Re: M. altispinosa spawning behavior

[Doug Dunlop <baddog@telusplanet.net>]

Sarah,
I have some regularly spawning M. altispinosa.  The spawning typically involves
a lot of very showy behaviour without a lot of real violence.  My two females
invariably lay their eggs on a horizontal surface, usually an older leaf from an
amazon sword.  The wrigglers get moved to a pit dug by the male.  I always sex
them by the dorsal fin.  On females the trailing edge upper corner is rounded
and on  males it is pointed.  My males are all about twice the size of the
females.
I do not have near as much time to devote to my hobby as I would like and
therefore my fish do not get as many live foods as I would like them to.  The
Altispinosa have never needed any special treatment from me in order to spawn.
I usually feed frozen brine shrimp, frozen blood worms, and flakes in that order
with an occasional supplement of chopped earthworms.  The earthworms are easy to
culture (the red ones sold as composting worms) but chopping them is a bit
messy.
Although I think it is possible to raise these fry on prepared foods, I use
(when I have time to raise fry) live and frozen BBS, and flakes.
There are many other types of spawning behaviours in dwarf Cichlids.
Hope this helps,
Doug

Sarah LeGates wrote:

> Hello all and happy new year,
>
> I've added my new altispinosa to the tank (a 20 gallon that is
> quickly becoming my "dwarf tank").  The three have established what I

(big snip)

>  condition the fish if they do decide to pair
> off?  Can freeze dried or frozen foods be substituted for live (I
> don't currently have a great source for live foods)?
>
> Ok, I think that about sums up my questions (whew, how did I get to
> be so long winded?)
>
> Thanks,
>
> Sarah LeGates
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