Re: crenacara filamentosa

[David Sanchez <barbax2@yahoo.com>]

To add my experience to the discussion I have found
female Dicrossus to be excellent mothers and have
always had them raise their young. I must admit unlike
my experience with many Apisto's they do need spawn or
two to get things going. Though this is not always the
case. In my opinion the problem lies with the water.
They really need very very acidic water that is very
soft. I have a couple of barrels of rainwater filled
with oak leaves and peat. I let this sit for a couple
of months and I use this special water for any
demanding species I may have. I relate breeding
Dicrossus and other acid loving species, like
A.candidi, to breeding Cardinal Tetras and some
Killies. The trick is getting the eggs to hatch. For
this to happen we must have the proper water
parameters as well as water that is low in bacteria
and other pollutants for this reason measuring
conductivity is imperative. As I have stated in the
past many times monitoring conductivity in our
breeding tank gives us a measure of water quality and
gives us an indication of what is happening. It's easy
to say my pH 5.5, DH 0, so why are my eggs not
hatching? Well there are many more things to consider
then just that and we often overlook them. In my
experiences with breeding Tetras and Killies I easily
see the benchmark for success being in getting the
eggs to hatch. To get the eggs to hatch in these cases
we are always looking to water quality. In my first
attempts at breeding Cardinal Tetras I remember
counting over 100 eggs but my hatch rate was very
poor. I began to treat the water with peat and other
things to get my water correct. I found that the humic
acids were a vital part of things and have many
properties we don?t fully understand but this natural
process of "water preparation" gives us the success we
want and our eggs hatch. 

To me a breeding tank is not just a place to put to
fish to breed. There are many variables to consider.
Feeding adds to the waste in a breeding tank. What are
we feeding? Is it adding allot of DOC's? (Dissolved
organics)" But I am doing weekly 25% water changes!"
But is it enough how do we know? we must measure the
conductivity as it changes over time in the breeding
tank. What fertilizers are we adding? Are we using
plants? Let me add this, plants in a state of
excellent growth will reduce our conductivity by
consuming ammonium and other organics before they can
pollute our system. I say this because I see many
breeders use the bare bottom tank with a few PVC caves
and then wonder why they get no eggs to hatch. While a
bare bottom or so-called sterile tank can be
successful I say this only to illustrate my point
better. Well good luck to all little Dicrosssus are
one of my all time favorites and I sure hope to see
many more of us be successful with them in the future.

Dave Sanchez


--- salS <chas33@optonline.net> wrote:
> 
> Steve,
> I concur with Mike.. I spawned them twice.. the
> first time I had to hatch
> the eggs artificially because the female would eat
> the fry as soon as they
> became free swimming.  The second time, with a
> different pair,  the female
> was able to raise the fry as long as I removed every
> other fish in the tank.
> 
> Sal
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Mike & Diane Wise <apistowise@bewellnet.com>
> Sent: Sunday, July 01, 2001 12:32 PM
> Subject: Re: crenacara filamentosa
> 
> 
> > Steve,
> >
> > I've found Dicrossus filamentosus (a.k.a.
> Crenicara filamentosa) to be
> > less than good parents.


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