n25philly
New Member
- Messages
- 10
Hi everyone, how are you doing? I'm new here (first post) but not new to Apistos. I am new to their breeding, or at least successful breeding. It's actually been a crazy week as all my fish decided to breed at once. I had one group of bolvian ram eggs and two groups of cacatoiudes eggs hatch in around a 12 hour period (fortunately not all in the same tank.
Anyway, the apistos decided to start breeding one week after I got them and both females (I have a trio) apparently got ready to breed at the same exact time. One laid her eggs on the outside of one of the caves while the other laid her somewhere around the driftwood at the other end of the tank and I didn't even realize that she even had eggs until I saw her corralling wigglers. Everything hatched yesterday afternoon.
It seems to be a story of two different moms though. The one that laid them by the cave seems to be a very good mom for a first timer. She's been very diligent watching over them and no one including her has seemed to have eaten any. Then again she picked a good spot as I think she is the only fish in the tank that actually knows that they are there. How active should the fry be at the pre-free swimming stage. They are definitely alive as there is movement, but there is very little. When I look at them they almost look like eggs as none are moving and then I will see a few wiggle around here and there. I ask because with the ram fry, the mom plopped them all right down in front of the glass so I was able to get a good look at them with no obstruction and they were all very actively wiggling.
The other mom I think needs practice. She moved all the fry into the substrate out into the open. The tank is very heavily planted and has a decent amount of carpeting so even from the beginning it was really hard to see the fry. I think they've all been eaten. I'm pretty sure I saw the male eating some yesterday and today the female is still hanging out in the area but doesn't seem to be watching over anything and I see no movement on the substrate in that area. Not sure exactly what happened though.
I have a big bag of baby brine shimp eggs, a hatchery and frozen baby bine shrimp for feeding. Will that be enough or should I get something more or some variety in food?
The tank is a 20 gallon and at work so I don't really have the ability to set up another tank for the babies and kind of want the parents to do their job and raise them. (with my help of course) I'm not looking to be a breeder, so I don't need every single one to survive. The tank is understocked and overplanted. The group that hasn't been eaten is actually placed on an indian almond leaf, so they will have the micro organisms to feed on there when they are ready as well. Am I on the right track here? Anything else I should be doing? All help will be greatly appreciated! Sorry this was a little long
Anyway, the apistos decided to start breeding one week after I got them and both females (I have a trio) apparently got ready to breed at the same exact time. One laid her eggs on the outside of one of the caves while the other laid her somewhere around the driftwood at the other end of the tank and I didn't even realize that she even had eggs until I saw her corralling wigglers. Everything hatched yesterday afternoon.
It seems to be a story of two different moms though. The one that laid them by the cave seems to be a very good mom for a first timer. She's been very diligent watching over them and no one including her has seemed to have eaten any. Then again she picked a good spot as I think she is the only fish in the tank that actually knows that they are there. How active should the fry be at the pre-free swimming stage. They are definitely alive as there is movement, but there is very little. When I look at them they almost look like eggs as none are moving and then I will see a few wiggle around here and there. I ask because with the ram fry, the mom plopped them all right down in front of the glass so I was able to get a good look at them with no obstruction and they were all very actively wiggling.
The other mom I think needs practice. She moved all the fry into the substrate out into the open. The tank is very heavily planted and has a decent amount of carpeting so even from the beginning it was really hard to see the fry. I think they've all been eaten. I'm pretty sure I saw the male eating some yesterday and today the female is still hanging out in the area but doesn't seem to be watching over anything and I see no movement on the substrate in that area. Not sure exactly what happened though.
I have a big bag of baby brine shimp eggs, a hatchery and frozen baby bine shrimp for feeding. Will that be enough or should I get something more or some variety in food?
The tank is a 20 gallon and at work so I don't really have the ability to set up another tank for the babies and kind of want the parents to do their job and raise them. (with my help of course) I'm not looking to be a breeder, so I don't need every single one to survive. The tank is understocked and overplanted. The group that hasn't been eaten is actually placed on an indian almond leaf, so they will have the micro organisms to feed on there when they are ready as well. Am I on the right track here? Anything else I should be doing? All help will be greatly appreciated! Sorry this was a little long