Re: F1

["alex pastor" <alexp@idirect.com>]

FWIW I've got F1 cacatoides spawning away with reckless abandon.  When they
were fry, I did not go out of my way to feed them anything at all.  They
lived on the "bugs" in an established aquarium until they were big enough to
eat bits of frozen brine shrimp, etc.  And no matter that they have been
exposed to flake food on an almost daily basis for months and months, they
adamantly spit the stuff out.

Unfortunately, up till now the other fish in the tank have got the better of
the moms.  But there is a half inch juvenile in there who just 'appeared'
(can't be more than 3 months old because that's when I put the parents into
the tank).  I now have a plexiglass divider in the tank so that one of the
moms with about 30 fry will get a chance to look after them.  These little
guys are about 2 weeks post wriggler stage and are living on whatever they
can find.  Her 'ferociousness' kept all the other fish out of her end of the
tank.  That's two feet out of a four footer.  Impressive little creature.
There are also 4 juveniles in another tank that grew up on whatever they
could find in the bottom detritus, on the algae growing on the glass and the
Java moss.

In direct contrast, I raised several batches of borellii on microworms.
When the worm supply dwindled, they starved.  They did not spend time
searching for protozoans despite the fact that they were in an established
planted tank!  They grew up stupid as far as I'm concerned and convinced me
to not bother with all this live food culturing, especially since I am not a
commercial breeder.  Even after they grew big enough to eat larger food they
just did not grow.  I finally traded them.  Meanwhile their brothers and
sisters in another tank, born in October 1998 are now mostly 1 to 11/4 inch
TL and they grew up hunting for dinner.  I don't think they are sexually
mature yet, but I sure can tell the boys from the girls, and almost all are
very robust and outgoing - coming up to the top to take food from my
fingers.

So I tend to agree with Charles Ray, that these fish do much better when
they are left to use their instincts to find sustenance.  His fish were
fortunate to be given the opportunity to eat hale and hearty in that pool
all summer long!

Like I said "FWIW", and it's all anecdotal, of course.

G. Kadar




-------------------------------------------------------------------------
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"!