Re: Breeding (or eating) difficulties

["Sylvia Kohler" <skohler@entermail.net>]

Steph,

Thanks for your comments. I had them earlier in a community tank and someone
advised me that the environment of the community tank was stressing her,
causing her to eat the eggs/wrigglers. (It was speculated that she couldn't
well protect her territory. Cardinal tetras and killies were residents.)  I
moved them to a tank of their own with only 2 guppies as companions. They
don't pose any threat whatsoever, but I hoped they would be perceived as
such.

I'm thinking about your PH values. Makes me think it might be worthwhile to
tamper with this a bit. Question: What gets your pH in the community tank to
a value of 5.0? Is it just the process of nitrification that acidifies the
water or do you do something different in there? Do you use CO2 on that
tank? Second, have you ever had problems with ammonia or nitrite in that
tank? I had an experience where my ph went lower that my test kit was able
to detect (6.0). I also had a biological filter crash at that time, and was
advised that nitrifying bacteria can't exist well in an acidic environment,
and will die out in ph much under 6.0, which is _supposedly_ what caused my
crash. The tank basically had to re-cycle. (This was a long time ago, not
while the apistos were in this tank.)

Sylvia


> eventually i decided she was a "bad mother" and put the pair back into a
> community tank.  about october last year the fish went through a
> spawning frenzy in that tank and the female agassizi was no exception.
> she had 2 spawns and both times raised the fry and looked after them
> perfectly for at least 2 weeks free swimming, then the rest of the fish
> in the tank got to them, but she and the male did a fabulous job
>
> the differences between the two environments were
> - many more fish in the community tank, whether they were competition, a
> greater threat or a made here feel safer I dont know. Did she learn by
> example from the spawning gibbiceps? (a bit far fetched i think)
> - the pH was much lower.  community tank was pH 5.0 and the breeding
> tank was pH6.5
> - the size of spawns was much higher, breeding tank was <15 fry every
> time, community tank the 1st spawn was approx 20 -30 and the 2nd was
> over 50, well I actually removed over 50 7 day old fry and she still had
> some remaining.
>
> if you are finding small fry, then I think this is a promising sign.
> maybe introduce another fish as a target fish to raise the maternal
> protective instincts until she works out what she has to do.




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