Remarkable feats!!!

[Ray McCaleb]

I've read a number of posts in various contexts that dealt with Apistos' ability to adapt and try to go on living a natural life...in spite of being in a small enclosure, often in less than ideal conditions, with sometimes less than desirable tank mates, etc. You know the ones..."I've got 37 fish from 5 continents in this 40 year old 10 gallon Metaframe tank...". Sometimes it's sad, sometimes amusing, but just about always a testament to the determination of these little guys to do what comes naturally.

With that in mind I though I'd share with this group an experience from this weekend. I had a little 2 1/2 gallon tank set up for photography. Nothing special, gravel bottom, a couple short pieces of PVC for the fish to hide out until they became accustomed to the environment, tap water (usually 6.9 pH), room temperature (74 degree F.). They usually are only in the tank overnight, or at most a couple days. I encourage them out with live blackworms and snap a few pictures. The latest effort involved a superb pair of A. Bit. Shishita. Had to pull the male before I got any real good photos as the female was GUARDING EGGS! As of last night the eggs were still cherry red.

Pictures are at: http://www.raymccaleb.com/shishita_gallery.htm

I hope you enjoy them,

Ray

 

[Ray McCaleb]

Darn censors got me again...

The link works, right click on "Properties" to see where you are really going. The fish is in fact A. Bit. Shi-Shi-ta.

Ray

 

[Scooter]

Nice shots Ray. It's sometimes amazing how these little guys will carry on in spite of our own often misguided attempts to house them appropriately. In one of your shots I can see some of your fishroom gadgets. I saw your presentation on gadgetry at the ACA in Atlanta a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it.

 

[apistodave]

I can beat that!!!!!! I bought some bittaeniata from Anchor bay a long time ago. There was a pair in a bag. On the way from Michigan she spawned in a corner of the bag. I cut the corner off and put it in the tank with her--she hatched the eggs! Or I was cleaning some tanks once and left a tetra foam filter laying in a bucket. No water in the bucket--came back the next day and found a female agassizi in the hole in the foam..she lived! ORRRR I had a tank divided in two. Two fem agassizi's spawned each on their own side. One of them died. I took her cave and put it next to the other ones cave. After she checked it out for a while she went ahead and guarded both caves and spawned both clutches. Took the wrigglers and put them all in her cave and raised them all--about 200 fry!

 

[Ray McCaleb]

Ha, Dave...those are great...I had hoped the post might bring out a few stories like those.

The one about the Bit. spawning in the bag reminded me that recently I shipped two pair of TR Cacs across country; one pair spawned the day they arrived, the other two days later. I commented to the customer that I was researching low weight PVC pipe to include in the shipping bags :lol:

I think it goes to show, when you have a good pair, that are ready, THEY will achieve success.

Ray

 

[apistodave]

Uwe's favorite saying about apistos is that they do everything but drive a car! :wink:

 

[apistodave]

Or the female steindachneri that laid her eggs on the glass at the surface. I did a water change and she stayed right there only 4 inches below them. when I filled the tank up she started jumping up at them and when the tank was full her eggs were wet again--they hatched and she was happy again.

 

[Nain]

Fish Survival

The very first egglayer that spawned for me was a pair of convicts. The tank was filtered by a large Eheim filter and the fry all got sucked in to the filter within a day of hatching as the spawning had taken place on the rock that I used to hide the intake pipe. About a month later I did my quarterly maintenance on the Eheim and found over 30 well fed fry in amongst the ceramic noodles at the bottom of the filter. They all survived.

 

[Apistt_ed]

..

Sorry to add this but I think it's pretty extraordinary and funny! I have had this pair of Rio Tapojos Aggie for quite a while and never had a spawn. I had noticed that the "large" male was sneaking in to eat the fry and wigglers before they became free-swimming. Well, some time back I decided to change my water with rain water and RO mixed (40/60) and sure enough triggered a spawn. I soon after separated the 10 gallon tank with a tank divider, the opaque kind with the small holes in it to keep the female from attacking the male and the male from eating the young. about 3 1/2 weeks went by and the fry are doing very well. They have started to adventure out away from the watchfull eye of the female and are growing fast!! well, just now as I was watching the fry dart out after the bbs I had hatched and was feeding them, I saw the mother and father watching each other through the opaque divider and didn't think anything of it... well, as I was going to spray some(bbs) to the female to eat she attacks the eye dropper that I was using. I thought this was strange because she never did that before. As I stared at her for a reason to her actions, I saw the male turn horizontal and a "stream of life" came across the divider and then it all came CLEAR! As I removed the clump of java moss, I saw it... about 100 eggs laid right on the divider!!! To my excitement, I have two clutches of babies now!!

one question before I leave though,
what should I do with the 1st bunch? Leave them in or take them out? The female has been the greatest mom so far!

 

[Apistt_ed]

..

took some pictures of the amazing spawn... kinda blurry but you should get the gist...
http://www.uploadimages.net/images/973698spawn2.JPG

http://www.uploadimages.net/images/743353spawn2b.JPG

http://www.uploadimages.net/images/190951spawn2c.JPG

& the proud father... hiding from the camera
http://www.uploadimages.net/images/543416agM7.JPG

 

[cootwarm]

This isn't as remarkable as the previous posts, but it suprised me.

A couple weeks ago I removed borelli from 2 different tanks to make room for some new apistos. Apparently I missed 3 or 4 small fry in each tank. After I introduced the new apistos I noticed the few borelli fry still in both tanks and figured they would be lunch at some point.

So for 2 weeks now I've had 6 wild caught atahualpa in a 30 gallon long, co-existing with 3 or 4 small borelli fry! I don't think even one has been eaten. These fry are only 1/4 inch to 1/2 inches long and they feed right along side the 6 adult atahualpa and are completely ignored!

Same thing in a 20 gallon with some adult wild caught maulbruter! They pay these small fry absolutely no attention at all, even though they could be consumed in just one big bite!

Michael