Apisto Sunburst Spawn!!!!!

Some of my Apistos laid eggs every two weeks!

As for feeding, Apistos do not require any foods like mentioned above, as they can take newly hatched BS from almost the word go! Well, at least from when their yolks are consumed!

Have fun, and I'm sure you'll have more soon!

Regards
G!

 

So now . . .she ate all the eggs . . . ..will see what happens in 2 weeks . .

 

Hi Guys,

There are a few things that I would like to add about this thread.

Firstly, Azurekoi, all dwarfs do not require infusoria or egg yolk as a first food, as a matter of fact feeding this will be very detrimental as such foods put a large demand on available oxygen and redox potential in an aquarium and can contaminate the tank leading to rotting of the eggs and then the fishes will eat them. Cyclops are not small enough for dwarf cichlid babies and do not have a sufficiently high nutritive value to get them growing properly. What big G has suggested, freshly hatched brine shrimps in quite large quantities are what is recommended. I use this for my Apistogramma aggasizzi and my Crenicara filamentosa and have had a lot of success with this. After the fry have grown a little, I start feeding high quality granulates, but I keep on feeding bs for quite a while as there are very few foods that can replace the nutritional value of freshly hatched bs.

Then you need to know that there a few types and species of dwarfs that have been bred and are not natural types. This includes all of the red (double and triple) types and sunset types of Apistogramma cacutoides as well as the red types of Apistogramma hongsloi. In order to breed these a lot of inbreeding has been used in other words producing offspring from closely related parents such as brothers and sisters. Inbreeding results in poor parenting in dwarf cichlids and this is why females eat eggs for example. Very often, when these fishes are multiplied in the Malaysia or Singapore the eggs are taken away from females and the young are raised artificially. If you do this for a single generation in dwarf cichlids then the parenting gets worse drastically and often the parents will repeatedly eat their eggs. This is the primary reason why Rams eat their eggs, their eggs are taken away from the parents in the East. Naturally raised fry grow to be excellent parents.

Another problem in keeping dwarfs is the forcing of pairs, and by this I mean that if you buy a male and female of these fishes they are almost never males and females that have actually chosen each other as mates. This is really important in dwarfs and you actually should start with a number of males and females in a tank for them to pair off properly. Forced pairs also often fight and the male bashes the female and eats the eggs.

Finally, you need to supply dwarfs with a darker tank and lots of hiding places in the form of plants or even oak leaves and low lighting. This simulates natural conditions and then they will have much greater success at breeding.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Hi Dirk,

Long time no speak! Just to derail the thread slightly here, but have Dwarf Chequerboards been re described? I've always known them as Dicrossis Filementosa! Is this wrong? Is it the whole Dicrossis family that have been reclassified or just Filementosa?

Sorry again for the hijack, we'll get back on track!

G!

 

Hi Gareth,

Yes, good to hear from you.

Crenicara filamentosa is the older name for Dicrossus filamentosus (note spelling of both the genus and species name), and this genus name does apply to the whole genus. Actually the name was changed to Dicrossus only recently, about five years ago and older references would all use the genus name Crenicara. If you do a Google search you would still find that the older name is used extensively. However, you are right that Dicrossus is the valid new name for them at the moment.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

A small update . .

Since @shaunlventer did not confirm if he wanted my pair of Orange Flash Apistos I have moved them to another 3 foot to prepare them to breed. (Don't know if @Linga wants the pair but anyways)

The older pair is showing signs of breeding again . . .hopefully none of the eggs get eaten this time. . kind of figured out why she ate them though. . .I left BOTH pairs in the tank when I saw the eggs. She might have been stressed by the "intruders" and ate her eggs?

Found some mosquito larvae in my algae tank today . . had this tank running when I had ancistrus and plecos.. It''s a good thing I found this in time because I am actually low on good size bloodworms and only have about 2 cubes of frozen bloodworms . .all that are left from my breeding is few day old BW's

@Dirk Bellstedt

Very informative

I actually had 4 of them in a tank and they paired off naturally.

The tank has no light and is covered on all (sides other than the front) with black plastic bags.

I purchased these Apistos from a Local breeder and they assure me that they are not the result of inbreeding.

I cant find oak leaves so I put in java moss just for some cover

I might have to get a few things from you later this year . . namely . . fine granules and some ferts ..

