newbie apisto experience

[cheeboonyong]

just wanna share my experience...

bought 2 cockatoos from biotope 2.5 weeks ago. i was feeding my community tank with tetrabits (no blood worms for me) and at first the apistos didn't want to eat the them. took them about 2-3 days before they finally relented. i was told cockatoos breed very easily but nothing happened, so i was patiently waiting...

this morning, got a pleasant surprise! i saw my female turning a pale yellow and agressively defending a small bog wood enclave. immediately suspected that the pair had spawned but couldn't see the eggs. suspect it's laid on the underside of the wood, so can't see due to angle. I really hope that this brood will hatch successfully, though i think chances of survival not very high, cos got a lot of tetras in the tank. the female is now chasing my "previously lord of the tank" corys away from the breeding site [] but the corys don't seem to get the msg leh... must chase all the time hee hee...

anyway, will updat this thread in a few days time when hopefully some fries hatch. think i'm hooked on apistos liao!!!

[benetay]

Congrats! On a side note do becareful of cory they do love to hunt on eggs while the tetra will snipe on the fry, survival rate may be very low but do not fear, trust your fishes to do the job, eventually a few will reach adulthood and thats a bonus for you.

DO update us![]

[cheeboonyong]

still no sight of any fries. but my female is now a bright pale yellow (err, bright, pale, quite contradictory hor?). don't know how to describe lah!

the breeding site is actually a drift wood which has 3 legs and an enclave in its centre. the eggs are probably on the underside of the enclave. due to the layout, there was a lot of fish traffic as my corys constantly pass through, greatly stressing out my female. decided to put some big pebbles to block one side. as a result, my corys are now no longer using the "Causeway", and a very happy female apisto...

By the way, the male is really lazy. doesn't really defend the nest. occasionally will chase my corys and SAEs away.

will update once fries hatch. can't wait man....hee hee...

[:]

[Simon]

kekekee... character varies from fish to fish... but most chasing will be by the female, the male is just there for extra protection, though sometimes, IMO the female is enough

[Trevor]

Why dont u lift up the driftwood ? If the driftwood is by the side of the tank, and if u dun wanna scare yr fish.

Place a mirror at an angle by the side of yr tank, so u can see whats underneath it. I thot females at this stage, the yellow should be very yellow and the lateral line and some fins will be super black ?

[Trevor]

Why dont u lift up the driftwood ? If the driftwood is by the side of the tank, and if u dun wanna scare yr fish.

Place a mirror at an angle by the side of yr tank, so u can see whats underneath it. I thot females at this stage, the yellow should be very yellow and the lateral line and some fins will be super black ?

Pardon my ignorance, maybe diff species diff characteristics

[cheeboonyong]

----------------
On 1/15/2003 9:44:15 AM

Why dont u lift up the driftwood ? If the driftwood is by the side of the tank, and if u dun wanna scare yr fish.

Place a mirror at an angle by the side of yr tank, so u can see whats underneath it. I thot females at this stage, the yellow should be very yellow and the lateral line and some fins will be super black ?

Pardon my ignorance, maybe diff species diff characteristics
----------------

didn't want to spook the female lah...

well, it's kinda of like dirty yellow, but very obvious. the lateral line and fins are indeed very black.

[Trevor]

Ohhhhhhh. Alright.

I think by now u can see fries already. Heh

Good luck and keep us updated dude.

[cheeboonyong]

YIPEE!!!

finally saw fries today. small little buggers.

so counting back to last Monday (today is Tuesday), the time for them to reach visible size is total of 8 days. Benetay was saying I should have seen the wrigglers by this time. not sure how to describe them actually. they're constantly on the gravel floor, able to swim a little distance, but they don't wriggle. so maybe I missed seeing their wriggling stage. maybe some experts can comment here.

my basic parameters are 0 dkh (carbonate hardness), 0 nitrite/nitrate & 6.5-7 ph (using colour to judge, not very accurate lah).

ok, so now what? how to take care of the fries? ok, ok, i know, must read from other threads to learn first. hee hee, too excited, must post to let everyone know first...[] [] []

[kenzo]

congrats on ur 1st batch of fries! []

[Allen_1971]

congrats! you're a grand daddy [] [] []

[benetay]

For feeding of fry in a community tank is pretty difficult but not impossible. I've done it last time, often i feed the fry with liquid food. i wake up earlier than they do to feed them. When the parents and fry are at "home", i'll spray some liquid fry food onto their "cave" and left them alone.

Breeding apisto in a community tank is not difficult it's the raising of the fry, even in speciment tanks, raising of the fry is the most difficult part of all.

[bEn88]

congrats to u ....
still waiting 4 my turn...

[cheeboonyong]

Thanks for all the congratulatory messages, but I'm sad to report that all my fries are now gone!

Only saw them for one day, then the next morning, didn't see them anymore. the female is also roaming around all over the tank now and not defending the cave anymore. strongly suspect either eaten by other fishs or by the female herself. sigh...but nevermind, will continue to provide good conditions, as should be expected from all fellow aquarists, and wait for the next brood. wait for my good news again...

[juggler]

Perhaps next time can siphon them out and put in a fry netting within the same tank. So predators can't get to them.

[bEn88]

sad to hear dat ....
[]

[Simon]

the most imprt thing here is they are able to spawn.. if u need to fine tune your setup

[benetay]

i will not encourage people to siphon out the fry, esp when they are so delicate, if you really want to see the fry, remove the whole media that the apisto had lay their eggs on. Artificially hatch them.

[cheeboonyong]

haha! female just spawned again. same spot. hopefully will have better results this time round.

so only about 6-7 days since the last batch of fries died. quite fast, eh?

Happy Chinese New Year to all!