Re: Mis-ID in Mayland and Bork?

["Scott Olson" <olson7@hotmail.com>]

Ah, Ocean Aquarium!  I just returned from a short (one day) business trip to 
SF, and Ocean Aquarium was recommended by Steve Waldron - thanks again, 
Steve!

It is so refreshing to go into a fish store that actually specializes in 
dwarf cichlids!  When I was there, Justin had the following apistos (that I 
can remember):

A. pulcher
A. Nijsenni
A. Agassizii
A. Borellii emerald form
A. cacatuoides double red - the nicest male cacatuoides I've ever seen!
A. viejita II
A. sp. four-stripes
A. gibbiceps
a species (I can't remember the handle from the Aqualog) - in the 'rotpunkt' 
group or complex, in which the males guard the fry with as much dedication 
as the females, and become even more brightly colored when doing so.  I 
didn't know yellow could be so yellow, or black so very black!  I'm still 
kicking myself for not bringing this one home!  And this after having kept 
'Puerto Narinos' for so long and breeding them so much, I don't care if I 
never see another one!

There were other DC's available as well, and probably a few apistos I've 
forgotten.  Justin actually apologized to me for not having a better 
selection!  He said usually he has more things to offer!

I got away with a nice trio of agassiziis and a pair of four-stripes.  These 
last are very iniridae-like.  Two things that all these pertensis-group fish 
have in common is a general lack of bright coloration, aside from a little 
blue spangling, and fabulous dorsal and ventral fins.  I've learned that you 
can't really judge apistos until you get them home and can really see them 
'strut their stuff'!

Many of those fish that Justin had were breeding in his well-planted tanks.  
In the Viejita tank, for instance, there were fry from newly free-swimming 
to about 1" in length.

Seeing Justin's tanks, the way they were set up with so many beautiful 
plants and several ages of apistos swimming about, made me think back on 
Brian Wolinski's apisto tanks of a decade ago.  Sorry if I keep bringing the 
'great one' up, but, to me, Brian was THE apisto-keeper!  And it sounds, 
Dan, like your Agassizii tank is a lot along the lines of the 'Wolinski 
method'.  Brian would have several broods of young going in a single tank, 
along with the parents, at any given time.  There was so much cover in the 
form of dense plants, rocks and driftwood, that there was never any 
noticeable aggression problem.

There are a couple of problems in your case, though.  A 10-gallon tank just 
won't support all that many fish, especially as the fry grow out.  On the 
other hand, how do you successfully remove an earlier brood with all the 
plant cover for the little fish to scoot into?  Your parent fish will very 
possibly 'murder' a few of the earlier batch, but they may not get very many 
of them.

I guess if it was me, I'd leave things as-is until the current batch is 
three-to-four weeks old, then remove parents and the dithers to another tank 
and let the young ones grow out for a while in the 10, although you'll want 
to change a lot of water in the mean-time!  If you have 50 or 60 fry in 
there, they'll eventually need more spacious quarters!

Scott

>On another topic: My aggies have bred again. They are in a very densely
>planted 10 gallon tank with some Corydoras hastatus and a couple of
>serpae tetras as dithers. I know these guys are considered less than
>ideal as dithers, but these two seem to work out great. They  have
>perfect dispostions, stay away from the side of the tank where the
>female and fry hang out, and I have had them forever. Anyway, in the
>tank are the month or so old youngins of an earlier brood of the aggies.
>They are able to hide out in the dense growth. Today I was watching
>them, and the female came out with a cloud of 30 or so new fry. Is there
>any way I can leave the new fry in there, or must I remove them to
>another tank. I can remove the gravel from a 5 gallon and devote it to
>the fry I suppose. The female tries to chase her earlier brood, but
>those kids are really quick.
>
>-Dan
>
>
>
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