antwan

Yea, that would ensure you'd get a nice carpet going. It's a pain in the butt and takes a while, but you will be rewarded for your efforts.

Thanks rcon, I love the shape of them.

With the glosso (it's a nightmare) you need to separate the individual plantlets (2 or 3 leaves each plantlet) and plant those 2-3cm apart from one another, this will allow them to spread and form that nice lawn you're looking for. You can plant it in a clump, but it won't spread quite as quickly.

Can we get these in NZ? The closest I've seen in the country are the medusa's...

Thanks. yea, those are from phil, he's still got a few of his wild apisto's left, you could drop him an email WHEN you want more

It's all down to what you prefer really. Bare bottom is easier with fry as they can see the bbs easier, and it's a little bit easier to clean. Like I say, it's what you want.

Baby brine shrimp would be better for the fry, they are a lot more nutritious than microworms, they are bigger too so the fry will get more of a fill from them.

I'd say just leave them. It's not often angels get this far on their first spawn. See how far they go and go from there next time

This is my setup for my A. bitaeniata, was the closest looking I could make it to the amazon river (from the video I saw of it) and they seem to like swimming through all the driftwood and java moss. http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/a-bitaeniata-biotope-kinda-vt17491.html For breeding I would suggest a 60x30x30cm tank, but you can go smaller for a pair. Apisto's are not monogomous fish and the male will sleep around (he has a harem) so you can have multiple females spawning at once in the same tank (given they have enough space, apisto's can get very nasty and kill eachother). For your decor you should have some sort of dividers for the tank so the females can't see eachother when spawning. Plants are appreciated, as well as a fine gravel (they are eartheaters so like to sift through the gravel for food). If you want to go even furthur, you could put peat in the tank; either in a stocking and dropped into the tank, or you could boil some up, let it settle, the pour the water into the tank. The peat will naturally lower the pH and soften the water, also gives it the water a tea coloured tinge (looks nice and natural). Oh, and lastly congrats on the purchases, apisto's are awesome 8)

CO2 also gets into the tank from the fish breathing it out (not sure if that's counted as "waste" above.

'cos the buggers don't always eat it :evil:

It will work, you just can't keep it under control as well as you can with a pressurised system.

I agree with the others. My tank didn't have CO2 or ferts and the plants grew just dandy. The biggest asset with my tank was the halide; it made all the difference to the plant growth. I would recommend sorting out decent lighting before splashing out on a CO2 unit or fertilisers.

Fair enough.

All I have with mine is a small hole for a screw to go into.

Could you suspend the halide from the roof?

if you're wanting to spawn them (apistos) a pH <7 is best with a temperature of around 26 celsius (this usually gives a 50/50 sex ratio with fry), and keep the water soft. If you can get ahold of some peat, that will help as it softens the water and lowers the pH naturally.

Depends on what type of dwarf cichlid you get...apisto's like plants and driftwood, others like kribs I think would rather rocks (being african's). They are pretty easy to keep, unless you get serious as some will only spawn in pH's of 4-5 which can be a mission.

They could just be nicer pebas' of the brood that he bred. Phil's mix-up was a right pain. I got my 12 apisto's from him and only got 2 individuals of the species I wanted (and even they were labelled incorrectly). But hey, I ended up with some beautiful fish from it, and I'm not complaining. Like I say, I'll get back to you in a few days and can hopefully figure it out.

Looks like it, mine was in a small bottle though 100mL. I think that stuff is for ponds (not sure if it's the same stuff used for tanks). http://www.arcatapet.com/fullsize/11757.jpg That's the one I had.

Tank is looking good Penguinleo and will only get better. I am 99% sure your apisto's you have there are Apistogramma sp. pebas and not huallaga's. I'll confirm this in a few days.

Algaefix cleaned my thread algae up at normal dose very well.

I think they live for around 10 years.

Double dosing flourish killed 3 of my discus a while back, I will not touch the product again (can make my own ferts for cheaper anyways). Flourish also melts val and I think a few other plant species too. The only side affect I noticed with algaefix was my apistos looked a little glum, but other than that everything was fine.

Does it look hairy and grow in strands together? If so, I used a product called Algaefix, not sure if you can get it over there but it worked a treat.