Re: New to list...lotsa Q's...

[Donald Nute <dnute@ai.uga.edu>]

On Tue, 13 Jan 1998, jessem wrote:

> I have a tank full (I mean FULL) of Java Fern I could use.
> About the filter, do I need to consider fry being sucked into the intake
> when purchasing a filter? I've never actually had to deal with fry
> before. Neither my Emperor Tetras nor my clown plecos (these are the
> only two fish I've kept) have spawned.

In my experience, cichlid parents keep their young away from the intakes
of both box and power filters. Of course, it depends on how strong a flow
you have in how large a tank. I do remember getting a convict cichlid fry
trapped in a box filter once. He got in there, liked it, and grew too
large to get out! Of course, I released him eventually. I don't change box
filters every time I do a water change. Old filter floss provides
biological filtration. I only change them when the flow goes way down.

By the way, I would expect Emperors and plecos to be terrible tank mates
for Apistos. I wouldn't expect any fry to survive with these guys around.
But I am sure you could maintain them together. I have P. altispinossa and
A. aggassizii coexisting quite happily in a 55 gallon with plecos, clown
loaches, a keyhole cichlid, and a variety of tetras and hatchets. But
while the alts have spawned in there several times, they've never hatched
a single egg.

> Thanks for the recommendation. So I should look for 1.1 Apistogramma
> cacatuoides? I've researched these at The Krib. I'll have to see if my
> LFS carries them. If not, are their any others I could consider keeping
> in my 1o gallon?

Get whatever they have and give it a try. Another species I've had great
success with in a 10 gallon tank is A. caetei. This species is not as
colorful as many except when the female is in her bright yellow and black
breeding colors, but they also breed at a small size and are very easy.
The hardest part of getting and raising these fish I have found is
locating females in the usual assortment you get at aquarium stores. This
is a big problem with rams, too. It seems like the collectors mostly
collect males. A better strategy might be to get some fish from someone on
this list or from through American Cichlid Association fish list.

Don

Donald Nute
Professor and Head, Department of Philosophy        (706) 542-2823
Director, Artificial Intelligence Center            (706) 542-0358
The University of Georgia                       FAX (706) 542-2839
Athens, Georgia  30602, U.S.A     http://ai.uga.edu/faculty/~dnute