breeding this kind of Aggie...

[blueblue]

I recently bought a pair of the following aggie.
Unlike all other kinds of aggie i have kept, this one
seems to be very difficult to breed... Have some fellows
here bred this kind of aggie before? Are there any tips
for me? Thanks.

 

[Apistt_ed]

Wow, to tell you the truth, I've never seen that strain of aggies... I have some tricks that I use myself when it comes to getting fish to spawn, particularly the stubborn fish. Aside from the usual change of water to get the temperature dropped slightly, I also find that moving the fish to a different tank can trigger a spawn also. And the ever present dither(s) are sometimes a fishkeeper's best friend. I had a few aggies that I had the toughest times trying to get them to spawn and I heard something from a friend who had spawned them and it sounded strange but it worked. I added a little instant coffee to your tank could also trigger a spawn. I added two instant coffee packets, one the day of the water change and then the second one a day after that. It turns the water slightly dark but used with the water change to get the temperature slightly lower, along with a good protein "conditioning" diet, it was all I needed to get my stubborn aggies to spawn. This trick worked so well for wild fish that I tried it with other apistos (domestic/wild) and it's success was fair. Best of luck and cheers. john

 

[cdawson]

Are you sure that's safe?! If so I'd like to try it.

 

[Apistt_ed]

i'm pretty sure if you did a search on her using coffee, the post should come up also...

 

[Apistt_ed]

I found a post that had this topic in it. my fish have never gotten sick from it, ever since i've been using this trick..

http://forum.apistogramma.com/showthread.php?t=531&highlight=coffee

 

[blueblue]

What an interesting trick!! Thanks Apistt_ed for your kind sharings.
Here in HK, a couple of months ago, there's a discussion of the "special
tricks" for keeping dwarf cichlids, many friends and I mentioned the
use of Chinese red tea. I guess this may be similar in effect as the use of
coffee...

later on, let me carry out some "experiments" with a couple of
paired fish first... Thanks again for your tips ^_^

This kind of aggie is relatively rare and expensive (nearly double the price of a "Tefe Aggie" with the zigzag pattern) in HK. It is originated from a big name fish-farm in Germany... I guess it's a tank-bred species with selective breeding, in-breeding, and also mutation... I have also heard from the local aqua vendors that Taiwan also has this fish now... but the price is also high owing to the difficulty of breeding this species...

 

[starforsaken]

I heard, from Randy Carey, that one of the few times Bleeding Heart Tetras were first spawned was when the breeder accidentally dropped his coffee mug full of coffee into the breeding tank after several days of not spawning.

 

[cawa1031]

agassizi fire red from Wilhelm ?
it's easy to bread ...
you don't have to worry ...

 

[blueblue]

agassizi fire red from Wilhelm ?
it's easy to bread ...
you don't have to worry ...

Thanks Cawa ^_^. Yes, the fish store tells me it's from Wilhelm
in Germany (and so with a high price tag ~_~). Good to
learn that it's easy to breed as I really want to breed it
and mix it with other aggies.