Apistogramma Barlowi

[sfapisto]

I have a pair that has spawned three times only to result in the female eating the eggs within a day or two. Does anyone have any suggestions to prevent this?

 

[Mike Wise]

Probably something about the breeding environment that the female doesn't especially like. Without a lot of additional details it's hard to make suggestions.

 

[sfapisto]

Probably something about the breeding environment that the female doesn't especially like. Without a lot of additional details it's hard to make suggestions.

She has been laying eggs on the roof of a small pot. The pot is quite exposed in the middle of the tank. I may move the pot to a remote corner and add additional leaves or java moss to reduce the openness.

 

[henkh]

How old is the couple? How does the environment look like? Water parameters?

 

[sfapisto]

How old is the couple? How does the environment look like? Water parameters?

I'm not sure how old they are, but they are full adult size. The pair are in a 10g tank with fine sand. The tank has a small foam filter, wood, rocks, a couple plastic tubes, pot, and plenty of oak leaves. The water is 78F, ph around 6.3, and 80 ppm.

 

[henkh]

Ok, params look oké, however i think lowering pH direction 5 and temp little higher direction 84 fajrenheit can help. That´s the params they are found in. About size, your male is about 9cm? (I think this equals 3.5 inch, what is adult size. Barlowi is one of the larger apisto's).

 

[Mike Wise]

IMHO 84° F will be too warm if you want a reasonable ratio of sexes in any offspring. 79° should give you equal numbers of both sexes.

 

[sfapisto]

IMHO 84° F will be too warm if you want a reasonable ratio of sexes in any offspring. 79° should give you equal numbers of both sexes.

Ok, params look oké, however i think lowering pH direction 5 and temp little higher direction 84 fajrenheit can help. That´s the params they are found in. About size, your male is about 9cm? (I think this equals 3.5 inch, what is adult size. Barlowi is one of the larger apisto's).

The male is probably close to 3 inches. I just checked water parameters. Ph is 6.0, 56 ppm. I moved the pot to a back corner and bumped the temp to 82F. I will keep my fingers crossed.

 

[Mike Wise]

At 82°F/28°C expect 80-90% male offspring. Is there a reason to keep the tank this warm? I know that TomC collected A. barlowi in the wild at this temperature, but it was during the dry season. The water is much warmer then than during the rainy/wet season when they do most of their breeding.

 

[sfapisto]

At 82°F/28°C expect 80-90% male offspring. Is there a reason to keep the tank this warm? I know that TomC collected A. barlowi in the wild at this temperature, but it was during the dry season. The water is much warmer then than during the rainy/wet season when they do most of their breeding.

No reason. Just changing a factor to trigger a new response.

 

[Vijendra]

What I have experienced is that the female eats up the eggs when startled, maybe she thinks that the spawning site is not safe enough due to other fish or you checking her den out of curosity to see eggs ar any fries.... This happened with me, out of curosity I lifted the pot where my agassizii female had laid eggs and the next day they were gone...