Taeniacara Candidi

[Matt2609]

Hey...
New to the forum, but seems really nice here, and I've already read a few threads through.

Anyway.. I'm here to ask you guys about Taeniacara Candidi, as I'm planning on buying a few of these beautiful fish. I already know where I can buy them here in Denmark, and I have a 54 liter tank (about 14 gallon) set up. And it has been maturing for a few months now.
At the moment the tank has a few cryptocorynes and some Limnobium Laevigatum with roots that almost reach the bottom. I've also added some Ketapang leaves and roots. Some of the roots has Leptodictyum Riparium attached and I have a good portion Fissidens sp. from Singapore (Phoenix Moss) which I'm gonna add as well. I'll add some caves and more roots ASAP. and The I'm really unsure whether or not I'll be needing more plants? And also how many of the Taeniacara Candidi I'll be able to keep in the tank? I've read a lot of different things about them being agressive and everyone seems to be saying different things.

And as a last problem I've got the water parameters, I'm aware of the fact that these fish require a very low total hardness, as well as a very acid environment. About a pH 5 if I'm correct? So far I've achieved a total hardness of >7 and a pH of about 6, with ketapang, peat filtering and roots. However I'm unsure of these conditions are acceptable for breeding. Or should I buy a reverse osmosis kit?

Hope you guys can help me out, and hope there's someone around with some personal experience as well!

 

[slimbolen99]

My experience with T. canditi may be an exception, but I had six in a semi-heavily planted 4 foot long 75 gallon aquarium, and now I have two who have paired up. The other four were destroyed. Good luck with them...there are others here with much more experience than I, just thought I'd throw that out there.

 

[Matt2609]

Every bit of information is appreciated.
Just saw a video clip on youtube where he kept two pairs in a 5.5 gallon tank without any problems. The two males weren't physically harming each other in their territorial fights, it just seemed like they were using waterblows. Don't know what else to call it. Can give you a link if you want to see it for your self

 

[Matt2609]

Bought what's supposed to be a trio today, they're not fully grown yet, so it was hard to tell the difference. But I'm pretty sure I got a trio.
Still hoping someone with breeding experience will drop by the thread..

 

[wethumbs]

The male has much longer ventral fins as well as longer and pointier spadetail. The tail feature can be used to sex them as young as 8 weeks old. They can be very aggressive towards each other as mentioned earlier. Since they form pair, the extra female will need to be rehome in the future. The aggression can go both way so a lot of hiding places and breakup the LOS is important. You will need RO water or rain water and drop the pH to 5 or less to encourage spawning. When I was breeding them over 15 years ago, I was consistently getting 90% females out of 10+ spawns, so you will have to experiment with external factors to bring a more balance sex ratio. Typically, in the LFS you will also see predominantly females, I was just checking out a group of two dozen or so candidi from a local wholesaler recently and he got maybe 3 to 4 males. Someone on the forum recently claimed they have a 50/50 sex ratio under a wide range of conditions. I know that's not true but his 'wide range' maybe pretty narrow from others prespective.

 

[Matt2609]

Alright thanks I'll get a RO-kit as soon as possible so I can drop my pH lower.
I've also noticed that the supposed male (he has slightly longer ventral fins) is trying to take over the whole aquarium and at the moment the three fish are constantly flashing when they pass by each other. And the two supposed females are just swimming around in the tank together.

 

[Chromedome]

My experience with Taeniacara is that you get a lot of hider males, or males that develop late. After several $100 "pairs", I finally decided that, with this species, if it isn't yellow, it isn't female. I've never seen a female develop a pointed tail, or markings in the anal fin. A tank full of fish that "look female" very likely does not have as many girls as you think.

 

[Apistomaster]

My experience with them has been similar to Chromedomes.
But they are pretty easy to sex but subdominant males do have a knack for passing themselves off as females when that helps reduce attacks from the dominant male and they get to hang out with the females more possibly giving the subdominant males a better shot of getting to spawn.
This has not been a species with which I have had any luck spawning and having given them my best and failed I have decided I have spent enough money on this pretty species.

 

[Matt2609]

Well I'll give it a shot with them. Ordered an RO unit yesterday so they'll soon be getting some better water parameters.
If I post a few pictures of them, would you guys be able to sex them? Or well at least I'd like to hear your opinion on it
I've just only got my mobile camera as our SLR camera is being cleaned.

 

[wethumbs]

Decided to give the Taeniacara candidi a try again. I picked up 1 male and 2 females last weekend. Took them two days before the male pair off with one of the females. Now she is holding in the cave with the male sitting outside. He was so mean that the 3 pairs of Pelvicachromis taeniatus that are easily twice the size were afraid of them and I had to move them all out. I guess the tricks I used 15 years ago still work.

