160 litre Amazon blackwater creeky thing!

[rr16]

I'm new, I'm here, feel free to have a gander and see what you think. I set up this tank around a month ago. It's a blackwater jobby! pH is around 5.5, GH is non-existent and nitrate is less than 5ppm. Nitrite and ammonia at zero (as it should be). Temp is around 78.
I was aiming for blackwater, probably around Tabatinga, or Leticia somewhere. There's some artistic license and it's not 100% a biotope from here, but it's a start. The wood is a mixture of azalea roots and some other random bogwoody bits. Oak, beech and catappa leaves abound on the floor! Sand and peat substrate and some Hydrocotyle leucocephala and Heteranthera zosterifolia, with a tiny bit of Lilaeopsis brasiliensis. Oh, and one piece of Cabomba furcata that was left from another tank. As for the main attractions
1 male and 2 female Apistogramma agassizzi (however you spell it!).
9 Paracheirodon innesi
5 Nannostomus eques
5 Boehlkea fredcochui
5 Corydoras pygmaeus
3 Otocinclus (vittatus?) - there were 5 but I got a bad batch, was in a rush and didn't check for well - rounded bellies!

The two female apistos have been in hiding in leaf litter for some days now and regularly do the "flash the belly/side at the male, telling him to go away" so I suspect they are with egg, if not wrigglers, but as they have taken refuge amongst the wood as I hear good apistos should, then, I haven't seen any yet.

Let me know what you think! (apologies, some or most of the photos aren't too great!)

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
"Boehlkea fredcochui" (on dsc_0034-jpg) it might just be their gills showing with the flash? but that looks like "thyroid tumour".

I've seen them a few times on Pencil fish etc, but you can treat them.

"If the tumor is under the gill of the fish and is causing the gill to remain open, the problem is likely a swollen thyroid and can be treated with potassium iodine. Place the fish in a hospital tank. Add 1 milligram of potassium iodine for every gallon of water. Redose proportionally after every water change. The treatment period could take up to 4 weeks."

cheers Darrel

 

[rr16]

Hi all,
"Boehlkea fredcochui" (on dsc_0034-jpg) it might just be their gills showing with the flash? but that looks like "thyroid tumour".

I've seen them a few times on Pencil fish etc, but you can treat them.

"If the tumor is under the gill of the fish and is causing the gill to remain open, the problem is likely a swollen thyroid and can be treated with potassium iodine. Place the fish in a hospital tank. Add 1 milligram of potassium iodine for every gallon of water. Redose proportionally after every water change. The treatment period could take up to 4 weeks."

cheers Darrel

Thanks, I think it's just the flash and the red showing against the blue as they move pretty fast and it's hard to get a clear image in blackwater conditions with my camera, lenses and lack of expertise.

 

[rr16]

So I came home tonight to find both the A. agassizzi females amongst leaf litter and branches at the back, swimming amongst clouds of fry. Brineshrimp cysts have just gone in to hatch and we'll see how we go! Got a couple of pics of one of them. She has between 30 and 40 fry I think. Not sure how many the other has as she's hiding away in the back corner. Hopefully some will survive the neons, cories and Cochu's blue tetras but we shall see, particularly as these two are probably first time mothers!

 

[rr16]

Just an update and a couple of dodgy photos! I got home tonight and one female is hiding with her young so no idea how many she has left. The other was round the side of the tank with around 50 young. The male was out and about and most the tetras were in the top corner at the other end of the tank! He's doing a good job so far of keeping everything else at bay! The female then decided to move them over the right hand side of the big piece of wood in the pics and there was a mass exodus over the top and down to the cave and leaf litter below. Meanwhile the male kept coming over to check none were straying then going and chasing off any other fish. It was a sight to behold indeed! On a separate note the female in the tank downstairs has disappeared and the male is chasing all and sundry from a central area of the tank so I suspect she may have eggs somewhere in that territory!

 

[Josh]

Great looking tank and awesome shots of the fry. Thank you for sharing!

 

[rr16]

Thanks, although I don't think there are many fry left now. Hard to tell as the female is staying in the woody tangles of roots and leaf litter. I spotted no more than 10 just now and they're still pretty small so the chances of any surviving are probably quite low. Still, it's most likely the first time they've bred so hopefully they'll have more success in the future. Will keep all posted on here and tempted to add more bogwood/leaf litter for the future.

 

[rr16]

Well, the fry all went a few days ago. I went for a wander, collecting leaves and filled the tank up with oak leaves. There's about 4 inches in places now! The neons looked to be spawning over them within minutes of adding them but I had to leave the house so didn't see if they did. The apistos and dwarf cories do love the piles of leaf litter though so hopefully there'll be more cover next time they spawn. Here's a photo or two. Well, actuallly there arenlt any photos as it wont let me upload them!

