RE: Water parameters -- Rebutal

["William Groth" <groth@rice.edu>]

Thank you Ken, and others,

I was afraid that was the response I would get.  Only two of the dwarf
varieties of cichlids came up in conversations with people in the LFS.
Those were the German Rams [M. Ramirezii (sic)] and "Checkerboards"
[Dicrossus Filamentosus].  With the idea that a pair of either of
these species would be mild mannered enough and could deal with the
temperature range.

As far as getting a bigger tank, my wife said I am at the limit right
now!  We already have 14 tanks in the house which range in size from
2.5 up to 180 gallons.  I have at least two tanks where I have viable
colonies of Apisto's.  My pandorini's have spawned twice and I need
to figure out how to catch the fry.  Hopefully my new pair of
A. trifasciata will thrive in their 10 gal. tank.  My old pair of
A. cruzi never did spawn in their 20 long and the male is now about
2.5" long.  That is some aspect of the mixed success that I have had
with Apisto's.  I also have another 10 gal. tank with a school of
Robertsi tetras as well as the West African N. transvestitus.  As the
tanks get larger the populations vary from Rift Lake to South and
Central American cichlids and tetras and killifishes and catfishes.


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-apisto@admin.listbox.com
[mailto:owner-apisto@admin.listbox.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2000 8:17 AM
To: apisto-digest@admin.listbox.com
Subject: apisto V1 #463

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Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2000 14:17:11 -0000
From: Ken Laidlaw <kl@roe.ac.uk>
Subject: RE: Water parameters for dwarfs?

Hi,
Most people on this list will tell you that a 3 gallon tank is too small to
keep dwarf cichlids.
As a minimum I'd suggest a 18x10x10inch tank for a single pair.  In a tank
this size it may be neccessary to split up the pair if they fight or fall
out after a spawning.  80f is about perfect for keeping and spawning
Apistos, that is the temp I aim for.  I've never tried up to 86f.  There is
data that suggests you would get a highly skewed sex ration from fry at such
a high temperature.  Your water chemistry is ideal for maintaining and
breeding most apisto species.

Get a larger tank and go for it.

Cheers,
Ken.

ps I can get to the web site you mention today.


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End of apisto V1 #463
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