 

[Matt2609]

After spending several hours of looking at the three Candidi and trying to take some decent pictures of all of them, I have become pretty sure that I have two males and one female. Because two of the fish have noticeable longer ventral fins, and they have a slight spadetail.

Decided to give the Taeniacara candidi a try again. I picked up 1 male and 2 females last weekend. Took them two days before the male pair off with one of the females. Now she is holding in the cave with the male sitting outside. He was so mean that the 3 pairs of Pelvicachromis taeniatus that are easily twice the size were afraid of them and I had to move them all out. I guess the tricks I used 15 years ago still work.

Mine a quiet agressive as well, but they're rarely getting physical. They seem to have small standoffs why they wave their tails at each other until on of them runs off to hide. I've already fallen in love with their behaviour, just hoping mine will be pairing up as yours are

 

[Matt2609]

I've created a thread about T. Candidi on a Danish forum I've been using for a while. I can't get the pictures down to 400x400 (I believe that was the maximum size for pictures in threads on this site?). Anyway, if you want to you can have a look at the pictures on the Danish site. Here you have a link: http://akvariesiden.akvariefisk.dk/forum/thread/?ID=1331421 .
The sexing is no longer a problem, as two of the fish have developed a spade tail and extremely long ventral fins compared to the last one. So the ratio seems to be 2.1. And I actually think that mine are starting to pair up as well. The female is rarely visible and she's pretty much hiding in the same males territory all the time. At least I'm hoping that they're pairing up now Also gotten my RO-kit so I've got a plan on how to try and get them to breed.

 

[Apistomaster]

Matt,
You may want to try an image hosting site like imageshack or photobucket.
Upload the desired photos then copy the (IMG)********(IMG) line and Ctrl+V to paste photos within the body field.
I use photobucket and here is an example of a photo linked to a photobucket album:
F1 Nhamunda Blue Discus

 

[Matt2609]

I'll do that one of the following days then, guess there's no being lazy here Anyway... Will do it asap so you can see some fotos of them

 

[Matt2609]

Just some of the pictures of the males. They're not really the best quality, but they're really hard to get a good picture of. I'll throw some newer pics of the tank up later. There's been added a few more roots

 

[Matt2609]

Put in another 3 roots and moved the plants so they're more grouped up. Will put up a picture tomorrow, I hope. And should probably mention that the pictures in last thread reply is of the subdominant male. But today I got one decent picture of the front part of the dominant male, and some of the female. Hope to be putting them up tomorrow as well
I've also noticed that the female had no overtaken the subdominant males territory. And the female and dominant male does not seem to be aggressive towards eachother anymore.
But from what I've heard/read that can be changed very fast.

 

[wethumbs]

I have mine for close to 3 weeks now and they finally spawned yesterday. I thought I was losing my touch there for a sec. I did get to see them spawn and I was able to see the females turning upside down laying the eggs while the male waited inside for his turn. Unfortunately, I was busy with taking care of 4 other spawns and didnt take any picture or video.

 

[Matt2609]

Wow that was fast, congratulation.
Now I kinda have to ask what water values are, and do you have any tips? I sort of have a plan, but need to get some cultures of live foods up and running. It seems to be hard to find Daphnia and so on here in Denmark.
Also my dominant male is constantly changing his mood, concerning the female. Sometimes they're swimming around together and at other times he's just really defensive and territorial.
He's rarely out in the front of the tank, and constantly patorling his territory which is right around a pile of driftwood. And the same thing about the female, she only comes out once she's searching for food, otherwise she tends to swim around in near the back of the tank.

 

[wethumbs]

Water conditions are as follow: pH 5.0, conductivity 61µS , temp.80.8F. In fact they have hatched after 3 days and are all hanging upside down with their heads pointing downward. Males and females change their mood all the time. They know when to avoid each others and when to stay together. Female will change color (darken) when she is ready to spawn. She would lead the male to a suitable spawning location after trying out a few different ones. this process can take a few days to a week. Male will stay close to the cave for the day they spawned after that he is off patrolling his territory. The eggs are fairly large (as least double the size) as compare to Apisto and they are creamy white with a hint of yellow. I had given some of the eggs to Dr. Ron Coleman's research years ago, he probably still has the data.

Any idea when they will reclassify candidi back into the Apistogramma genus?

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Also my dominant male is constantly changing his mood, concerning the female. Sometimes they're swimming around together and at other times he's just really defensive and territorial.

I've never kept them, but I would be very tempted to put some more structure in the tank to disrupt eye line etc. I know you've put in some more wood since the photo, but I would probably add some dead Oak leaves as well (should be available near you in Denmark) and/or some more caves. I use 1/2 coconuts or clay pot/coconut shell shards, if some of the "cave" openings were narrow enough to deter the male from entering it might be useful as it would give the female somewhere to hide if she really needs to.

cheers Darrel