Re: Taeniacara candidi

[wrisch@uclink4.berkeley.edu (Lisa Wrischnik)]

Hi Steve,
I'm on my 3rd generation or so of these fish. At first, I was told to be
very cautious about water changes (i.e. keep the temp. identical) but over
time I relaxed a little and have never had any probelems.  I stopped pHing
my water as well, but they get primarily DI H2O with a touch of tap to warm
it up and provide a few ppm, and then I add blackwater extract (either
Tetra or Kent; they don't add in any buffering capacity like H2O's of the
World).  I currently have two tanks of fry growing out, one tank has about
1/2 DI + 1/2 tap, and the other is totally local tap (which runs about
100-180 ppm).  I have had females try to spawn in the "tap tank", but to no
avail, so I do believe that they need the water to be very soft for egg/fry
viability.

I agree with Tom that they can be very mean, but I have had 1-2 pairs in 10
gal tanks do just fine - as usual, it just depends on the compatibility of
the pair. I have also had a few annihilations, so do what Tom says, be
cautious and keep them in a large group if you can.

Mine are also lousy parents (though my starter pairs were actually worse
parents than their offspring, which seems a bit counterintuitive to me). I
would reccommend taking away the parents after the fry have been
free-swimming for about a week.  I have noticed that after a few spawns
they seem to rapidly
"poop out" in that department, as well.  (Any comments on this, Tom?).

Good luck with them, and if I think of anything else I'll let you know,
Lisa