apistogramma diplotaenia---breding

[Fisherking]

After a long time I was finaly succesfull in breding them, but I have two questions. Will the eggs develop when my PH is just under 6?? And how fast they grow

 

[Richgrenfell]

Hi there,

I think your eggs should be just fine. I bred these fish quite a bit last year. I used straight rain water. The ph was about 5.5 and the tds about 50. I didn't have succesful spawn until I provided these conditions. I found the females to be very good mothers.

Rich

 

[fishboy20]

Uwe Romer in his book wrote about the pH needing to be under 5 and a softness equal or less then 2 dGH. Although I have heard of people breeding them in different conditions then this. Probably the lower the pH, the better for this species. You will most likely get more fry with a lower pH and soft water. I would probably use rain water or R/O water for breeding. You may also try to use almond or oak leaves to help in this situation as well. It was also noted by Romer that female diplotaenia are mature at 3 months and a size of one centimeter!

 

[Richgrenfell]

I guess i was just lucky then. I had spawns of 60 - 75 fry make it to saleable size in the above conditions. Although.....my breeders were f1's.
i would imagine that would have something to do with it! :roll:

Rich

 

[Fisherking]

hmm, I dont need R/O water becouse my tap water has a Dh and KH of only 2` I youse peat to lower the Ph, but this time I did not get it where I wanted it. I just have to wait and see how it goes

 

[Zapisto]

well

felicitations Fisherking.
i have a beautiful male , and looking for a femelle or two.
with not real luck

hope i will be able to try breed this fish.

actually the male is in a water with : PH 4.7 TDS = 40
and he is amazing

 

[Neil]

Fisherking,

After a long time I was finaly succesfull in breding them, but I have two questions. Will the eggs develop when my PH is just under 6?? And how fast they grow

I have bred both wild and TR of this species several times. Unfortunately, I have never experimented with whether the eggs will develop in a higher ("just under 6") pH. The species is too hard to come by and expensive, so in all instances, I used water with virtually no hardness and lower pH. I did have them at a higher pH will no results for awhile but this was in a QT tank. I would assume that it is a species that requires very little mineral content in the water for successful egg development. PH is probably less significant, but that too may be an issue.

As Rich says, tank raised are likely to adapt to slightly higher water parms and still be successful, but I have not had the desire to play with those variables.

The fry are fairly slow growing, but both adults and babies seem to be fairly hardy. This is unusual considering the rarity of this species. This leads me to believe that the reason this species isn't in the hobby more is the difficulty in collection or in initial breeding. If the latter is the primary reason, it is likely that a very mineral poor water with low pH is required for proper egg development, which most hobbyist are unwilling or incapable of maintaining for the necessary time.

If you have fry now, you are more than half way there! The only other problem is a reported difficulty in obtaining an even gender ratio of fry, which I had little problem with at 40µS/cm, 4.5pH, 80º.

Neil

 

[Fisherking]

I dont think there where any fry this time But my whilhelmi laid over 150 red eggs and the PH is 4,5 and GH is 2 and DH is 0

 

[Charly EON]

Hello

About the rarity of this species in the trade.

It's rare just because this sensitive fish is difficult to ship. They really need special care

They are not are in the wild.

Charly

 

[Zapisto]

hey charly .
what's up ?

well you are probably rigth , but when this fish pass the shipping step , it is not so sensible.

you have some ?

zapisto

 

[Charly EON]

Hello Zap

Yes I have some both TR and W . Got some fry since last week !!

Cheers

Charly