Hello guest! Are you an Apistogramma enthusiast? If so we invite you to join our community and see what it has to offer. Our site is specifically designed for you and it's a great place for Apisto enthusiasts to meet online. Once you join you'll be able to post messages, upload pictures of your fish and tanks and have a great time with other Apisto enthusiasts. Sign up today!
The water deposits around your tank have nothing to do with pH. Check your water hardness.
Rams, for just one example, thrive, grow and spawn just fine in a wide range of pH and hardness. Getting the eggs to hatch at all or hatch with a descent hatch rate is a different story however...
Microworms are a good first food for Rams, as are the microworm variety called "Walter worms", named for the first person to import the worms to the US.
Walter worms have four benefits over microworms: They are smaller than microworms, they are more prolific, they live MUCH longer under...
Do NOT put the eggs or fry in a tank with other fish. Everything that swims will eat tiny fry if they can catch them.
A good, cheap, fungicide is Hydrogen Peroxide, but you have to be careful using it as too much will kill the eggs. Do not use on fry.
Tom
Eric,
Are they taking the decap shrimp? Should be, mine love the things. Orange bellies will tell you if they are eating them.
Are you changing water regularly?
Fry mortality at two weeks usually indicates a food problem.
Tom
Remove the fungused eggs with a pipette if you can. Keep water movement going with air set on LOW, just a few bubbles per minute is enough.
After they hatch, start changing out their water every day, say 20% at a time, with water from the tank they are floating in.
In a few days...
I bought it years ago and can't remember where. I use it primarily for my hydroponic vegetable garden and originally bought it through a garden supply outlet. Look there (garden supply) before you buy, as you may find it MUCH less expensive than buying though fish places.
Tom
I use a Hannah 9813 (pH, uS, and PPM) and am very happy with it. Have had it several years and it is good as new.
Hannah is a very reputable name in testers.
Tom
Sure. Here 'ya go...
1 Liter water, one air stone (moderate to low flow), 10ml eggs (or whatever amount you want to decap)...
Set air going and dump eggs in water. Let soak 1 hour with aeration.
About 90ml (amount not critical, but do NOT use much more) of unscented household bleach or...
Did you do the process yourself or buy eggs already decapsulated?
If you control the process properly and do not leave the eggs in the bleach solution too long, viable eggs WILL hatch, and at a higher rate than non-decapsulated eggs.
Several places sell "non-hatching" decapsulated eggs...
I am referring to eggs I decapsulate myself. I buy the lower hatch rate (cheapest) eggs in one pound cans.
I have not bothered to hatch any out for a long time, no need to. But one of the benefits I noticed when I DID hatch them was that the hatch rate was better with decaps than with...
Ram fry can eat both those foods. It is easy to tell if they take the decaps, their bellies turn orange. Harder to tell with the microworms, but the fry are surviving and that indicates they are feeding.
Tom
Feed 'em.
The main cause of fry mortality is starvation.
People do not realize that fry need a *constant* and reliable food source. Free swimming fry will die VERY quickly without suitable food.
Tom
First, they will indeed hatch.
Second, your fry will not explode. Had this been the case, I would have had thousands of exploding fry to tell you about.
Tom
These fish are not commonly thought of as good parents. However, if they are comfortable and in a stable environment, they usually come around in time and are very entertaining to watch.
This pair not only raises each spawn, but often raises one batch while spawning again and tending the...