New pickup; wild A.Bitaeniata :o

[nijrem]

I couldnt' resist any longer..
These fish caught my eye several weeks ago, and were still at the LFS and healthy today. Obviously I was debating wether to try caring for wild caught Apistogramma as they are more sensitive, as I understand. But I've decided to give it my best shot.

3 small females, a bigger male and a small (skinny aswell) male. They all seem quite young, but old enough to sex anyway.
They're in their new tank with 15 black neons and a small ancistrus.
Saw no need to quarantine them; I've seen them in the shop for weeks; and the black neons came from that place aswell. They treat all their new arrivals for parasites and disease in their own Q tanks.

They look 'happy' to be out of the shop, exploring the tank and probably establishing territories. The larger male picked his coconut already, the smaller spent a lot more time exploring, but seems to have settled on the opposite side of the tank. I'm guessing he didnt get much chance to feed in the smaller LFS tank, hope he'll gain some weight soon.
Most of them are still quite small as I said; some of the black neons actually harass the Apisto females a bit but they in turn don't seem to be bothered enough to actually hide.

I'll try to get some decent pictures but managed to get a half decent one of one of the females.

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[Josh]

Glad to see someone's already using the mobile app!

But more importantly sounds like you got a good little group. Can't wait to see some photos of them all. Keep us updated on their progress - especially that less dominant male

 

[nijrem]

Love the Tapatalk functionality the forum got!

And I'll be sure to watch them closely, though i suppose that goes without saying. The 'big' male only pops his head out of the cave rarely, the smaller ones were happily feeding on artemia earlier.


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[raymond82]

Very nice species, I'm very curious about the pictures!

Hey Raymond, I'm curious where you found them?
(on the constant lookout for good places to find dwarf cichlids )

you asked me this question a while ago, i'm gonna ask you the same now

I'm curious to know which shops in Holland (regularly) carry wild caught fish, I have the feeling there aren't many.

 

[apistodave]

Very nice species, I'm very curious about the pictures!



you asked me this question a while ago, i'm gonna ask you the same now

I'm curious to know which shops in Holland (regularly) carry wild caught fish, I have the feeling there aren't many.

Do you know Johann Van Wakeren??

 

[nijrem]

Got them at Verduijn actually. They had some wild Borelli and another species I can't remember. And these guys (and girls). I waited for over 2 weeks to buy these, didn't really expect them to be there for so long but I finally decided to take all they had left.


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[raymond82]

Do you know Johann Van Wakeren??

I do know him, he's actually the one who sold me the Vielfleck's that I bought recently. I know he has access to a lot of nice fish from Germany but I never heard him about wild caught specimens.

Got them at Verduijn actually.

I see, I have never been there but I'm curious to see what they have. I check their website from time to time but I didn't know they also sell wild fish sometimes.

 

[apistodave]

I would ask Johan, he knows a lot of people and probably has access

 

[nijrem]

Sad news, just a couple of days after adding them, the big male died, somehow. Barely saw him the first couple days, he pretty much stuck to the cave. Today I decided to check the coconut he picked.
Found him inside, dead. No external damage.

Drip tested the water, checked parameters, nothing bad there. (though my water is about 0.5 softer than the tank they came from but I took plenty of time to get them used to it)

It might be worth mentioning he was hiding at the LFS aswell; we only found him when actually catching the females and skinny male. I've spent quite a lot of time looking at the tank they were in, and seeing him was a big surprise actually. To me, he looked healthy, though perhaps a bit stressed. (who wouldn't be after weeks in a small living space..)

I can't really find any good reason why he should have died. I've frozen him now, taking him back to the LFS on Wednesday for them to take a look, maybe offer some money back, though in the end I couldn't care less about the money.

Worried, but as I said; I can't see anything wrong with the water or tank/decoration.

(adding some pics)

(skinny male)

(the little school, and an idea of what the environment is)

(one of the females)

(the male again.)



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[nijrem]

Could it somehow be that the small male was the dominant one and the big one was just bullied/stressed to death by the bullying and moving to the new tank?
I haven't seen them getting into fights at all (mr big just stayed in the cave) but it seems 'mr skinny' claimed the older males cave now. (that was my first clue there was something wrong with the big guy)

An overview of what the environment looks like at the moment. In the back, there are 2 '2/3rd' coconuts and one half coconut under the wood. The bogwood branch on the top side has some algae growing on it; I'm reducing light for now to a bit less than 6 hours; I probably had it on a bit much. There are 5 big catappa leaves, mostly in the back aswell. The terracotta shard in the front is popular to both the male and the 3 females.
2 echinodorus species; tenellus in the front and bleheri (iirc) in the back. I'd like to add some more (suggestions are
welcome)

Another thing I'd like is to have more tannins in the water (and reducing ph a bit more; tap is 7.8, tank is now around 7.0). The filter has peat in it, but it doesn't seem to really make the water darker much. (filter is Eheim 2213, filled with siporax (mech), coarse pad, substrat pro, peat, a fine filter pad and a carbon pad) maybe I should remove that final carbon pad?
Thinking of trying Sera Blackwater conditioner instead of Aquatan; any opinion on those products?

Also; there is one male guppy in the tank (the little pioneer). I thought of letting him stay in there but he seems to want to mate with everything and annoy the neons and apisos. I'm guessing rehousing him is a good idea..? (back to his brother and sisters in another tank)

Thanks in advance




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[slimbolen99]

I'd guess the "skinny male" had some sort of infection of some sort -- I've had a few apistos and other fish develop this condition and they typically die...but I never treat for anything, nor do I know what it is...soooooo...

BTW...that is a great looking tank.

 

[nijrem]

Couldn't read your whole post in this app; it wasn't the skinny one that died, it was the one that actually looked healthy and was bigger. The skinny one seems active, and dominant towards females aswell, displaying fins, chasing them, same behaviour my old agassizii male displayed, more or less.


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[nijrem]

Little update;

The females, though small, look well.
The male; still a bit skinny, still clamping his fins a bit, but I'd swear he's gaining weight and getting more comfortable; his fins are starting to relax more.

All of them are pretty much white, light coloured with a tiny bit of yellow and electric blue spots.
Any idea where they came from? All I know is they're wild caught.

The other inhabitants show less interest in them, apart from the male guppy that still seems to try and mate with every fish I the tank. Even I get annoyed watching him so I'll probably end up removing him soon.


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[nijrem]

Little update;

All 4 of them seem to be doing well. The male is still gaining weight and looks healthy now!
He's even begun trying to initiate mating, the females don't seem too interested though and this erupted into a little fight I just witnessed. No serious damage done, but I see a little 'split' in the male's caudal fin.

They're steadily getting a bit more coloring, mostly yellow. It can get a bit confusing how much they can change their colors depending on their moods. All three females are a different size, that helps me keep track of them at least and the male is easy to recognize anyway.

Wish I didn't have to rely on my iPhone for pictures, as these always seem to turn out unrealistic. Will be borrowing a decent camera soon



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[Gwendal]

Really nice fish, and nice aquarium.





1 saludo

 

[GM Amor]

indeed, they looks all pretty

 

[Skye01]

I have experience using the Sera Blackwater Extract and I find that it works a dream and definitely darkens and softens the water a bit too. I currently use it in my Betta setups as well as all my Apisto tanks, it's a really good product.

HTH

 

[nijrem]

Hmm... Found something on the wall

Don't suppose those are going to survive but, we'll see


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