Steelblue breeding

[Zapisto]

High Amanda,

very interested story , i am following that carefully.
not many people had the chance see winglers of theese guys.

keep going

 

[amanda huggenkiss]

Thanks Zapisto. I figured this could be a good chance to learn a little more about this species. And if they're truly an F1 hybrid, we should see some fry with characteristics of the original two species. That's another reason why I want to clear out the other residents -- so we have as many fry to compare as possible.

I'm not interested in starting up a breeding operation. I just like these fish, and I'm very curious to learn more about them while I have the chance.

 

[P.W.]

Hi

Refering apisto females stealing fry from each other. I posted this two years ago. Apistos kidnapping Marooni fry´s

http://forum.apistogramma.com/showthread.php?t=1041

Best regards/ Per

 

[amanda huggenkiss]

Hi Per

That was an interesting thread. Thanks for linking it!

I finally got rid of the two cories -- it took me two hours to catch them. They weren't going for the bottle, but the male apisto kept trying to go in. So I finally gave up on that idea and just cleared out one corner of the tank and waited patiently with my net. Now they're much happier living in the display tank at my LFS.

Noticed that the two females were starting to get more aggressive towards each other, so I took out one of the pieces of driftwood, spread the other two out, and put a piece of breeding slate that I had on-hand (from my angelfish days) in the middle of the tank as a sort of wall. I left a gap between the slate & the tank wall so the male could still visit both his families. Seems ok so far, but the territories are pretty uneven because the first girl parked her brood so close to the other girl's territory. I'm hoping she'll move the fry farther away from the wall and I can even it out better.

The 2nd mom's brood still looks pretty big, and they're just beginning to be free-swimming.

 

[fishgeek]

amanda i have just seen my mum emerge from beneath a contact shell with fry
she had not been visible the last 4 days at all and i was beginning to hope/worry about the outcome
this morning i have been pleasantly surprised

can i be the second to join the steel blue breeding programme

i am in now doubt that this will be a change from my usual breeding , where i seem to throw sex ratio that always favour the female, i think my water is buffered so well(although temperature is thought to be the prime determinate?)
i hope i dont have just males

picture will follow although they are in an end on 2ft tank at the rear corner, so perhaps not much use just yet

excitedly
andrew

 

[fishgeek]

my fry are still going strong , will be off for 6 week sthough and inexperience(with fish) flatmate gets the job of fish carer

fingers crossed

hope your are doing fine amanda

 

[Joost S]

Good luck, we will all keep them crossed!

 

[fishgeek]

back home, lost most of the fry whilst away
had instructed house mate to feed lightly and didn't expect many to make it , better to loose a few fry to starvation than pollute the whole tank with over feeding

i have seen 4 1-1.5cm fry about still not sexable so it will be interestig to see if they are all male as i tend ito (in other apisto's) throw more female by a long way.. maybe i have temperatures too low

would be interested to know how you went amanda

 

[P.W.]

Hi

Yes, please send us a report how the frys are developing. Hope everything´s ok.

Best regards/ P.W.

 

[P.W.]

Any updates on this subject?? Amanda, did any of the fry developed to females?

 

[fishgeek]

i'm not sure what happened with amandas though my first spawn are now all looking like male

i lost a few and prehaps only the larger ?male? fish survived the honeymoon and limited feeding
so far temperature was averaging 25.5 and ph5.5-6.0 through their development

have turned the heat dwn 1 degree and have another spawn developing at present ,just free swimming so prehaps i will see what i get this time
unfortunately i dont have the time to feed heavily and so have slower growth from my fry , another 3 mths maybe before we know

 

[P.W.]

Hi Andrew!

Nice to see that you keep to the "Steelblue breeding experiment"
I would join also if I could find some Steelblues. But they are very rare in northern Sweden (as any apisto species as well).
Anyhow I´m keeping my fingers crossed for your next batch of fry.

Best regards/ Per

 

[Richard Brice]

I have had a few spawnings of this apisto. see the photo of the pair a few days after spawning but less than a week. I too thought that I had only males but then the female turned yellow and spawned. The female turned blue again after a week. There were no tell tale signs of differance in sexes until they were a few months older. The males continue to grow to be about 1.75 inches and the female stoped at around 1.25 inches.

I think that there is one other sexual differance but I only have 80 fish to look at right now and I want a larger population before commenting on it.

 

[P.W.]

Hi Richard

Very interesting! Do you have any photos of this female when she´s having "normal" coloration?

Best regards/ Per

 

[Richard Brice]

He is on the top and she is on the bottom .... notice the spots on the male and a pointed anal fin.

Richard

 

[fishgeek]

my female for comparison

 

[P.W.]

Great photo Richard! The female really look like a small male! Same blue dots on the head.
What do the offspring look like? Do they have the same colours as the parents?

Best regards/ Per

 

[Richard Brice]

This is a tank of the first spawn I they laid .... yes they all look the same. They all have that great blue pattern on thier heads (it is just to wide of a shot to see it)

Your female is either different or getting ready to spawn because she is turning yellow and lost her blue on the head

 

[P.W.]

It seems in general that there are very few females in a batch of fry from the steelblues.
Can you estimate what the relations are between the number of males and females?
What are the water conditions in your breeding tank? Temperature, pH etc.?

Best regards/Per

 

[Richard Brice]

Actually I am afraid that most of the fish are females and that there are very few males. I think that because there are so many fish in the 40 gallon tank that I have to break them up so that they will start spawning.

The spawning tank is very soft water (about 36 ppm) and temp at 78 F. filled with java moss ... a 30 gallon long with 5 of the steel blue in it

Richard