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Re: small trifaciata spawns?

Hi David,

thanks for the reply, it acctually isnt to hard to get Apisto's into Australia as there one of the few genus's that are on our import list. However it is hard to get what species you really want, mainly because it's too expensive to get in just somthing for youself so you have to wait for the wholesalers to get it in. Lately we have seen quite a few Wild Caughts come in which has been good. But we really only get the scraps from germany, and i dont trust the stock coming out of asia and these are pretty much the only places our wholesalers can import from. Germany also sells us the stuff they cant sell there, mainly because they get better money for them, as due to the bad aussie dollar, and the quite limited Apisto aquarists here we only see the cheapies. The only really exciting import that came in in recent times was some very nice A.atahualpa, which were distributed imeadiately after coming out of quarentine to a number of Apisto nut's there were only 10 pairs that came in and within a week all of us had lost them to mysterious circumstances. I had acctually driven 8 hours to pick mine up and got there and found out about the troubles people were having with them. I decided to pay my $100 per pair and take 2 pairs home, well 1 female was doing back flips before i could get her into the tank, but the other 3 looked great, the female instantly went brick read when i put her in the tank and displaying to the males, but each day after that i lost one until the female was the last :-(n , all were just sulking on the bottom and eventually rolled over :-( the same way everyone lost there, it was all very strange considering they did'nt lose a 1 during 2 weeks of quarentine. Anyway back to the trifaciata sorry i ramble. the Hardness test kit i have isnt reall good for soft water with only measuring 20mg/l GH as the lowest reading and 10 mg/L KH as the lowest reading also, i'm pretty sure it's quite low as i have been told our water here has no kH and quite little gH , i also use a gH sponge and treat my water with boiled peat. The trifaciata are in a pH of 7.4 atm, but it fluctuates with water changes but not much.tank is 18x12x18 the substrate is river sand which has a large range of gradients. there are also a few plants and java fern. The filters are Aquaclear Hangons and i feed them flake and black worms. Temp is 25 degrees C, water chnages accure roughly every 2 weeks, but vary's, never more than 2 and a half weeks apart. sorry i cant give conductivity as i dont have any conductivity meters. like i said any help would be great.
with the hippolytae, there pH is 5.1 atm but vary's again with water changes but only slightly. the hardness again is the lowest my test kit measures, temp is 28 degrees C , there in a 4x18x18 and bully there only tank mates a trio of S.leucosticta, who also have spawned recently. There substrate is mostly fine sand with a few larger gradients. there are a few Anubias (sp?) , Thanks for any help David :-)

Tim


From: David Sanchez <barbax2@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: apisto@listbox.com
To: apisto@listbox.com
Subject: Re: small trifaciata spawns?
Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 05:13:59 -0700 (PDT)

Hi Tim nice to see your collection of Dwarfs especial
down under!. I hear it is difficult to bring new
species in from the outside. Anyway to your qiestions.
Forst of all you give general parameters of your water
lease give us the exact parameters in order for me to
make an accurate diagnosis. I would like to know your
pH, KH, DH and us/cm if possable ( counductivity). How
is youe tank setup? substrate? what kind? filtration
what kind? water changes, how often? temperture? are
you using aquatic plants? what are you feeding? Fill
in the Blanks Tim and I think we can help you solve
your problems.

Dave


--- Tim Bardsley - Smith
<cichla_to_apistogramma@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Guy's,
>
> well i'm new to the list and relatively new to
> Apisto's about a year now...
> but i have really jumped into the deep end and now
> keep Aggasizzi "Blue",
> "Belems" and "Red Golds", Trifaciata, Hippolytae,
> Macmasteri, Bitaeniata,
> Gibbiceps, Hongsloi and Cacatuoides. With
> sucssesfull spawnings of the
> Gibbiceps, Bitaeniata, Macmasteri, Hippolytae,
> Cacatuoides and Trifaciata.
> But with the last i have had trouble getting the
> number of fry to reasonable
> numbers. These would have to be close to my favorite
> Apisto and would really
> like to try and raise some of the fry. I have worked
> out a trigger that
> helps to spawn them but the fry numbers are always
> low with the most i have
> ever seen her with was 10 fry. Therefore due to the
> low numbers of fry she
> genrally eats them within a short poriod, the logest
> time was with the 10
> fry and they lasted about 3 weeks free swimming then
> disapeared. There is
> nothing else in the tank except the male who takes
> no part in the raising of
> the fry and steers well clear of the female when she
> has fry. Normally to
> get them to spawn it requires adding another pair to
> the tank, of either
> Apisto's, Rams or even a mirror. As soon as the
> female seems to be on egg's
> i remove the extra pair. the pH is just over 7 and
> the hardness is
> relatively low. the Temp is about 25 degrees
> Celcius. The tank is a
> 18x18x12, the pair i have now had for just under a
> year and have only grown
> to male just over 3cm and female 2.5cm. They were
> under 2cm when i got
> them. Although i hear they get to around 3" for
> males mine seem to stay
> small, perhaps the tank is too small?? perhaps this
> is also the reason for
> small spawns?? anyway any help would be great. As
> for what type of
> Trifaciata it is i'm not sure but there is a picture
> of the male here.
>
http://www.rpi.net.au/~graeme/mystuff/mytrifaciatamale8.jpg
>
> he's a stunning fish with his extended dorsal ray
> being at least 2cm long.
>
> On some more spawning problems i have had trouble
> with my Hippolytae, out of
> about 8 spawns i have only had 1 batch make it to
> fry, with the frist ones i
> saw the egg's turning white. The pH is inbetween 4
> and 5 , and treated with
> peat and a gH sponge. and our kH in our tap water is
> always quite low if
> any. Also the only time i had fry there was only
> around 10, i removed them
> and they are now doing fine growing reasonably
> quickly. Now do you guy's
> think it's related to hardness pH? or maybe even
> temp, which is currently 27
> degrees Celcius any ideas? they are a Wild Caught
> pair and a very good size,
> male is almost 4" and female over 2".  anyway any
> info or advice would be
> great :-)
>
> Tim
> (Sydney Australia)
>
>
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