Fwd: Re: Water Softener question

["Ed Pon" <edpon@hotmail.com>]

>again, you say you've bred A. nijsenni, which 'should' require very soft,
>acidic, low conductivity water, so....   You've also bred A. pandurini,
>which caught my eye: I managed to scoop a pair that were cantaminants in a
>shipment of nijsseni, and I wonder whether you would be so good as to give
>some breeding info.  The usual, such as water conditions, spawning
>behviour etc.

In response to Andrew's question about breeding pandurini's.  I have had many 
pairs and have lost males due to some strange condition that pandurinis seem to 
be prone to.  I think it was Lisa Wrischnik (sorry about spelling) who told me 
that Dave Soares said that when the pandurinis get the "locked open jaw" they 
can't be saved.  I don't remember the specifics of that conversation, but I have 
lost about 5 males to this condition.  The fish seems not to be able to close 
their mouths, as though they had an extremely swollen tongue and the body 
generally appears swollen--kind of like african cichlids when they get "bloat". 
The fishes respiration rate seems to be increased.  If anybody knows of a cure, 
please let me know.  I'm kind of leaning toward my feeling that the disease 
appears bloat-like and will try medication for bloat the next time that I see 
it.

Anyway--regarding breeding pandurinis,  I have kept them in 4 foot community 
tanks and by themselves in 20 gallon tanks and have had spawnings.  I have had 
one instance where the female actually guarded the free-swimming fry.  In other 
instances, if I don't retrieve the eggs as soon as I spot them, they seem to be 
eaten overnight.  When I steal the eggs, I have been able to get hatches, but 
have had difficulty in raising the fry in any large quantity.  The dilemma is 
that I believe that fry need to be contained in smaller containers so that food 
is not scattered throughout a large tank.  The downside, is that extreme care is 
needed to control mold, ammonia, general water quality in a small 1/2 gallon 
container.  I have a little under ten fry which I have grown to a little under 1 
inch.  The 1 female that is guarding a few 1/4'' fry is in currently in a twenty 
gallon tank, her mate sucumbed to the disease that I described earlier.

I have found that getting the pandurini to breed is not difficult if I  use my 
water softener water and try to keep the ph down to between 5 and 6.  I even 
have a pair that laid eggs on the glass of a two-foot long tank twice because I 
have not had time to offer them the traditional inverted 4-inch pot.

I have started keeping the pandurini in pairs, they seem to get along extremely 
well together, even when there is just the single pair without dither fish and 
other distractions.  Unlike many of the other cichlids I have kept in the past, 
the male does not seem intent on killing the female, I have not observed any 
aggression toward the females except when kept in trios, and the pair sometimes 
drive off the odd female.  I started keeping them in pairs because I observed 
that, even when kept in a four foot long tank, the male seems only to be 
spawning with one female.  

There was an earlier discussion in which the pandurini were described as being 
somewhat aggressive.  My observation of the dominance of both Nijsenni and 
pandurini, that they become the dominant dwarf cichlids when combined with a 
number of other apistos, such as borelli, meinkeni (I'm not sure if I identified 
these right), Nanacara taenia.  Both the Nijsenni and pandurini appear to be 
pretty fearless in regard to people walking by their tanks.  In my mixed apisto 
situations, I think that McMasteri-types and Agassizi are dominant or equal in 
dominance to the pandurini.  I generally only mix apistos when identification is 
not a problem, but I have found this to be not such a good practice because the 
dominance of one species seems always to cause the sub-dominant species to not 
eat well, not spawn, and die off (probably from continual stress).

Pandurinis seem to be always out in the open if they are healthy.  I put 4" 
flower pots in the tank and invert them.  The small holes in the pot are opened 
up a little bit with a small file or screwdriver.  I have found that most 
apistos prefer the hole in the bottom (in the top when inverted) over a pot that 
has the hold put in the side. A female that has laid eggs may be seen coming out 
of the pot at feeding time, but seldom pays much attention the pot the rest of 
the time.  Brian Wolinski used to like to use a fine (number 2 ) gravel because 
he could see the gravel on top of the pot if the female was engaged in cleaning 
activities prior to spawning.  The importance of finding out exactly when 
spawning has taken place is because in my experience, most apistos are quite 
inclined toward eating their eggs if they are not removed on the first or maybe 
the second day.  I have had various apistos breed successfully and raise their 
fry, but in most cases, they are in small tanks (5 to 20 gallons) that have 
really become over-grown with Java Moss.  I suspect that the densely planted 
tanks give the apisto a better chance of raising fry. I recall a lecture that I 
attended at the Pacific Coast Cichlid Association that was given by Dr. Ron 
Coleman on the topic of when a cichlid decides to eat their spawn vs when they 
decide to raise the fry.  The gist of the  lecture was--if there are enough eggs 
to warrant the effort, and the conditions were conducive to risk of life and of 
energy required to raise a brood, then the eggs were less likely to be eaten 
(makes sense from an evolution perspective).  Sorry about the long-windedness, 
but I sometimes get carried away.