 

[rr16]

Just out of curiosity, can anyone advise on a likely suitable number of A. agassizzi in this tank. I currently have 1 male and 2 females. I have another male and another female in a tank downstairs but I suspect this may be too small in this tank for two males. The footprint is approx 40cm x 100cm and volume is approx 180 litres. I may keep just two females and see how they go on breeding next time around. One of them has started showing yellow with a black spot again today and isn't being chased quite as viciously by the male so I suspect she may be coming into season to mate again.
Also, whilst here. Can anyone answer, is the reason I likely got a much bigger brood size in this aquarium because there was probably a better hatch rate due to a lower pH as it's around 6.5-6.8 in my other tank, whereas it's usually between 5.5 and 5.9 in this one). I guess it could also be because there are fewer predators and mor nooks and crannies and it was different individuals after all so I imagine all these could play a part.

 

[rr16]

Here are a couple of photos as I've heard a rumour you can up-load again now!

 

[rr16]

A couple more I just took now. The male has been swimming around and then following one of the females into the leaf litter. She keeps coming out of the same bit and showing her head. I suspect they're laying more eggs as I type, or at least getting ready to. The female in the pic is the other female, the one that seems less dominant than the other.

 

[rr16]

Well, I added a couple of A. barlowi to this tank, the more dominant female aggie layed but I never saw any of the eggs or fry so am assuming they were predated before they were free swimming. Anyway, she came out of hiding a couple of days ago. When I got home today I found the reason that aggie female number 2 has been getting more feisty the last few days - see the pic.

 

[rr16]

Well, the male aggie died so I removed the two females and put them into my tank downstairs and left the A. barlowi in here (ironically the water flow is higher and it's more clearwater in the other tank so maybe I should have reversed the swap!). The bigger one appears to be a sub-adult male as it is developing extensions on the first few dorsal rays, but no tail extensions yet. The smaller one is a grey colour and doesn't appear to have any dorsal extensions but then it doesn't display really so it's hard to tell. So it's either an immature male or female. I guess I'll find out if it colours up to breeding dress! Anyway, here are the pics!
A barlowi 10 is the unsexable one!

 

[tom prakash]

10 looks female there seems to be an area of black on her pelvics

 

[rr16]

Here are a couple of not brilliant snaps of the two interacting. The male is on the left, but still not sure of the sex of the other yet. It seems to have slightly elongated rays at the front of the dorsal but not too much that it couldn't be a female. No breeding colouration to give it away yet. The pic on its own is of the male. His dorsal rays are getting longer at the front every day and his caudal is beginning to grow extensions at the top and bottom.

 

[rr16]

Well I went and bought some wild Crenuchus spilurus today. They're a bit tatty but hopefully they'll come along well. Never kept these before so it'll be fun keeping them in with the A. barlowi and seeing what happens. The male barlow has already been displaying to shoo them off from his patch so it should be interesting. Still waiting to see if the second A. barlowi is a female or not. It was displaying earlier and the dorsal looked very like that of pictures of females. They have been dsplaying to each other as can be seen (not very clearly) in one of these pics but I'm no apisto behaviour expert! Here are some pics from today.

 

[rr16]

Here are a few from the tank of the male A. barlowi. Still can't quite tell if the second one is male or female yet! The dorsal is a little bigger than it was but none of the dorsal rays on it seem to have extended further than the others.
Anyway, here are the pics of the male.

 

[rr16]

I've moved him out of here now as the other one died and can't get hold of any females at the moment. He's in my 5foot tank, currently finding himself some territory and trying to avoid the aggie male in there with his three females. Have put my male and female panduro in this tank now so will see if they pair up and breed. Only time will tell I guess!

 

[rr16]

Crikey - it's been a while!

This tank is still similar to what it was, however, I have since had a male and female A. panduro in here that turned out to be a male A. nijsseni and a female A. panduro, which bred, so there is at least now one hybrid youngster swimming about amongst the leaf litter! I managed to get hold of a young male A. panduro (thanks to being wished luck by Tom C) and moved the A. nijsseni male to my big community tank. The female A. panduro has just brought wrigglers out this morning so I'm happy with this as she's clearly accepted him and I now have true F1 A. panduro fry. Also, hopefully there's less chance of inbreeding at this stage as my A. panduro pair are from different shipments. I also have added 4 Copella nattereri to the tank that I picked up for 25 English pence each as they were a bi-catch in a tank of wild neons! They're beautiful young fish and my first Copella ever to be kept. So, that's the update I think and here's a picture of the male (not good as it's from my phone!). Couldn't get any half-decent ones of the female with my phone so maybe I'll try another time.
Just need a female A. nijsseni now!

 

[chris1805]

Well that's definitely a Panduro male you got there Goodluck on finding a A. nijsseni female. You should move to the netherlands, i have a shop here that sells about 15-25 different apisto species. A. nijsseni and A. Panduro are always in stock.