Re: The problem with apistos

[Scott <zerelli@yahoo.com>]

Heh I have seen both sides of the floridae. I have
never seen them harm a plant, but they will hold their
own in a cichlid tank. Mine spawned amidst some really
nasty tank mates despite the males being a bit
tattered. I think the floridae did all the tattering.

I really want to try more of this fish. I wonder if it
is the location that they are from. The ones at the
store were all rough customers. I watched them harass
kribs, dwarf frogs and young severums. Anything that
moved was a target for the males in there. I had hoped
that a 6 foot tank with tons of cover would dilute
this, but apparently not. Makes you wonder how such
fish manage to reproduce.

--- Scott Olson <olson7@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Scott,
> 
> This really surprises me.  It reinforces the fact
> that we know very little 
> about fish aggression, or fish behavior in general. 
> A short time ago there 
> was a thread on the aquatic plants mailing list
> regarding the American flag 
> fish, Jordanella floridae (sp?).  Some posters
> claimed that the fish was the 
> very devil incarnate, being extremely destructive of
> both plants and fish.  
> Others said that the fish was the sweetest of
> species, harming nothing and 
> serving as a very effective consumer of hair algae!
> 
> Which judgement was correct?  Probably both!  How
> can that be?  Fish 
> sometimes respond to environmental factors in
> unpredictable ways.  I 
> remember my first fish tank - a 10 gallon, of
> course.  The inhabitants 
> included (no flames, please, all fish were small,
> and I was ignorant!) a 
> green severum, a pair of firemouths, an oscar, a
> 'jurupari' and a neolamp. 
> Brichardi.  The Brichardi was a perfect tankmate
> until I added some salt to 
> the water to battle my first case of 'ich'.  He
> almost immediately became 
> extremely aggressive!  I eventually had to take him
> back to the store.  Why? 
>   Did the salt make him irritable by 'bothering' him
> in some way, or did it 
> make him feel so good that he began to act
> naturally?  I'll probably never 
> know.
> 
> Back to the rotpunkt; I have never experienced an
> aggression problem with 
> this fish.  I once kept a breeding group of three
> males and three females in 
> a 30 gallon square tank.  No cover other than flower
> pots and rocks, and a 
> little java moss.  They bred freely, and I never
> observed aggression beyond 
> the requisite tail-slapping.
> 
> I can only think that there might be something in
> the water...???
> 
> Best,
> 
> Scott
> 
> 
> >From: Scott <zerelli@yahoo.com>
> >Reply-To: apisto@listbox.com
> >To: apisto@listbox.com
> >Subject: The problem with apistos
> >Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 08:15:53 -0700 (PDT)
> >
> >Wow, these are certainly agressive fish. I posted
> that
> >I had acquired a reverse trio of sp. rotpunkt. Well
> I
> >noticed that the best looking male was not very
> nice.
> >In fact he was so not nice that he tracked down the
> >other male in a 125 gallon, heavily planted tank
> and
> >did him in (through stress most likely as I last
> saw
> >the late male when he was eating). Unfortunately it
> >appears that the female has also been done in. She
> was
> >last spotted hiding in some plants near the surface
> >(not gasping at the surface I watched her dart out
> to
> >grab food before the aggressive male nailed her). I
> >have spotted the remains of what I think was the
> other
> >male (rendered a skeleton in an amazingly short
> time
> >by ghost shrimp and snails), but have never spotted
> >the female. I did pull a large quanitity of plants
> >from this tank, but was semi-careful about not
> >removing any fish. My question is this, how small
> of
> >space can a female use to spawn? Also, will she
> stay
> >in with the eggs or will she come out to chase away
> >fish that come near her hideout? It is remotely
> >possible that she holed up somewhere, but I suspect
> >the worse. Shoudl I try more females (if by small
> >chance I find them again) or just enjoy my one
> (albeit
> >spectacular) specimen of apisto?
> >
> >Thanks,
> >Scott
> >
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