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!
Do eliza females move their eggs around? I've got a female who's been turning brood colors on and off for the past couple of days and turning up at different locations around the tank.
Hello I have a couple pairs of these guys in breeding tanks and one of the females does this too. Her first spawn was moved from a clay pot to under a piece of drift wood, not knowing that she spawned I removed her to a different tank and a couple days later saw a few wrigglers. I now have 3 spawns from different pairs in grow out tanks i'm crossing my fingers hopefully the all make it ... just keep an eye on her if she's not comng out to much most likely you will have wrigglers hope this helps....Vue
10 gallon tank. Water is RO, GH 0, KH ~50 ppm, pH 5. Chopped up ketapang leaves on the bottom. Several inverted clay pots. Couple of clumps of java moss. Sponge filter. Temperature 26C (79F). 20% water changed weekly.
The pH fluctuates a bit with water changes; fresh water is at pH 7, after a water change pH in the tank is around 6, it drops to 5 over the next couple of days due to the ketapang leaves, which also stains the water dark brown.
The fish are fed shrimp mix, live bbs and live black worms.
Are you adding anything to bring the ph down after the water change or just waiting with the acid water already in the tank and the effect of the Ketapang leaves?
I do not add anything else to the tank to lower the pH. The ketapang leaves release a lot of tannins and will eventually drop the pH to around 4 if I don't keep up with the water changes. I find that I have to add fresh ketapang leaves every 8 weeks or so. I don't remove the old ones, just add another layer.
I use 20 longs as breeding tanks, Ro fitlered with peat and Ph is around 4.0- 4.5. I usually condition the fish with bbs and black worms. usually after 1-2 weeks of heavy feeding they do their thing. I leave my breeding tanks bare, clay pots with a good clump of java mossas this makes it easier to clean up un eaten food and fif the fish spawn then I can monitor them. Vue
Have either of you had problems with the viability of the spawn i.e. eggs getting fungus? Have you made any special arrangements such as UV or have you relied on the anti fungal/bacterial properties of the ketapang leaves?
Mark, I use Ro water with a bag of peat in the tank and this keeps the water soft enough for the eggs to not fungus. Remember these guys are a black water species. I think a uv sterilizer is over doing it to and have not had any problems with this set up. I have set up the eliza tanks identical to the one where I first obtained a hatch and its been good..Pm me if you need more info....Vue