Re: A.borellii

[Ken Laidlaw <K.Laidlaw@roe.ac.uk>]

Hi Brendan,

A.borellii are one of the more peaceful and easy to keep 
apistos.  I think this is one of the few that can be safely 
kept and bred in neutral and perhaps even slightly alkaline 
water.  So your water looks fine.  If you were to get one 
of the more difficult Apistos like A.iniridae then you may 
need to keep your water more on the acid side.

What size is a 20gall tank, is it 36x12x12?  If so then you 
should manage to keep all four fish together.  Make sure 
you spread your pots around the tank and include separate 
areas by putting up borders such as pieces of bog wood or 
lines of plants.  Incidentally I use clay pot stands about 
4" diameter turned upside down with a little notch cut out 
of the rim as spawning sites, the fish love them.

When I had borelli they spawned are reared a few fry (<10) 
at an incredibly small size, the female was only about 
0.75" total length.

It is certainly worth while joining the British Cichlid 
Assoc if you want to learn more about cichlids, there may 
even be a cichlid group in your area.

For my info are there any other Apistos available in your 
part of the country at present?  Up here recently have been 
available A.nijsseni, A.panduro and A.cacatuoides these are 
the first I have seen in the shops for ages.

Cheers,
Ken.

*****************************
Ken Laidlaw
Royal Observatory, Edinburgh
Web: http://www.roe.ac.uk
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