Back into Apistos.. with a slight problem

[stormhawk]

Thanks cory.

I bought the cave at C328. It's from StarPet brand. You can find it in the tank just outside C328. Right beside the clinic to the right of the store from the front. There's a similar one from UP brand, but the opening is quite high. The UP one is a copy of the Dennerle shrimp/crayfish house, but in different colour.

I saw the decap bse, but there's 2 different brands. ANS and Waterlife. I think I'll wait a little bit. Waiting for aunty to restock the Cyclop-Eeze anyway. For now I have Liquifry No.1, boiled egg yolk and crushed NLS pellets as standby food.

The fry are still wriggling and the mother is guarding them. She tolerates the male, which is strange. Because the first pair of trifasciata I spawned some years ago, the female killed the male.

[cory]

Thanks for the information on the caves storm.

It will be good to wait for the new stocks of bse to come in, the one I bought (ANS brand) looks like old stock with dust already collected on the packaging.

Seems like you are well prepared , do keep us update & share some pictures if possible

[stormhawk]

5 days since I first saw the eggs, today I finally see the fry moving about slowly in the cave. The mother is still cautious about letting them go out into the open, but she is tolerant of the male's presence so far. They never really fight, sometimes out in the open feeding together.

Here's a blurry photo I took about 3 days ago at night:



You can see some fry hanging on the inner wall of the cave. Did not take any recent pictures, since I don't want to stress the female out. The fry should be free swimming by tomorrow or the day after I think.

[stormhawk]

Weeeee...

Dec 14th: the little ones have started to swim about and poke their heads around looking for food. The father and mother are guarding them. They've been very busy chasing away anything that comes close to their side of the divider.



The mother doing guard duty. She's a very attentive mother. I've seen her pick up stray fry, hold them in her mouth for some time, then spit them out at a safe spot. This brood of fry is huge. I think there's at least 50+ fry. Needless to say, I was shocked.

[burpz]

Happy for you bro! Hope they turn out well. So you cultured your "baby food"?

[cory]

50+ frys, that a large brood. You are having a very dutiful pair of trifasciata parent.

So in future we will know who to inquire if we were to search for Bolivian trifasciata apistogramma

[stormhawk]

Nope no culturing for now. They're taking Liquifry No.1 and powdered NLS pellets. I had to crush the pellets otherwise they couldn't swallow it. Getting BBS either tomorrow or Thursday. Weekend, I hope I can get live daphnia.

[burpz]

I see... So they are gobbling those up with no issues? I was wondering where to get microworm to seed the oats in the event I need them.

[stormhawk]

The fry are eating fine, but I have to mix the Liquifry in a small tub and use my turkey baster/bulb syringe to squirt it into the tank slowly. It forms a cloud of particles in the tank, and the fry go bonkers. I don't think any one is culturing microworms at the moment, perhaps maybe some betta breeders. I remember one who stayed in Bedok, and he used to sell them on the forum sales section.

Probably have to get a culture again from somewhere outside Singapore. Microworms are real easy to culture anyway.

[wychay]

50+ Have fun bro!

[stormhawk]

Yeah a lot of fun. I will probably go crazy just trying to house them.

Some pictures I took earlier:



The mother guarding her fry at night. She'd huddle them altogether in a tight group in 1 spot for the night.



Best picture so far, with my crappy handphone camera of the trifasciata "El Prado 07" male.

[burpz]

WE can house them for you bro...
With your handphone camera... Quite well taken... The little fella must have been very obedient...

[stormhawk]

Nope he was just in position flaring at the young male bitaeniata in the next partition. Sad to say though, I'm down to 3 fry or so. Apparently there was a gap in the divider that I did not cover up properly. They swam over into the partition with 3 juvenile trifasciata, and probably got snacked on.

Oh well, both the parents seem to be in spawning mode again. The female has been hiding underneath the Java Fern bunch. She did the same thing prior to spawning the first time round, so hopefully I'll get a second spawn going soon. Just upset to see 3 lonely fry running about, and the mother does not really care for them any more.

[mobile2007]

I like this picture, very nice.

Always got round 2 , then round 3... and so on.

Yeah a lot of fun. I will probably go crazy just trying to house them.

Some pictures I took earlier:



The mother guarding her fry at night. She'd huddle them altogether in a tight group in 1 spot for the night.

[SCOPE]

that picture is about mothering care....very well taken!

[stormhawk]

Easy to take it when lights are out.

But the mother only did this for the 1st week after the fry started being free-swimming. After that she doesn't really bother.

[burpz]

Hmm... How are the fries now?

[stormhawk]

Down to 3 last I checked. I mentioned a problem I had with the dividers earlier. Somehow some of them went over to one of the other partitions and got eaten.

[burpz]

Hope your 3 turn out beautiful, and better outcome in the next spawn.

[stormhawk]

Sad to say, all 3 remaining fry are gone. I did not see them about 2 days after my last post in this thread. Anyway the female has fattened up, so I hope they'll spawn again pretty soon. Got this pair from bro SCOPE too:



The picture doesn't do them justice, but the female is beautiful. Even at that small size she is showing some nice facial markings as per eremnopyge females.

Both of them have potential to be beauties later on. I must say a big thank you to SCOPE for this pair.