Apisto breeding frenzy!

[steph]

I did a much needed water change on sunday in the community tank and it must of sparked a spawning trigger as my female baenschi immediately went into a full on "mating dance" with the male. She was completely bending herself in half to entice him to 'come and play' The male also put on an amazing display of fin raising and gill flaring - it was quite a sight but very very brief (no mucking about for thses two!)! Pretty sure there are eggs now as the female is busy in one pot digging up the sand.

Interestingly the subdominant female tried a once or twice to entice the male away whiel all this was going on. Not sure why because I discovered that instead of her hiding in all the plants at the back of the tank she has been hiding in pot with her own eggs/fry and they look to be about 4 or 5 days free swimming!

If anyone is wondering why I didnt spot this, my tank is completely covered in crypts with almost no open sand so the fish can be rather hard to spot. (+ the glass was very dirty :oops: - but is now nice and clean!)

Steph

[Robdog]

Great news Steph. It seems that with baenschi, when it rains, it pours! Now that Mike has a few pairs there will be baenschi everywhere

[Hassles]

Excellent. Congratulations. Well Done. Just what everyone wanted to hear ;-)

[BigDaddyAdo]

My female trifasciata has a new brood out and about as of lat night. I added a school of neons to the tank on the weekend to help make my discus' feel a little more secure so i doubt that they will last long.

Must be something in the water. ;) Might go ask my wife if shes thirsty !!!!

[steph]

Dont do it BigDaddy ;) Kids are the worst possible thing to add to the fish room, they take up all your time and money!!

On another note, do you keep your oto's and shrimp with the Apistos? and how do they all behave together ? Do the oto's eat the eggs/fry at all?

Am getting a new tank and looking to get some oto's instead of the SAE's which are just huge and quite active.

Steph

[BigDaddyAdo]

The otos and shrimp are not interested in either the eggs or fry. The Discus arent either.

I have found that SAE will muscle in and eat the eggs/fry at will just like my Khuli loaches did.

The Apistos are doing a reasonable job at keeping the fry safe from the 20+ neon tetras though. There are still 10+ fry.

It looks like i have a male and a female from the first batch of fry to pass on soon too.

There are atleast 10 fry from the second batch still swimming around and the female has fry atm. :D Not bad for a semi-community tank.




I already have 2 kids...... That will do for now...... ;)

[BigDaddyAdo]

Also the Apistos only attack what they perceive to be a threat. They ignore the discus and otos but will chase away the shrimp and neons.

[steph]

I was reading a post on a killi fish forum where they were using shrimp in an egg hatchery instead of tumbling them. Reckons the shrimp pick up and clean the eggs but never damage or eat them, and stop them getting fungus. I think killi eggs are a bit bigger than apistos but it would be an interesting experiment.

WIll try and dig up the post later.

Steph