james1542's 20L-Apistograms and flood lights

[james1542]

Last night, it looked like the majority of them were turning white, not fungused up yet but white. There were probably around 10 that still looked viable. I didn't really shine a light on them this morning, I'm hoping the few viables have hatched by now.

[james1542]

Ok. New update, tonight I found 13 T. candidi hatched out. The rest of the eggs didn't make it. Due to the minimal fungus on them, and what I've read, I'm guessing they just didn't find the pH low enough. I've got some of Gordons IAL on the way, which should help with future spawns. They are tiny things, with an adhesive gland on their heads that makes them stick to the bottom. After putting them into the rearing container, the male Borelli quickly demonstrated how he can suck them through the screen. So now there are 12 and in a safe enclosure (critter keeper small, with pantyhose screened overflow) Clipped to the side of the tank.

[ApplestoApples]

Congrats on the spawn! What is the proper name for Gordons IAL I cant find them on the web. Some type of rotifer?

[james1542]

Oh IAL is India Almond Leaves, They will leach tannins into the water, which have lots of interesting properties, such as binding to heavy metals, along with anti-microbial properties. They also lower pH, and all of those factors should improve incubation success. Oh and Gordon sells them on the forum here.

For their food, I've got some microworm cultures going-for those who breed fish and haven't tried this, it is super easy.

I've actually got a second batch of eggs going now, The bitaeniata had their first spawn a few days ago, last night I saw the female roughed up the flap on the back side of her operculum some how, shes doing fine and eating and tending the spawn, so I decided it was time to take the duties over, and Grabbed the clay pot (I quickly replace it with an empty one, so she keeps working in there for a few days and the male still thinks shes doing her job). There were just 10 eggs left, but they all look viable and pigmented. Hopefully I'll be raising some T. candidi and A. bitaeniata. The T. candidi that hatched out seem to be doing just fine, still absorbing the yolk.

[scapegoat]

nice, I love apistos. whats youre whole breeding set up like? I've got a pair of kirbs that breed, and produce 80+ fry at a time, but they don't survive more than a week with their parents. been thinking of scooping them into a breeder box next time, i just dont really have a place to put larger fry...

[james1542]

I'm pretty much stuck doing every thing in this 20L for now. With all of the fish in there, despite being a medium sized bioload, there is pretty much no hope for the parents to raise the fry. Plus the filter's are not fry safe and I don't really want to screen them off to be. So rearing them by hand is the only option. Once the fry are large enough to avoid being eaten by a large male bitaeniata, I plan to release them back into the tank to grow out. Basically they are in a custom built breeder box, with an inflow. The inflow is just an airline tube crammed up the output of a canister filter.

It will get complicated though, and I may need a lot more breeder boxes, as the the T. candidi femlae is spawning like every 3 weeks, and you can only mix diffrent spawns that are relatively close in age. Plus the incubating eggs need their own chamber, as do the sacfry.

[MiniFishRoom]

Congrats on the candidis

You should really get them in a species only tank.

[james1542]

Thanks, Yea I wish I could give all my dwarfs their own breeding tank, soon I hope to have a fish room with a small rack system and at least a good 4x10 gallon breeders. For now they are holding their own, they are pretty aggressive, not worse than an apisto, but for their tiny stature the breeding female fears nothing. She fattens up within days after the spawn, and is usually ready to go again in a few weeks.

The candidi fry got some microworms for the first time, they seem to be eating them. They are about to lift off the bottom and are scooting around upright like they are ready to eat. Hopefully the next batch will have a good number of survivors. This is a good training round though.

[vstone]

Sweet journal mate

[MiniFishRoom]

How's the breeding coming along?

[james1542]

Update: So in the last 24 hours the Borelli pair spawned, and the candidi's did it again. The best part, they both chose the hand made cave, in the most popular piece of real estate in the tank. So the Borelli spawned a good 12 hours before, on the outside of the cave! I wasn't actually sure she had spawned, because I couldn't get a view of the eggs, but all signs indicated she was busy back there with something. Then the next morning, I see the t. candidi went inside the same cave, and plastered it with eggs. Add on this, there are fish flying around everywhere in this part of the tank, because it's in the front right corner where they often get fed. So i have no choice but to pull the cave, the best part, the hot glue cave made of rocks, crumbles, quickly when picked up, So i put the pieces of rock with eggs into the "incubator". The borelli and candidi's had actually laid eggs on the same wall of the cave, just on different sides. I've got about 5 almond leaves in the tank now, so the water is starting to get a bit of a tint to it. The plants are growing like mad! I'm having to trim them every other day it seems or it will be wall to wall plants. The feeding fry are doing well, They are loving daily microworms.
Shown are the tank, the Borelli pair, the candidi pair, the fry rearing fun center, the egg incubator with rocks from the now demolished cave, and last but not least some hungry fry, either T. candidi or A. bitaeniata.

[ReluctantHippy]

Looks great! You've got quite a bit going on in that little tank of yours. Absolutely beautiful and obviously very healthy with all the baby making going on. Very well done.

[bryony]

Do IAL work better than peat moss? Or am I just old fashioned... Also, you really make me want to breed dwarf cichlids again!

[MiniFishRoom]

That's Awesome!
The tank is looking crazy wild too. I Like It!

[james1542]

Thanks for the kind words. Since there are many different species of "tannins", I'm guessing the makeup of the tannins released from peat and IAL are very different, but I think both will lower the pH and do all that good stuff tannins are supposed to do. IAL are easy, I just threw some whole leaves in my canister filter, didn't have to bag it up or anything. Not sure where you would buy peat moss any more-would sphagnum moss from home depot be fine?