Re: Acclimatizing and breeding red pulcher - wild caught

[David Sanchez <barbax2@yahoo.com>]

I dont recall you getting any response for your post
so I will attempt to offer my experience here. I have
found wild fish to be very easy to breed. The reason
being that they generaly go through a period of
hardship and then find themselves in superior
conditions. As long as we get them before they have
not gone through too much hardship is the key here!
This is realy no surprise as the breeding season in
South America generaly comes with a drastic change in
water chemistry (ie: counductivity and Ph) and a
massive availability of food. The females fill out and
our fish start breeding. Logicly this is a
evolutionary signal, the time is right for breeding
their is plenty of food and the water chemistry is
correct. We call this the rainy season. The big
problem you may have is cleaning them up. One of the
biggest problems with wild Cichlids in general is
parasites. The two most common being Costia and
various internal parasites. If you have access to a
microscope do a skin scrape and take a fecal sample
right away. I reccomend the book by Dieter Untergasser
a TFH book " Hand Book of Fish Diseases" It gives you
pictures of the pathegons for easy Identification
under the microscope. The internet is another resource
I have used. If you need any more specific info
contact me off list and I will provide you with what I
can. I have recently begun Importing fish from West
Africa and I can tell you the most common bug on the
wild kribs is costia. One last thing use a bare bottom
tank during quarantine with lots of 'caves' for
security. Costia is very contagious! it is no wonder
the fish come in with it. It probably spreads rampant
in the export stations. Good luck to you


===
David Sanchez
Casselberry, FL
http://www.mindspring.com/~barbax
barbax2@yahoo.com
_____________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Free instant messaging and more at http://messenger.yahoo.com



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