Re: Sexing of Mikrogeophagus Altispinosa (Breeding F0s)

["David A. Youngker" <nestor10@mindspring.com>]

From: " Gary Elson"
Sent: Friday, May 05, 2000 5:01 PM


> While we're on the subject, is there anyone on the list who has
> kept and bred wild-caught altispinosa?

Well, I'd be one of those...

> My only experience is with tank-bred altis, and now with an
> extraordinarily frustrating group of wild-caught 2 spot altis. I'd love
> to hear from anyone who kept the 'original' fish when it first came
> in, just to see if it was as challenging as the 2 spot at first.
> The 2 spots show more geophagus-like behavior, covering the
> eggs with sand, but I haven't gotten them past wrigglers, and that
> was in close to pure rainwater. I'd like to compare notes as my fish
> are getting old, and I'd like to keep them going.

If you're getting as far as wrigglers, then your breeding environment sounds
OK as a simple shot-in-the-dark. Perhaps the "ambiance" isn't quite right -
I must confess to usually glossing over (if anything) the oft-occurring
chatter on set-ups, and haven't familiarized myself with individual list
members' habits, so I can't make any presumptions here. Perhaps you could
describe your general hatch-/grow-out environment?

My most productive set-up was described in a letter to the list almost two
years ago. It was a 20-long that was described as, if I remember correctly,
"crowded as all (insert favorite expletive)" - or similar words. There were
four pair of M. altis, three pair of Blue Rams, a school of 17 Cardinal
Tetras and an Upside-Down Catfish! The point of the experiment was that both
wild types (Bolivian and Blue) seemed to thrive better in a competeive
environment. (The Blues weren't as successful as the larger Bolivians,
obviously, but they learned to be good parents for use in their own private
settings ;-) ) Even in a tank as over-stocked as that, each pair of
Bolivians was able to raise broods of 10 - 15 fry to "release stage" (don't
worry - the fry were removed at that stage - there's a limit to *any*
crowding situation).

The tank was filtered with a single Penguin 125 running Bio-Wheel and
standard pad inserts, replaced bi-weekly but rinsed in tank water with every
water change. Three gallons of water, sometimes four, were changed every two
days. Water was a combination of peat-filtered RO and tap to achieve 20 ppm
GH, <1 deg Total Alkalinity (didn't have a conductivity meter at the time)
and a pH of around 6. Temperature was held a constant 80 F then, but, as
with Blue Rams, I shoot for 78 now (and please - that's not meant to be an
opening for a temperature debate - "just the facts, ma'am").

The substrate was simple, dark sand. The tank was heavily planted: a single,
small Amazon, some dense patches of E. tenellus and a heavy mass of Java
Moss that covered most of a large piece of bogwood and the surrounding tank
area. Lighting was a standard single-lamp Perfecto hood (when the plants are
that close, you don't need a lot).

There were quite a few flat stones scattered throughout the bottom. Although
the Blues were fond of them for initial breeding sites, the Bolivians, as
with yours, preferred pits all the way from start to finish. With emphasis
on the plural "pits". One pair moved everything twice a day on average,
occasionally doing it thrice.

Preferred nesting sites seemed more openly situated than I would have
initially imagined. They appeared to have an easier time guarding the nest
when they had clearer fields-of-view. Once the fry were free-swimming,
though, they invariably moved to the corner of the tank behind the Java
Moss. This seemed to effectively "funnel" any potential threat to more
easily-defined and guarded paths of approach. And although I ran the Penguin
with just its standard strainer the parents never took the fry to that side
of the tank anyway, so the problem of containing the fry never reared its
head.

Feeding was easy. Nothing for the first two days - I let the Java Moss
handle that part. Then, once a day I'd drop a half-tablet of what used to be
called Tabi-Min (forgotten Tetra's new moniker) in the middle of the cloud
of fry. Nice thing about those catfish tabs - they're already crushed, just
compressed into pills from there. So it doesn't take long for the tab to
fall completely apart, and even the fry of wild-caughts picked up on this
really quick.

If I were to narrow factors down, I'd probably pick two as guiding concerns
when breeding F0s. The first is that they appear to adjust better to a
competitive environment. Please understand, the above scenario is not by any
means the recommended one (at the time, the crowding was initially caused by
using the tank as a "holding tank" during a move, but the results were so
surprising that the situation was continued as a learning experience). But
they should have some form of "company", be it at least another pair, some
dithers or even a "community" environment.

The second is that they seem to almost "require" a tank designed with *lots*
of hiding places, but not in what I'd call the usual sense of the word. They
never made any sort of move to hide the fry "up in" the plants, or under
leaves or any of the usually-thought-of type behaviors. They are perfectly
content to let the fry spend their entire existence "in the open" (their
form of "hiding" consists chiefly of simply dropping to the substrate when
alerted) **as long as the layout of the tank will allow them to choose spots
that limit approaches**. Later, as the "family" begins to break up, the fry
quickly learn the value of hiding in the plants rather than lying out in the
open - especially as they get large enough to be more easily seen.

That's all off the top of my head. If you'd like anything in greater detail,
say the word and I'll dig out my notes...

-Y-

David A. Youngker
nestor10@mindspring.com




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