My Apistogramma amadeus eggs hatched

[cory]

Hi All,

Last night I discovered that my Amadeus pair had actually spawned last week & lots of fries were hovering on top of the coconut shell together with mommy. The female had not shown any signs of spawning for the past few days, only till last night saw lots of tiny wiggles together with the female.

I wondered have I done the right thing by siphoning the fries to another container as the dither fishes in the tank were all closing in to the fries & the female kept on chasing them away. The dither fishes were added into the 2 footer only last week, consist of 6 glowlight & 6 neon tetras, 2 gold algae eaters & 1 aggie female.

Currently the fries were housed in a 12" x 8" x 6" (LxWxH) container with a sponge filter. Fed them with liquidfry last night.

Can I feed them with decap BSE at this stage? Find that they are really tiny.

Much appreciate for any advice & comments.

[stormhawk]

You did the right thing in transferring them to another container, but you should also watch out for fungus.

If you are using Liquifry to feed them, make sure there is some mosses in there so microscopic animals can thrive and feed them as well. At this stage you should use live microworms or Daphnia. Most Apisto fry can easily eat these and newly hatched BBS right away. Some fry will not touch decap BSE if they are more used to food moving around. So a mix of decap BSE + BBS might work.

A magnifying glass to observe the fry will easily let you know if they can handle the food items or not.

[cory]

Thanks for the prompt advice storm.

Can I feed them with frozen Daphnia from hikari? Currently only have liquidfry, decap bse & frozen daphnia at home. Think only have time to get bbs on weekend, hopefully they can survive till then.

Maybe I will try egg yolk too

[stormhawk]

Don't. The frozen Daphnia is just a pile of dead Daphnia with their shells minus the "nutrition". If small fish like Boraras don't take them, it's not worth it.

You can buy live Daphnia and gut load them with Liquifry or some other microscopic food to increase their nutrition value. Since some fry will not eat Liquifry at all, might as feed it to the Daphnia and then feed Daphnia to the fry. Same can be done with BBS, because once they do their first molt, their mouth will develop and they can be fed with Astaxanthin etc., to make them more nutritious.

Newly hatched BBS are bright pink/orange in colour. This is when they are best used, as their yolk sac is not yet used up. As they change color to a whitish tinge, they lose their nutrition value without being fed something else.

[cory]

Really appreciate for the great advice storm

Tonight will feed them with bse to tahan first till weekend. Is live daphnia & bbs difficult to acquire as in timing must be right? Usually what I saw in c328 during my visits they only have some packets of sea monkey & live feeders on the rack.

[stormhawk]

For BBS, if you buy from C328, you must go early. I think the first batch arrives in the late morning when aunty opens for business. Usually sold out before noon to 1pm or so. Maybe until 2-3 pm might have one or two bags but most of them usually dead. They restock twice a day. I think second restock is after 5-6pm or so. Also the same thing, must be fast or out of stock.

I think Polyart sells BBS too, but what I recall is that they hatch it freshly themselves. I saw their hatchery unit at the side of the shop near their live food corner. Don't know how frequent they restock their BBS, but worth a try as well if you are at C328 for supplies.

For live daphnia, you can purchase them fresh in the mornings till afternoon depending on the stock of the LFS. I think since you live at Tiong Bahru, you should give Ah Kiong at the Redhill wet market a try.

Bro Puffer gave this info:

5-minute walk from Redhill MRT station (E-W line). Take bus no.32,33,132,63,145. Bus 63 stops directly outside the market. Apologies I don't have his contact number.

He has stock in every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and I think Sunday as well between 3 - 6 pm.

Good enough since a bag can last you 2, maybe 3 days if you feed frequently. I get my supply from Hong Yang at CCK Interchange.

[cory]

Thanks once again for the info & advice storm

[cory]

Would like to share something I have learnt from this spawn:

Dither fish really works for apistogramma.

I have conditioned the male & 2 females for spawning for a few weeks in the 2ft tank but to no avail. Added a thermometer to increase the temperature & peat to bring down the pH still no results. The male either kept on chasing the 2 females or hid in caves only. Eventually decided to add some dither fish & the spawning / hatching occurred.

[Wackytpt]

I suggest you take away the golden algae eater. They are aggressive.

[SCOPE]

Congrates to your Apistogramma Agassizi rio "Amadeus"! This is very beautiful Agassizi variant.

[cory]

Thanks SCOPE,

This is my first time handling apisto frys, hope that they can survive & grow to adulthood.

[cory]

I suggest you take away the golden algae eater. They are aggressive.

Hi Wackytpt,

Thanks for the advice. Any recommendation on any fish that are efficient algae cleaner, not aggressive & apisto friendly?

Agreed with you that the GAE are agressive, noticed a few times they tried to force their way into the frys & female cave but they are really very efficient algae eater

[goody992828]

Congrats for the spawn, go for Otto, a peace maker, and able to survive the harrasment of your Apisto.

[stormhawk]

Otocinclus should be fine, but make sure they can hide too from the Apisto pair.

[SCOPE]

small cories may be better to take bite from apisto

[cory]

Thanks to all bros for all the kind advices

I better remove the algae eater these few days in case the pair spawn soon.

Did a count last night, around 30+ frys still surviving with only few casualties. Really tiny mini frys

[SCOPE]

yes, Agassiz spawn very fast.....almost every 20+ days cycle