Apistogramma nijsseni advice

[briztoon]

Hey guys,

Looking for advice on keeping and feeding nijsseni. I bought the lone male from fishchicks, and two german import females from a chain store that deals solely with bayfish.

From research, i've read they should be fed a fair amount of live food/frozen food, and not as much dry foods. Is this correct?

I know many people dislike feeding bloodworms to apistos, so apart from frozen brineshrimp and spirulina brineshrimp, what else should I be feeding my apistos?

Thanx

[Hassles]

I don't feed Bloodworms to any of my Apistos but some Apisto breeders with far more experience than I do feed bloodworms. I consider Blackworms a better alternative. Feed your nijsseni anything it will eat - ideally pelletised granules that will readily sink.

My nijsseni are the single most finnicky Apisto I have ever kept. For weeks the only thing they would eat was mosquitoi larvae.

I feed my apistos....

..hikarti micro granules and micro wafers

New Life Spectrum Grow, Therra +A and Finnicky Fish Formula.

Tatra Colour Granules.

Aussie Blackworms both live & freeze dried

Breedes Blend flake food

Warfleys Shrimp Pellets and a few other things

hope this helps

take care

[BigDaddyAdo]

Do you feed any frozen food Hassles? I feed basically the same as you but add "Discus Dinner" to the list and the odd feed of frozen brine, etc.

[Hassles]

Do you feed any frozen food Hassles? I feed basically the same as you but add "Discus Dinner" to the list and the odd feed of frozen brine, etc.

Frozen food ? No, I dont currently feed any frozen foods to my Apistos. I feed microworms to the fry, mosquito larvae when available and live Aussie Blackworms 2 to 3 times a week. I am researching earth worms at present, especially Red Worms, which are part of Worm Farm composting worms species (which generally consists of 3 types of worms). The problem is I can't get just red worms (the smaller of the 3 worm types) and I suspect all 3 types are required for the composting process.

I have a heap of BBS eggs in the 'fridge' but I haven't hatched any yet. Gotta' fabricate the apparatus.

Obviously Hikari 'Micro Pellets' and New Life Spectrum 'Grow' are only fed to juveniles as these are tiny food parcels. I do occasionally place regular foods in a mortar & pestle and grind this into a suitable size for feeding. I know others who employ pepper grinders for the same purpose.

As I am also keeping Discus (not breeding at this point) I need to make some high quality foods and when doing so will undoubtedly make something similar with the Apistos in mind.

I would consider feeding Discus Dinner to my Discus but I have never found this food.

take care

[briztoon]

Thanx for the info guys.

I currently have the small hikari tetra pellets/wafers mixed with another small hikari pellet/wafer in a container, as well as hikari cichlid gold baby sized pellets, and NLS flake. The nijsseni have eaten all three dry foods in the last two days.

I'll see if the like the frozen spirulina brineshrimp tomorrow. And I'll see if I can find a LFS with the black worms.

Can you cultivate your own blackworms? and if so how?

thanx guys

[Robdog]

Try HERE (http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=53)
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[gingerbeer01]

Two things too keep in mind.

Firstly nijsenni do tend to be different from most in that there is a tendency towrds pair formation, hence the female that is not part of the in crowd can tend to suffer quite a bit. You may need to remove the other female.

Secondly most of the apistos we get here is Aust don;t need crazy pH, somewhere baround 6 is typically quite fine. A. nijsenni do need the low pH to successfully breed, this is why panduro is so much more popular.

HTH
Steve

[briztoon]

Hey gingerbeer01,

So should I buy a second male so that I have two pairs? Would a 30 inch by 15 inch tank be large enough for two pairs?

[gingerbeer01]

The tank isn't big enough for two pairs. I would just watch carefully.

They are a bit strange as they can go either way - some will pair up and the other female is beaten, some will harem - with no good reason. I have had them do both. Romer reports the same.

Sometimes the fish just don't read the same books as we do......