Fwd: Apisto environments

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

Francis wrote:
>I'm thinking back to my collections in the Rio Orosa in Peru 
>of A. agassizii, bitaeniata, eunotus, cacatuoides; and 
Apistogrammoides.
>and I guess the only 3 habits I can remember are
>
>	* quiet, shady, blackwater streams
>	* mud puddles (perhaps dried up versions of the above)
>	* lake edges (these tend to be sunny, and muddier)
>
>What other types of apisto habitat are there? Perhaps we should make a
>list.
>
>Frank O'Carroll
>Tokyo
It sounds like a very useful endeavor.  In talking to Uwe Romer when he 
lectured in San Francisco, I sensed he was somewhat adamant about the 
variability of the conditions under which apistos live.  If an organism 
is not adaptable to temperature changes, ph changes, and other factors, 
it is unlikely that any area of the world is stable enough for the 
species to have survived to today.

In reading books, we seldom get the sense that there is very much 
variation in temperature of some of our tropical fish--i.e. keep at 78 
to 80 degrees in soft, acid water is sort of typical of advice we are 
given on raising apistos.  There are certain killifish that will not 
breed unless subjected to cold spells of about 40F degrees for at least 
a certain amount of time.  Cory catfish can be stimulated to spawn by 
dropping the temperature, simulating raining.  While none of the apistos 
thus far seem unbreedable in captivity, some of them are a little more 
difficult to spawn than others.

The information available to us is very limited on what are the ranges 
of temperature and ph apistos are generally subjected to in their 
natural habitat, as well as the type of habitat that each species is 
normally found in abundance in.

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