Re: A.borellii

["Brendan McEvoy" <bn@dna.bio.warwick.ac.uk>]

> From:          Ken Laidlaw <K.Laidlaw@roe.ac.uk>
> To:            apisto@majordomo.pobox.com
> Subject:       Re: A.borellii
> Date:          Tue, 10 Feb 1998 08:11:14 +0000 (GMT)
> Reply-to:      apisto@majordomo.pobox.com

> 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
> *****************************
Hi Ken,
            Thanks for your reply to my water chemistry queries.
The tank the fish are in at the moment is a 2 foot tank ( 24 x 12 x 
15) so I'll probably have to move one or even two of the females to 
another tank. As for clay pot stands I've come across this suggestion 
a number of times so I'll be popping down to my local garden centre 
to get some.
 Most of the good aquatic shops have closed down in Coventry with 
only general pet stores available so these days if I want anything 
special I have to go looking further afield. If you are ever in this 
neck of the woods the aquatic shop I went to was called Rosedale 
aquatics in Leamington Spa. Its about the only shop I've seen so far 
in the W.Midlands that sells more than one or two SA dwarf ciclids. 
The species available on a regular basis are A.borellii, 
agassizii, cacatuoides and cacatuoides double red. There were also 
some other dwarfs like N.anomala,  P.taeniatus/kribensis and various 
Rams including Microgeophagus altispinosus  so this is the best so 
far that I have seen. The shop seems to be run by hobbyists so maybe 
later on if I express an interest they could get hold of some other 
apistos. 
   If there are any other aquarists on this list from the midlands I 
would be interested in hearing from you.

Brendan
Brendan McEvoy
Dept Of Cell and Molecular Development
University Of Warwick
Gibbet Hill Rd
Coventry CV4 7Al
UK
Tel (01203) 522556