Re: iron and eggs

[Randy or Deb Carey <carey@spacestar.net>]

Frauley/Elson wrote:

> <snip>

>        3 days ago, I added an iron supplement for my plants. The taenia have
> gone from being a curious but drab fish to absolute striking coloration.
> 3 females spawned within hours of each other yesterday, as did the
> cacatuoides. All of these fish, bar one pair of taenia, hadn't spawned
> in months.
>         A local plant guy once told me about Anomolochromis thomasi always
> spawning after he'd added trace elements (his own secret formula..) for
> his plants.
>         Has anyone out there seen similar things?
> -Gary
>

I can't prove a correlation, but I have suspected one in some cases.

I once added to a tank some plants which came straight from a commercial grower.
Various tetra species started to spawn.  In one tank, four month old tetras were
spawning (I saw eggs) in 7.8 pH!  My guess is that the plants still harbored
traces of chemicals from the grower's operation (perhaps iron?).

Some (not all) tetra species have markedly picked up spawning activity after
adding Balck Water Extract.

As for Apisto's, perhaps I need to try it to induce spawnings.

- --Randy