TM

 

Hi TM,

Just a short reply and I wish to reiterate this again. It does not matter what the supplier of the apistos says, the sunbursts and the reds are inbred, they were selected from a very small number of fishes originally so even if the fishes that you have at the moment may not all be brothers or sisters, they are inbred, they were inbred before and have this problem, there is no getting away from that. If this is not clear, then you need to go and study some Genetics when you go to do that course in Ichtyology at Rhodes that you told us about.......

For the rest of the conditions your tank sounds fine. If you only have one pair in the tank that will be better as A cacutoides are quite aggressive towards one another.

If you need food, just ask, I supply someone in Durban and I will be sending him some food in about two weeks time from now.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Hi Professor

I see now. Initially, a breeder "Created" the sunburst gene through inbreeding. . . so their genes where messed up from day 1. . .

Ichthyology is going to have to wait for now. .not seeing too many jobs around. .

About the food ..

Great stuff! will contact you

TM

 

TM,

If you google around for the original A cacutoides, you would find a mouse grey fish which occasionally would have some red dots in the tail fin, nothing else, and also not a general orange colour in the fins. So what the breeders did was they started selecting fishes for red colour and then started the inbreeding process because they crossed fishes that more and more red with each other. Somewhere the sunburst orange mutation appeared from the single red, then double red and finally triple red fishes and but all of these are closely related. Sunbursts and the reds can be crossed and you only get red or sunburst offspring, never a mix so these genes for the red are related in some way in any case, but they are all closely related to each other, with the nice color but the negative consequences re the breeding behaviour. However, they are not too difficult to breed, that is a fact as well.

Jobs for aquaculture are hardly ever advertised. Check out what is happening with companies like Irvine and Johnson, they are converting to aquaculture entirely as the sea is becoming completely over fished and fished out, they have a massive operation at Port Nolloth, I was there just a short while ago.... study aquaculture, my china, before you get too old.....

Will let you if I send food to Durbs so that you can get onto the bandwagon.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Hmmm...

Well I still have time to decide if I want to continue with photography (Probably wont)....

I want to study something related to my hobby here in Durban . .

Maybe Biochemistry or Zoology . .

Could you please PM me on what biochemistry entails?

Thanks

Regards

TM

 

hi TM, dont know how i missed this thread, congrats on the eggs (but also sorry they didnt make it , this time that is). and yes i still really want a pair of apistos. my nano should be up and running by midweek

 

Haha . . .okay then . .you can have the other pair that have not bred yet . .PM me and we can discuss.

Thanks

 

haha ..found my female guarding about 40 eggs just now . .

How long has it been? Maybe a week?

They have really grown with the live bloodworms . . . trying to make some beef heart mix as well . .

I expect her to do no more than eat the eggs again . . . but I am trying some heavy feeding just to prevent this . ..

TM

 

TM,

Those eggs hatch in 48 hours so she has not had them for a week.

Live bloodworms and mossie larvae are good, but forget about beefheart mixes if you are preparing them yourself, they are far too polluting and will cause eggs to rot, the nutrient balance of home mixes is not right in spite of all you read, and the worst part of it is that hormones are fed in such large amounts to our cattle that this will certainly influence your fishes. I would advise that you feed freshly hatched bs to the parents as well as this has essential protein contents that no other foods have.

Also, remember that these fishes tend to learn so it may be that you lady will have success now. If she makes a flop of it again, I would advise that you introduce some dither fishes so that she can concentrate on chasing them away and not eating her eggs. Good fishes for these purposes are tetras such as neons, cardinals and glowlights.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

I just covered the tank with a heavy black cloth . . I think I accidentally induced her to spawn early. My brother put the main switch off to all my tanks . .so no heat and filtration for over 10 hours . . the water cooled down to like 20 degrees and then I put the switch on which raised the temperature to 29 exactly . . . . the gradual rise in temperature might have caused the pair to get in the mood. . .don't know really . . .but hell . .they are easy breeders . .

TM

---------- Post added at 12:11 ---------- Previous post was at 12:11 ----------

No she spawned AGAIN after 1 week . . only noticed the eggs now . .

 

Congrats (again) TM, hopefully they will get it right this time. What size tank are you keeping they in?

 

Hey PW

Each pair has their own 120L (std 3ft) tank with PVC pipes, moss and caves . .

I want to try and get some pics . . very hard in greenish water with no lights . .

TM

 

Spawn 2 - Day 2

All of the eggs still seem to be there. Still feeding the pair well so they don't eat the eggs . . . .

 

Just be careful you don't overfeed TM. You don't want to land up polluting the water. Any major disturbance, (Like doing an emergency water change due to polluted water) could cause them to eat the spawn again.

 

Congrats and good luck!!!