Ortmanni and messing with water

["Brown, Victoria: TMI" <Brown.Victoria@ic.gc.ca>]

Hi Folks

Derek wrote,,

>While at the LFS, I picked up three fish labeled as "Apisto Ortmanni." They
>were $6 ea, and I purchased every one they had, since I had a 10gal set up
>for Apistogramma already. "All of them" turned out to be three... two
>smaller (3/4") ones and a larger one (1"). After doing as much research I
>could, I found surprisingly little info... to give an example there's only
>ONE post on A. ortmanni on the Krib. After studying Linke and Staeck's
>drawing of A. ortmanni (drawn from a "preserved specimen," I am no longer
>sure that they are A. ortmanni.

I bought some fish a couple of years ago that were labelled Ortmanni. I
found a picture
of them also, in the Staeck book. I have a picture of a live Ortmanni in a
book at home, I will try to find it tonight. I went through the same kind of
guessing game, and discovered these fish were Pleurotaenia instead. They are
also in the same book. Off the top of my head, I can't remember just what
book it was. I'll check tonight, and post it when I get home. They ended up
spawning and I am still maintaining a line of them. I still think they are
Pleurotaenia, and get regular spawns from them. I find these guys fairly
agressive also, but it's usually the females that are meaner than the males.
The females get bright yellow in their spawning dress, and the males are
quite yellow also.

G Kadar wrote,,

>I've learned that the best way to keep fish is to leave them alone as much
>as possible.  I now have a colony of Apisto cacatoides in a 65 gallon tank.
>I'm not breeding for commercial reasons so I am not trying to maximize fry
>survival, but whenever I sit down for a few minutes to watch the action,
>there are always fish of various sizes swimming in and out of the java moss
>and Anubias plantation.  They've got their territories staked out.  Big
Papa
>looks after his harem and the juvenile males know their place.  It's
>fascinating to watch the interactions going on all the time.>

I have discovered the exact same thing. I used to play with PH, GH, etc etc.
Put in  stuff to make the water, harder/softer, used peat moss and all that
other stuff.

I quit doing it almost 2 years ago. I don't put anything in the water except
Prime to get rid of the chloramine, and that is all. All my tanks are
heavily planted with, Java moss, java fern, anubias, sword plants, some
other green fast growing stalk plant and water sprite.

I  breed Cacatuoides, Hongsloi's, Agassizzi's, Norberti's, Borelli's,
Bitaeniata's and Pleuronaenia's all in this water, plus fancy show guppies,
panda corydoras, angel fish, swordtails, and of late, DOJO Loaches, (who
just spawned,, eggs everywhere!!!LOL). I am discovering the fish I keep are
happier in just plain old Ottawa tap water, with the Prime added. I have no
idea what my PH and GH is these days, and I think my fish don't really care
either. I also have found that the sex ratios are about 50/50 maybe 10%
either way.

Heck of alot easier these days.

Vicky the cichlididiot


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