Northman
New Member
- Messages
- 14
- Location
- Queens, NY
Hi,
A few months ago I bought a trio (2f, 1m) of A.Borellii for my 10g heavily planted low light/low tech tank (no CO2). Its a mature tank running for about a year with 9 Normans lamp eye, 2 Ottos and 5 fully grown cherry shrimp. Its has a Toms mini canister filter, 15w of light and I dose fertz to maintain 10 N, 1 P and 20 K. The water parameters are: Ph - 6.8 to 7.0, NH4 - 0, NO2 - 0. I tried to keep the temp at 74 but with the hot weather its been around 78-80. I do a 20% water change every week with 1G Poland Spring distilled water and 1G of NYC tap water condition w Prime. I clean the filter media every 2 weeks and the filter every month. With the tank description out of the way here is my dilemma.
After about 2 weeks of the Borellii settling in the dominant female wouldn't stop harassing the sub female and the shrimp. Within a week my 5 cherries were dead. Eventually, after about a month, the sub female was dead. She next turned her attention to the male who was twice her size. Chasing and harassing him to the point where he would just hide. I couldn't believe he was backing down to her since he was so much bigger. I thought that maybe she spawned in one of the 2 caves I have in the tank and she would eventually leave him alone. Well, I came home from work last week to find him dead too. To put a final nail in the coffin when I arrived home tonight I found the dominant female listing on her side struggling to stay upright.
What the heck is up? As I said my water is clean. I'm fastidious about water changes and cleaning. Everyone and everything was growing and doing really well in this tank. The remaining inhabitants are all looking great. Oh, one thing I forgot to mention was their feeding. I feed them Spectrum Thera +A for small fish, Ocean Nutrition Spirulina, frozen bloodworms, cyclops and brine shrimp.
Any suggestions would really help. These were my first Apistogramma and I really love them but I don't want to get another group until I know what I'm doing wrong.
Thanks,
Northman
A few months ago I bought a trio (2f, 1m) of A.Borellii for my 10g heavily planted low light/low tech tank (no CO2). Its a mature tank running for about a year with 9 Normans lamp eye, 2 Ottos and 5 fully grown cherry shrimp. Its has a Toms mini canister filter, 15w of light and I dose fertz to maintain 10 N, 1 P and 20 K. The water parameters are: Ph - 6.8 to 7.0, NH4 - 0, NO2 - 0. I tried to keep the temp at 74 but with the hot weather its been around 78-80. I do a 20% water change every week with 1G Poland Spring distilled water and 1G of NYC tap water condition w Prime. I clean the filter media every 2 weeks and the filter every month. With the tank description out of the way here is my dilemma.
After about 2 weeks of the Borellii settling in the dominant female wouldn't stop harassing the sub female and the shrimp. Within a week my 5 cherries were dead. Eventually, after about a month, the sub female was dead. She next turned her attention to the male who was twice her size. Chasing and harassing him to the point where he would just hide. I couldn't believe he was backing down to her since he was so much bigger. I thought that maybe she spawned in one of the 2 caves I have in the tank and she would eventually leave him alone. Well, I came home from work last week to find him dead too. To put a final nail in the coffin when I arrived home tonight I found the dominant female listing on her side struggling to stay upright.
What the heck is up? As I said my water is clean. I'm fastidious about water changes and cleaning. Everyone and everything was growing and doing really well in this tank. The remaining inhabitants are all looking great. Oh, one thing I forgot to mention was their feeding. I feed them Spectrum Thera +A for small fish, Ocean Nutrition Spirulina, frozen bloodworms, cyclops and brine shrimp.
Any suggestions would really help. These were my first Apistogramma and I really love them but I don't want to get another group until I know what I'm doing wrong.
Thanks,
Northman