Panduro problem

[IDMiamiBob <IDMiamiBob@aol.com>]

I have three tanks with A. panduro in them at this time.  I started out with
two twenty-gal tanks with six fish in each.  Each of these tanks developed a
dominant pair that pretty much took over the tanks.  In one, this dominant
pair is relatively non-aggressive, and the female has very yellow fins and
extremely dark blotches.  In the other, the dominant pair was aggressive
enough that I moved the other four to the 30-gal community tank.  One pair has
become mildly dominant in this tank as well.  There is a brightly colored
female in each of these two tanks as well.

My problem is that the females have been courting the males quite
consistently, but the males have not responded.  They are getting frozen brine
and bloodworms, with occasional freeze-dried tubifex.  Temp. is 78-79F.  pH is
6.4 in the community tank and 5.8 in the others.  The non-carbonate hardness
is around 40ppm.  Carbonate hardness is over 200 ppm, and it keeps pushing up
the pH.  I keep pushing it back down, which slowly lowers the KH.  I am
getting some 1% HCl from the pharmacist tomorrow to try to cut the KH down to
something more Amazonian.  I had to get this made up.  I was going to get
muriatic acid from the hardware store but wanted better control of the
concentration for my first tests of this method (Courtesy of Dave Gomburg).

Any suggestions?  They have been at this for a couple weeks now with no
change.

Bob Dixon