Re: Collected Simple Questions

[Mike & Diane Wise <apistowise@bewellnet.com>]

Doug Brown wrote:

> 1) I have put Lake Ontario driftwood in most of my tanks (weighted down
> with Lake Ontario rocks!). Despite boiling and or bleaching I have
> obviously transferred a new ecosystem to my tanks. This has worked out well
> - the adult apistos love munching on the brown hair algae, I seem to be
> getting more spawns, and the fry can apparently thrive on eating soley
> whatever is on the surface of the wood and in the algae (i.e. infusoria).
> All this is very easy to clean too, I just vacuum out excess algae when
> doing water changes. However, I have just noticed after months that there
> are some very tiny little white specks swimming around in a jerky motion.
> I'm not too worried as it seems likely they are just more food in the tank,
> but I'd still like to know what they are. Mosquito larvae maybe? Other
> ideas?

Collect a few and look at them under a magnifying glass. Do they look like
miniature clams? If so, you've got Ostracodes living in your tank. These are tiny
bivalved arthropods that scavenge for a living and are harmless to your fish.
They are too hard-shelled for most small fish to eat and too small for those that
can. If you want to get rid of them anyway, try a chemical snail killer.

> 2) Are there any problems with adding fry from successive spawns to a one
> species fry tank? Obviously you have to stop at some point but when?

Easy, when the older fry are big enough to eat the smaller or the water fouls
from overpopulation.

> 3) Why are African cichlids more popular than apistos?

Simple, more people like them. Why? I've no idea. To me they all look about the
same - blue & black, yellow & black, or blue & yellow - but I imagine rift lakers
can say the same about us d.c. fanatics. Obviously, most rift lake cichlids are
easier to keep and breed. Most people have naturally hard, alkaline water so they
don't have to go to all the problems of adjusting water. The real reason,
however, is that most have colored up within a month of hatching (mbunas anyway)
which makes them salable at an earlier age. The average fish keeper (you noticed
I didn't say aquarist; they're two different animals) wants his fish pretty right
away.

> 4) Why would you rather use freeze dried cyclops than frozen? Frozen sure
> seems a lot cheaper and would retain more nutrients right?

With frozen you're buying mostly water. Certain aquarists believe that freezing
ruptures cells and most of the nutrients are flushed away. I don't know; I've
raised a lot of fish on frozen foods supplemented with flakes, pellets, and
freeze dried foods.

> 5) Any hints on spawning apistos specifically in 10G and smaller tanks? I
> seem to have no problems with even my most difficult apistos once I move
> them to 29G or 55G but I have had zero spawns in my 10's or 5 and am
> therefore hesitant to consider stocking a fish room with them!

I've bred lots of apistos in 10s including A. agassizii, bitaeniata, borellii,
cacatuoides, cf. caetei (Rotwangen), eunotus, hippolytae, iniridae, macmasteri,
nijsseni, steindachneri (5 gallon, with 25-30 1-1/2" platys once!), trifasciata,
viejita (CF III) and sp. Wangenflecken. I think the trick is top quality water
and enough aquascaping so that the fish can avoid each other. Most of these
species were kept as pairs. Larger tanks are better for breeding and observation
of more natural cichlid behavior. I prefer 20 gallon long or larger tanks for
groups, but my favorite breeding tanks for pairs are my old (25 years old)
Metaframe 12 gallon (18Lx16Wx10H"/ 45Lx40Wx25H cm) all glass rodent tanks. They
have a lot of surface area that is more important for territorial fish like
cichlids. They need more careful maintenance but I have had no problems using
these small tanks. For those people who were into dwarfs in the 1970s & 80s the
name Fontaine Weyman is well known. He almost single handedly supplied most of
the domestic apistos available at that time, including some of the ugliest A.
cacatuoides I've ever seen, but was happy to have. His breeding set-ups were 5
gallon tanks, a box filter and a small flower pot. Water sprite was used as a
floating plant. So, as you can see, small tanks can be used; they just require
more care and attention. Personally if I could afford larger tanks I would
recommend that you use them.

> 6) Lighting. I am amazed that people are getting away with using so little
> light with apistos! I have always noticed that in dim or no light my fish
> are really pale and just hide somewhere and sleep. They basically only come
> out when the hood light is on. Am I missing something here? Do the fish
> just get used to less light? Is it better?

Depending on the species, apistos in the wild live in everything deep shade to
open sun. I think your problem might be that the room is more brightly lit than
the tank and the fish can see you. This will probably make them shy away. If the
tank is lighted better than the room it is in, the fish can't see you and will
come out. My fish room is lighted by homemade strips housing single 40W
fluorescent tubes. One tube lights every 5 feet of tank or 8W/foot of tank
length. The room isn't lighted. My fish behave normally as though I'm not there.
They only shy away when I get my nose up to the tank.

Mike Wise

>
>
> Thanks for reading,
>
> -Doug Brown
> debrown@kodak.com
>
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