Mikhail's Apistogramma bitaeniata "Tefe Bauana" pair

[mikhail]

Congrats on your spawn! Excellent male specimen you've got there, its great to see such good quality apistos o our shores again! Look forward to see the F1s grow up

Thanks eman. Yeah, hope I would be successful in raising the fries. They are on their 3rd day of free swimming now and I just realised that there are more of them - estimated 30-40 pcs. So far, they are getting more visible and stronger with their mom's guidance

[mobile2007]

If it's ok, can you pls PM me which LFS you got the pair from?

thanks

[mikhail]

If it's ok, can you pls PM me which LFS you got the pair from?

thanks

hi bro, as requested, PM-ed you already the LFS .

[SCOPE]

Congratulates on your breeding! Hope to hear more of this from you as the poison getting deeper...

[mikhail]

Congratulates on your breeding! Hope to hear more of this from you as the poison getting deeper...

Thanks bro joe. First time dealing with fries, a bit nervous . By the way, your fishes are also awesome - they have settled well in my tank. Regards.

[barmby]

tetra cannot see in the dark. net them immediately after you turn off the light

[mikhail]

tetra cannot see in the dark. net them immediately after you turn off the light

Hi colin, thanks for the suggestion. Actually, I am trying to do that and managed to net only 2; the other 2 tetras remain lurking in there but so far female is able to scare them away. I'm still waiting for the right oppurtunity to net them. These past 2 days, the female and fries remained outside of the cave during lights off. I don't want to disturb them. Netting is a bit impossible without lifting some of the branchy driftwood. I am also wanting to capture the male, but he will not go in front during night. To make matters worse, my surface is covered by floating Salvinia/Amazon frogbits and netting will surely mess up the surface and plants end up getting stuck. I guess I'll just let nature turns its course. So far, female is managing it well. Once in a while, male will go to the area where the fries are. Female will just do tail slapping and male will get the message and goes away. He will normally hang out at the java ferns or near the tank divider flaring to other apistos on separate section of tank. At times, both mother and father will chase away the tetra. But it's always the mother that attends to the fries. The fries are all swimming very freely and cloud their mother - such a rewarding sight .

Lesson learned: Don't put branchy driftwood in a breeding tank.

[bettabetter]

Congratualtions bro. The pair is awesome. Can you pm me the address of the shop where you purchase them. Thanks.

[barmby]

Blk 316B Ang Mo Kio St 31
#01-07

[SCOPE]

Blk 316B Ang Mo Kio St 31
#01-07

i guess there are one more pair here for grab....

[mikhail]

Updates:
======

After day 7 of fries free swimming, I noticed a significant reduction on the number of fries - almost 50% of the brood went missing within a span of 2 days. It could be the male or the female (caught her in the act) eating them. So I made the decision (since this is my first spawn) to get the fries out and try raising them myself. I placed the 7 day old fries (free swimming) in a clear plastic container with water from their source tank and let it float in the tank. I also placed lots of floating plants and a patch of moss in the container for their infusoria needs. So far, it's been working good. Last count of fries is 23. I am feeding them twice a day in very controlled manner using a dropper with micro worms and just recently newly hatched BBS. After each feeding, I would normally carefully syphon the excess food or any dirt/debris at bottom and slowly top up fresh water from the source tank. I've been doing this nursery routine everyday for 7 days already (now, fries are 14 days old) and so far no losses yet. In terms of size, they have grown a little bit already compared to their size the day they were separated.

Below are photos of them at Day 10 of free swimming (separated already for 3 days). The mom is still hanging with the fries even up to now and still in brooding color. The fries still recognise her and will sometimes follow their mom when she's on one side (as shown in 2nd photo).




I do know that it is best to leave the fries with their mom, but I would not want to risk further losses of the fries when their mom decides to eat them again. I will try to raise this 1st spawn and for the subsequent spawns, I will let the parents do it irregardless of the losses. Would be nice to get advice from you who had experienced doing this.

[mictok]

No problem to separate the fries from the female inorder to protect them from being eaten up.
I had tried to separate them after the spawn in 24 hrs time as the female has the record of eating the eggs at day 2/3.
Just make sure that the area is clearly allocated for the fries only as they will be defendless without the female.Put in moss and plenty of food for them,most importantly dont shift them to another tank unless you can use back 100% of the same water in the breeding tank as a slightly change in the water condition will kill a lot of fries.

[benetay]

Don't worry about the fries, i have hand raise them from eggs. Congrats on the spawn & more work ahead.

Cheers!

[celticfish]

Nice going Mikhail!
Just a thought for you... a little more java moss for the bottom?

Mum looks curious too!

[mikhail]

Hi bro mictok, Benetay, and celticfish. Thanks for your comments and for confirming that fries can be possibly raised through this method. I noted all your advices and suggestions and will add more moss to the container. Thanks and Regards!

[Sinubux]

Congratulations to your successful breeding of this beautiful specimen that you have on hand. Very well taken pictures.

[doppelbanddwarf]

Good luck in raising the fry!

[mikhail]

Hey guys,

It's been a while since I last updated this thread. Now, my F1 fries are already 1.5 months old and still doing okay. However, I've had great losses over the past weeks due to carelessness. Some due to over feeding and some due to fries escaped from the breeding net resulting to parents eating them. Disappointing especially the latter. that's part of the experience. Make mistakes, you learn. I hope I do better on the next batches. Now, only left with 8 pcs which I've already transferred to their own grow out tank. They are now more than 1 cm in length feeding on live BBS and microworms. So far, no more losses after the transfer.
Fries already showing lateral band and some blue on their faces...

Their father, getting more fatter...

[marle]

Sorry about your loss but i guess you can look forward to your next yield! Your F1s look really cute and daddy looks pissed.

[barmby]

Good job. The male is peaking.