Re: Agassizii breeding assistance needed

[Mike & Diane Wise <apistowise@fgn.net>]

Dave,

I've spawned pairs of aggies in tanks as small as
10 gallons. Your 15 is fine. Aggies are a clear
water fish that prefer pH values between pH 6 & 7.
If they do breed at your pH I would expect mostly
males. Still it's strange that your female hasn't
'yellowed up' yet. I'm wondering if you have a
female aggie. It could be a 'sneaker male' or even
a female of another species. Although rarely found
together in the wild, A. agassizii & A. bitaeniata
are commonly shipped together. You might have a
female bitaeniata. They're hard to distinguish
from aggie females.

My only suggestions are weekly water changes, lots
of live/frozen foods, lots of spawning caves, a
quiet tank location, & patience. If this doesn't
work, I'd recommend finding another female.

Mike Wise

rdlittle3@comcast.net wrote:

> I have a pair in a 15 gal tank by themselves and
> I can't seem to find the trigger that will get
> them to spawn. They both at times look like
> there is some interest as the male on occasion
> will flare the fins and go through some body
> posturing.  The female will mirror the displays
> every now and then. The female is enormous; it
> looks like she is going to burst.  Her
> coloration is the drab brown with hints of
> yellow above and below the horizontal stripe
> running down her body.  I've never seen the
> intense yellow coloration the female is supposed
> to take on during breeding. A couple of weeks
> ago there was a similar discussion so I checked
> my water parameters and found my pH a little
> low, 5.3, temp 78F and my TDS meter was reading
> about 150.  I undertook some water changes and
> last week I brought the TDS reading down to 97
> and the pH was 5.6.  Last night I did a massive
> water change and the reading on the TDS meter is
> 55 (the reading had crept up to 117), pH is 5.75
> and temp is 78F. Other than bringing up the pH
> to 6.2 or so, what else can I do to get them to
> spawn?  The only thing I can think of is adding
> some dithers.  The only fish I presently have
> that I feel comfortable adding from a
> "cleanliness"  standpoint is some Nannostomus
> beckfordi, and I'd rather not use them unless
> absolutely necessary as it looks like they are
> close to spawning themselves.   I don't like the
> idea of adding some fish I just bought from the
> LFS to my pair. Any other suggestions. Thanks as
> always for the great information. Dave

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