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Please help with new born(s)

Crazy Bunny

New Member
Messages
12
Location
San Francisco, California
Just arrived this great board to meet all of the Apistogramma lover !!
Saying HELLO to every one with my warm greeting. ;-)

I am totally new on this hobby, However I have learn "A LOT".

So now I owned this gorgeous species Apistogramma Cacautoides (2 Male and 3 females)
and yesterday I saw lots (20 to 30) of free swimmers guarding by their mother.
:)

Not knowing that I will have such as luck to get those spawn. And as I am the big mother of them.
I do not want to starve those little guys.
So here is my question:

1. How long do the free swimmers can survives without any food that that can eat ?
( I have already order some BBS eggs and try to learn how to hatch them, but it won't happen within a day)

2. Should I take their mother and her babies away to other tank ?
(My tank seems peaceful. other then Cacautoides, I have 3 tetra on my 18 gallons tank, but seeing their mother
"On Alert" at all time stress me out) lol.

3. If all the free swimmers die (Knock on the wood), Will that pair get another patch ? or that's it for a year ?
(I have no idea where the fry is, all I see just swap of free swimmers that their mother have hard time to keep up with)

Please advise, all the expertise will greatly appreciated.

Thanks a bunch.
CB
 

dw1305

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
2,755
Location
Wiltshire UK
Hi all,
Keep the fry and the female together in the tank. It depends a little bit on what type of Tetra they are, but the females are good parents (as you've already noticed).

They are likely to carry on spawning, although you may find that you have to take the non-dominant male out to save him from attack.

You need to feed the fry something that wriggles until the BBS are ready. You need movement to elicit the feeding response in Cichlid fry, with a bit of luck once they've started on the live food they will sample the dry food fed at the same time. I have Banana Worm and Vinegar Eel cultures, they are very low maintenance and you can keep them on "stand-by".

At the moment squeeze out a filter sponge for them. There are a lot of <"Rotifers"> in the filter mulm.

I usually put the sponge (or ceramic media etc) into a beaker of water, give it a good scrunch up and down, and then let the mulm etc settle out for ~10 minutes. After 10 minutes very carefully pour most of the water off (leaving the mulm layer). Then swirl the remaining water and mulm around to concentrate it in the central vortex. While the filter is turned off, tip the mulm/water mix into the fry cloud. I usually make sure I have a big chunk of moss in the tank, and this tends to very effectively retain the mulm within the moss tangle.

Have a look at <"How can I feed Ram fry">, <"Breeding Mikrogeophagus..... "> & <"German Ram wrigglers">. Apistogramma fry are a bit bigger then Ram fry, so can take BBS straight away.

cheers Darrel
 
Last edited:

Crazy Bunny

New Member
Messages
12
Location
San Francisco, California
Thank you so much Darrel !!!
I went out to my LFS and lucky I got some BBS eggs and start hatching yesterday.
I just follow the basic youtube thing and guess what... The wife just called and told
me there's over load of little flea thing swimming around. I thought I will be fail on that cuz' I don't even have heater and my bathroom is cold.
So I can't wait !! to run home to feed those babies.

It came up not just one female got babies, is 2 !!!!
they both guarding their babies and sometimes they fight (Ouch)
The sub-dom. are quietly stay on the other side with another smaller female while all the tetra stay on the top.

Is that anywhere I can post any short video here ?
I am excited to share it to you guys ! ;-)

J
 

Larry Rogers

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
91
Just arrived this great board to meet all of the Apistogramma lover !!
Saying HELLO to every one with my warm greeting. ;-)

I am totally new on this hobby, However I have learn "A LOT".

So now I owned this gorgeous species Apistogramma Cacautoides (2 Male and 3 females)
and yesterday I saw lots (20 to 30) of free swimmers guarding by their mother.
:)

Not knowing that I will have such as luck to get those spawn. And as I am the big mother of them.
I do not want to starve those little guys.
So here is my question:

1. How long do the free swimmers can survives without any food that that can eat ?
( I have already order some BBS eggs and try to learn how to hatch them, but it won't happen within a day)

2. Should I take their mother and her babies away to other tank ?
(My tank seems peaceful. other then Cacautoides, I have 3 tetra on my 18 gallons tank, but seeing their mother
"On Alert" at all time stress me out) lol.

3. If all the free swimmers die (Knock on the wood), Will that pair get another patch ? or that's it for a year ?
(I have no idea where the fry is, all I see just swap of free swimmers that their mother have hard time to keep up with)

Please advise, all the expertise will greatly appreciated.

Thanks a bunch.
CB
Some will breed continuously for six months and some once or twice a season. I advocate a "dirty" tank for apistos. The fry will graze algea beds and sides of tank until they can take larger fare. Most newborn apistos feed off of bacteria and infusoria for the first two days they are free-swimming.
 

Crazy Bunny

New Member
Messages
12
Location
San Francisco, California
Some will breed continuously for six months and some once or twice a season. I advocate a "dirty" tank for apistos. The fry will graze algea beds and sides of tank until they can take larger fare. Most newborn apistos feed off of bacteria and infusoria for the first two days they are free-swimming.

Larry you are exactly right !!! they sort of like those "Dirty" tank.
My tank have minimum amount of plants just sand bottom, lots of decay almond leaves and cholla woods and alder cones..etc.
And the fry just LOVES to stay at the most "Dirty" side of the tank. swimming in & out of those cholla woods and nimb on those decay leaves.
Am trying to use a 10x magnify glass to see what are they eating but can't see it.... too damn small.. lol.

Sit in front of the tank and trying to count how many fry exactly is fun.... lol.

Thanks for the advise again. :)
CB
 

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