think sponge filter would be better since the tank will be partitioned. A single cannister filter might not be effective for all 4 partitions.

[stormhawk]

I did have Africana some time back, but I threw the whole lot away when my previous collection of fishes died off. Would using Amazonia II be a better option? I feel Apistos feel more at home over a darker bottom. I was considering re-using the fine sand I have in my current 2 x 1 ft tanks instead of the more expensive ADA/GEX soils.

What's the pH buffering capability of the different soils? Do you have any idea? I know that the green? bag of GEX soil buffers the pH at 6.4 almost constantly.

I'm still out on the filtration part. My 2222 requires a brand new set of media and new hoses. Perhaps using the sponge filters would be kinder on the wallet.

[genes]

A 2footer with 3 partitions seems a tad too small in my opinion. I would prefer just 2 pieces of those plastic partitions. Although they do not need a big surface area, but they do require a bigger ground area. Making the tank into such small partitions, you risk certain death if either the male or the female (usually male) turns territorial. Use ADA africana and sera peat combination to get a pH of 5 and below. Some apistos spawn more readily in such conditions. But to achieve below 5, be mindful of acid burns on the fish that can cause instant death.

You will need to block off those circular holes in the partitions. Even the gaps at the edges. These partition holders creates a gap to hold the plastic in place. Fries will definitely swim through without a doubt and becomes expensive life feed for the neighbors. Females may get trapped and die in the circular holes when they try to squeeze through when running away from an aggressive male. I have tried all these before hence i settled finally for a tank with glass partitions and silicone to the main tank to overcome the problems.

Goodluck! Looks like a really cool setup coming up though.

[stormhawk]

Thanks for the recommendations genes. TBH I bought an extra divider by accident. I wanted to make 3 partitions instead of 4.

Since I have a trio of juvenile trifasciata fry to grow out, I decided to use the extra divider and make it 4 partitions. I'll probably resize the partitions and make one a little narrower just for the juveniles. When they're bigger I'll move them elsewhere. Besides, it'll be a great space to condition my other females or to save them from extra aggressive males. My current dominant bitaeniata male is currently very aggressive.

Do you have a recommendation as to which filter I should use? A set of sponge filters, 1 per partition or either my Eheim 2222 or an Eden 501?

[genes]

Use all you can. Sponge per partition plus eden. There is never enough filtration in a tank. So over-filtrate as much as you possibly can.

What i would do is.
1) 1 sponge filter per partition
2) Run the eden501.
3) DIY and modify (if need be) the eden outlet and connect it to a another 2ft OHF.
4) If possible, try to connect a UV sterilizer.

The above are my breeding setup previously. But on top of the 4, i also added GEX box filters filled with biohome instead of the wools that it comes with per partition.

[stormhawk]

Thanks again genes.

Now I remember why my 4 footer is stable. I rigged up the rainbar in the in-built OHF within the hood and set my 2026 output to link up to the rainbar. I'll find an OHF set and a lighting system later today at Y618, or I'll wait till tomorrow to visit C328 again to get the matching set for this GEX MR-600N tank. I think they have the light and OHF from GEX.

[altezza_87]

hey storm you are doing the same setup already! woo..! i would love to have genes kind of setup, glass tank with glass partition but too poor to custom one. for filtration if you can why not put 1 bubble filter for each partitions and one canister for overall. cleaner water lesser water problems. and lucky you got the tall 2ft tank, they got more space to dart around when being chased.

use ada soil! haha. uncle from Y618 told me the pH for ada soil initial setup is 4+, after cycle is 5+. thats why i used it, previously i was using lava rock but doubt it was good enough. once i change to the ada soil, the colors of my apisto come out really nice.