Fwd: Re: Fwd: Re: Water Softener question

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

>Thanks for a very informative and interesting message (as usual), Ed. But 
>my experience with Apisto parents and eggs is different. The majority of 
>my Apistos have proved to be good parents, including pandurini, nijsenni, 
>agassizi, macmasteri, eunotus, resticulosa, cacatuoides and bitaeaniata. 
>Two species have not been good parents: steindachneri and hippolytae 
>(both from the same Apisto group). These eat their eggs before they 
>hatch, but I salvaged nearly 100 steindachneri fry when I removed the 
>eggs and tended them in a small clean container.
>
>Most of my tanks are also overgrown with plants. My water is unmodified 
>R/O, so it's very soft and a bit acid. For pandurini and nijsenni I've 
>used Waters of the World (Amazon flavor) with good success.
>
>I agree with your comments about pandurini doing well in pairs. OTOH, my 
>pandurinis have not suffered from the open mouth disease you described 
>(fingers crossed).
>
>
>
>---------------------------------------------------------
>Pete Johnson  /  San Jose, CA  /  petej@wordsanddeeds.com
>---------------------------------------------------------
>

Pete--I need to ask Lisa for more detail about what David Soares had to say 
about the disease.  Most of my earlier experience with breeding  Apistos had to 
do with Steindachneri and Borelli--since they were among the more readily 
available as well as easier to keep alive apistos in the mid -to-late eighties.  
Perhaps that is where I developed my opinion that apistos tend to be egg-eaters.  
My tanks tended to be somewhat bare in those days.  I have had better luck 
raising fry of Borelli and McMasteri with the parents when the tanks were 
extremely overrun with Java Moss (four to six inches high entirely covering the 
tank bottom).  I mentioned Dr. Ron Coleman's lecture in my previous note because 
what I got out of the lecture was that it may be a positive survival instinct 
that cichlids consume eggs if the probability of raising young successfully (to 
the age at which the parents no longer care for the young) is low. The eggs are 
consumed and thus the energy is used in a positive manner by the fish to produce 
eggs at a later time, when conditions are better.  One of the conditions that 
may be essential in raising fry successfully in fish as small as apistos may be 
sufficient cover or hiding places.  The egg eating behavior seems to me to be 
less prevalent in tanks that are so densely planted that the fish hardly see 
each other.  I observed a lot of egg-eating in A. Borelli in the bare tanks that 
I kept in the late 80's, but in recent years, when I had access to lots of Java 
Moss, I have had borelli fill up a five gallon tank with fry.  I have also had 
this happen with McMasteri. 

One of the early dwarf cichlid books advocated filling a five gallon tank up 
with round rockst so that there are a lots of hiding places (used to be pretty 
critical when all you can obtain is a single pair) for the females to escape 
aggression from the males. More recently--Dave Soares advocated using larger 
tanks, I think a minimum of 40 gallons.  With enough plant cover,the same 
situation is attained. Pairs may be bred successfully in a five gallon tank.The 
super dense cover seems to inhibit the aggression of the male to the females and 
vice versa (post-spawning) because the sight if other fish of the same species 
tends to provoke some action in most cichlids, whether it be lust or blood-lust.  
Much of cichlid behavior seem to be stimulated by color and patterns that are 
exhibited by cichlids.  I think that is why cichlids are almost chameleon-like 
in their ability to change colors and patterns.  With these pattern changes, 
they communicte things like brooding mother--beware; don't hit me, I submit; 
available male looking for mate; available female looking for mate; etc.

Anyway--one experiment that I had planned was to someday try filling a tank up 
with the floating spawning mops that killifish breeder use for breeding 
killifish.  Knitting yarn is tied to a piece of styrofoam (float) and the yarn 
is suspended sort of plant-like.  I wonder if apistos will be more comfortable 
in this type of setup and raise fry successfully.  Getting this type of cover 
density using plants is extremely difficult and time consuming for us 
brown-thumb types.