apisto cacatoides

[sasikan]

in a 36 x24x18 i had 3 males cacatuoides and 4 females cacatuoides i also had 6 catfish today i decided to take out the catfish because i notice one of the females guarding a upside down coconut half .there is many clay pots oak branches oak leaves (maby 3 inches thick)all over the bottom well i take everything out i find the catfish and the 4 females cacatuoides one guarding babys but no males ! what happened? ph 6.5 temp 26.8 ppm 62 and electric current 125 (is this right?) what is this last reading and what does it do ? and what happened to the 3 males cacatuoides

 

[Mike Wise]

Males are probably hiding in an upper corner of the tank. Mine always do this when I put in a net!

 

[sasikan]

is it possible the female with fry killed them? but i cant find the bodies

 

[wethumbs]

62 is most likely conductivity reading. 1µS=1.56ppm However something is out of calibration if you get 62ppm and 62µS.

 

[sasikan]

my mistake ,125 conductivity thanks for the reply. what do i want my conductivity reading to be at for apistos? and how do i make it go up or down? are you saying that conductivity reading is just another way of measuring ppm?

 

[wethumbs]

It all depends on what type of apisto you are keeping. Whitewater apisto dont need low ppm or low conductivity requirement like the blackwater apisto. Conductivity basically measures how well the water conduct electricity. Pure water (like DI water) has very high impedance which equate to very low conductivity reading. As you add impurity to the water, the conductivity value goes up. I prefer to use conductivity meter instead of TDS meter that give ppm reading. All TDS meter is basically a conductivity meter, it measures the conductivity and converts the value to ppm. Different brand of TDS meters use slightly different conversion rate from microsiemen to ppm. The 1.56 ratio is only a rough estimate, the actual correlation between microsiemen and ppm is much more complicated (not a linear function).