Pair Displaying Breeding Behaviour?

[Aquaticloch]

Hello everyone, my a.macmasteri pair have been together in a 20 gallon high for maybe 4 months now, and they display to each other quite often and she sometimes displays breeding dress, it has happened a few times and the female hides away somewhere for 2-3 days but never emerges with fry.

The male has been doing the breeding "dance" or shake recently, and the female does similar things,
do I need to do anything else to induce spawning I have tried many things such as rescapes, huge water changes, change water parameters etc.

My ph is 7.2,
hoping to get an RO/DI unit soon would that help? Am I correct in saying the domesticated strain can spawn healthily in these parameters?

Also I have seen constant remarks (thanks TomC ) about apistos needing sand to thrive, could that be preventing the spawning? I will be getting some later this week, will this help them spawn?

Is there anything else I can do, and again I have tried countless methods,
thanks for your help everyone!

 

[yukondog]

Foe tank raised your pH should work, I run mine lower but it comes from tap at 6.5 +_ most days. Give it some time, have you tried live/frozen food.

 

[MacZ]

About the behaviour: Clear thing, they are ready. Is the female brightly yellow already? I call it the wasp mode.

They will spawn in those parameters, no question, if the eggs hatch is another question. Using RO to make the water softer (not even more acidic) will be beneficial anyway.

I think if they already show the right behaviour a change of substrate will set you back to zero. If you have the patience to bring everything back to the current state after the substrate switch, it will surely be a good idea.
Or is your plan just to cap off with some sand here and there? That could eventually work and you don't throw out any beneficial bacteria and archaeans with the old substrate.

 

[Andy452]

They may prefer sand but I dont think it will be the difference between whether they spawn or not.

From your description certainly sounds like spanwing behaviour.

live foods is also a good way to encourage them and BBS is good for fry if they appear, this has a few more tips - How To Breed Apistogramma

Good Luck!

 

[Aquaticloch]

thank you all for the helpful replies,
yes my plan is to cap of the substrate with a 1cm thick layer of sand so they can sift through it without crashing my cycle, if this will help


I can also start up a brine shrimp hatching system and in the meantime will feed frozen foods solely ie, spirulina brine shrimp, daphnia, and bbs.
so a trick i have heard of multiple times is putting a mirror in front (not in like suggested by some for sanitary purposes) of the tank for less than an hour, and when I do the male starts displaying to the female and the female turns bright yellow, like literally from brownish yellow to bright yellow within minutes.

She then tries to lure him into a cave and this hasn't happened without a mirror, they display to each other but less frequently without the mirror.
is this a good trick or not? Need I leave it longer? he doesn't hurt himself whilst its there.

thank you all for your help!