Re: When a blessing becomes a curse

[David Sanchez <barbax2@yahoo.com>]

I couldn't resist your plea for help so I'll try to be of service. 
One thing you can do is simply take a net and snag the females in
question and simply remove the caves with the eggs and fill a 5.5
gallon tank(or what ever you have) with water from the tank some
plants for cover and maybe a little sand as substrate and your in
business. Even if the eggs have already hatched she will have them in
a pit right under where she is ( like a hen over her eggs) take a net,
snag the female then siphon the wigglers, A turkey baster is especialy
useful for this. Some people may be horrified to hear this, as there
seems to be a fear of Apisto's eating there eggs but I have done this
with regularity on many species some being supposedly notorious "bad
parents" such as D.filamentosus, T.candidi and even the more common
A.borelii. I keep a few planted show tanks and I regularly have spawns
in them. Many times I simply let them raise some in the tank but if I
really want the babies I'll pull the mama with her fry or eggs. The
mother will have a brief 2-5 minutes of disorientation but she quickly
recovers and her strong parental instincts take over. To help her I
reccomend that you also provide her good cover, a good tuft of Java
Moss is a good candidate and maybe some floating plants like water
sprite.
Another option is to use some beef heart as bait to lure snails to it
and then remove them from your tank. this works really well overnight.
This may take some time though. There's also a snail killing product
out there but its mostly copper and it may have a detrimental effect
on the plants.

Let me know how things work out, good luck and congrats! 

Dave



---Cory and Susanne Williamson <webwill@infinet.net> wrote:
>
> Ahhhh! This is very bad news!- I was very happy about the snails in
my tank
> as well- is there any way to reduce the carnage- I am afraid that I
have far
> too much time invested in my community dwarf planted tank to tear it
appart
> in search of snails- there are hundreds of them. Has anybody used
> nightlights in this kind of situation with success?- I have at least
one
> clutch each of eggs with my regani and borelli at the moment
possibly two
> clutches of each- both borelli females and two regani are hiding
most of the
> time and are extremlely defensive of their spots- to the point of
bullying
> large M. altispinosa. One borelli is barely 1.5 cm- not much larger
than the
> dorsal fin on my male butterfly ram- but she is very able to send
him on his
> way..
> 
> Any suggestions about the snails would be greatly appreciated- these
are the
> first Apisto spawns I have had.
> 
> Cory
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ALEX PASTOR <alexp@idirect.com>
> To: apisto <apisto@majordomo.pobox.com>
> Date: Wednesday, February 03, 1999 7:56 PM
> Subject: When a blessing becomes a curse
> 
> 
> >I was figuratively patting myself on the back last week for my
> serendipitous
> >great good fortune in having somehow inadvertently introduced
Malaysian
> >trumpet snails into one of my planted tanks.(That sentence reads like
> >something Lilith would have said to Frazier if she would have an
aquarium)
> >... Then I read that these snails eat apisto eggs at night while
the mother
> >fish sleeps...ARGHHHHH!!!
> >
> >Hence, I have been doing the Jacques Cousteau for the past three
evenings,
> >picking snails out of the gravel as they appear for their evening of
> >feasting and frolicking on my defenseless apisto eggs.  Sigh...
> >
> >G. Kadar
> >getting the water changes done before A&E's Murder Mystery.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >This is the apistogramma mailing list, apisto@majordomo.pobox.com.
> >For instructions on how to subscribe or unsubscribe or get help,
> >email apisto-request@majordomo.pobox.com.
> >Search http://altavista.digital.com for "Apistogramma Mailing List
> Archives"!
> >
> 
> 
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
> This is the apistogramma mailing list, apisto@majordomo.pobox.com.
> For instructions on how to subscribe or unsubscribe or get help,
> email apisto-request@majordomo.pobox.com.
> Search http://altavista.digital.com for "Apistogramma Mailing List
Archives"!
> 

_________________________________________________________
DO YOU YAHOO!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com


-------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the apistogramma mailing list, apisto@majordomo.pobox.com.
For instructions on how to subscribe or unsubscribe or get help,
email apisto-request@majordomo.pobox.com.
Search http://altavista.digital.com for "Apistogramma Mailing List Archives"!