caserole

Yeah the norberti are really nice. The cruzi are super cool too when not in spawning colours they have a soft pink hue to them really unusual colours for an apisto.

:lol: I can't wait either, it seems to be taking me forever to finish. A few of the species I will have spare are wild cockatoo's very pritty fish but not like the man made ones, cruzi and norberti. What biteaniatum did you get as I have two strains blue and orange, are you able to get a clearer pic of your male if you don't know??

Yep sponge filters are the way to go all right and if you intend to breed tetra's you don't need them to be going flat out either just a very gentle air flow. As you are giving cardinals or rummynose a go first you should use a fine layer of peat rather then the traditional marbles especially for the cardinals as it helps calm them down better and hides the eggs.

No sorry I don't have any pic's and will not a able to take any for a while, there quit scitish. The Hongsloi males do not look like the pic's on the net, the first colour to go from the wild strain is the blue hence all the red in the man made colour forms that come up when you Google. I've had a look at Phil's stock and there was only one male and I got him. Keep hold of your female and I will have fry in the future, as I said they lay eggs all the time. When they were moved yesterday I found 2 females with eggs and I'm not even feeding them with live food which always gets Apisto's breeding fast. The sump to the Apisto breeding unit will be installed today, so it wont be long before I'm up and running then I may have some spare pairs available of a few species but not Hongsloi. Do you know any one with male Apisto baenschi aka "inca 50" I've only one male and loads of females.

It looks like a hongsloi female to me, could be wrong tho. another name for hongsloi is black seam apisto, does your female have a black seam on it's belly?? if so then thats what they are.

I bought all the species he had in the first shipment, unfortunately a few species Phil only had males but that’s the way it goes some times. Others are a nice surprise, bought some Eurotus but they turned out to be Maulburter a lovely mouth brooding apisto Anybody know were I can get female lyre tail panduro and nijsseni :lol:

Hi Loopy Jake breed some whiptails a sort while ago you may like to pm him. This is the thread. http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/1-vt11743.html?start=0 Emperor tetras are not difficult just a few rules, They need a large tank at least 75lt, 100lt + is better. For best hatch results use rain water or water with a very low to 0 ppm of calcium and magnesium. Keep the tank very dark or better cover it until the fry are at the free swim stage(4 to 5 days after hatching) as the eggs and nymph are a little light sensitive. Best of luck

HeHe, Sorry antwan your latest post should read most apisto's are harem breeders not all. Some of the species I have are not harem breeders. The Mac's and Cockatoo's are however harem spawners. Recomended smallest tank for a pair or small trio is 50lt (standard 600x300x300mm). By the way congrates on the Biteaniatum spawning, my Honsloi breed all the time(large eggs for apisto's the classic red, unlike some) unfortunatly there not in the correct spawning set up yet for the eggs to hatch. Good luck 2fishy

Sorry Luke*, but I have to disagree. Although light is an important factor in breeding some tetras it's not with the lemon, clean rain water being very soft is the answer. At least that’s my experience

I had the samething happen to me many years a go Vickie. The eggs only hatched when the tetras were placed in a small tank of there own with rain water soaked in peat, but the peat probibly isn't needed.

Hi MarkLB, the gerneral behavier of apisto's is the male looks after the greater area and the female looks after the spawning site egg/fry, with this in mind .... I wouldn't add another female to your set up, the foot print (80x30) would not have enough room for the 3 fish if both females had eggs the poor male would have no were to go. I see no mention in the previse posts of water conditions althou cockatoos do not need really soft water like other apisto's, I beleave CHCH water is hard and alkaline this may be adding to your troubles. keep feeding them well but if you continue to have failed spawnings you may need to change the general hardness of the water in there tank. good luck

Hi Lyndyloo, don't forget what Alan said about water changes and often the bigger they get the more attention to water changes, nitrite or nitrate can't remember which is toxic to them at low levels this is one of the reasons for mistery deaths of angel fry, fine one day all dead the next

This post has a link to hansen check valves http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/hansen ... 10206.html as for the question whether to use brass or not - i think most fresh water fish wouldn't care, but do you want to take the risk when plastic is available.

lol I had forgoten about that Alan, but that species would not sevived in the wild as it's food requirments could not be met nor would the eggs be able to hatch due to incorrect inviromental conditions. As for releasing exotic fish killies or other in to our rivers and lake is not a responsable thing to do.

you should start a new thread on that question southenman. It would be good to get a strong group going down there. hope your getting lots of eggs from the killies I sent you. Hope to send those N. palmqvist eggs I promised you next week it's been a bit hectic here and I havn't got round to it, sorry.

I breed my common B/N in an upside down 150mm teracota pot no gravel at all. the male sits half in head first, I know when he has eggs there as you can see his fins fanning them. the female just lays the eggs on the base glass. no mess no hasel. p.s Kylefish2 pulled an artical up that stated a guy in Auz breeds 1 male to 7 or more females the pot gets so full of eggs the male can't keep them all in :lol:, i've had 2 female and 1 male snow flake b/n breed like this, it's just a matter of getting the females ripe at the same time.

That may work but I'd check the power of the pump before buying. Smallest size tank recomended for breeding corys is 600x30x30mm as they dash around alot when spawning, there are exceptions the panda and dwarf corys maybe fine.

Jordan Alan is talking about peat moss. however it may not be that easy for you. What Alan said is true in most cases as the water in NZ in mostly neutral and soft so adding peat moss will make it acidic and very soft. From other posts i've read some of CHCH water is hard and alkaline. to see if peat in the filter would work for you, you will have to check your water Ph and GH(general hardness). If your water is very alkaline and hard you will have to soften the water by RO or resins or use rain water with just a very small amout of tap water to stablise the Ph.

system looks good Ant, just a few things 1, if you run a uv it must be on the outlet not the inlet to the sump 2, I feel the sump is to small as it is only 40 to 45 cm deep and maybe better to run 2 tanks side by side as sumps this will double sump volume 3, will an eheim give you the hight you need to feed 3 levels of tanks ?? I don't think it will 4, what fish do you plan to keep, 40lt tanks can be restricking as spawning tanks - in saying that I have 3 like that, that work fine for large killies and Apisto's the main prob's I see are points 1 and 3 your pic is quit spook as it is similer to my plains X 4 and the tanks are bigger.

can you post a link to your potobucket ??

yes the pic's are to had to see Ant. from what you have writen I will assume the first is a central filtation system and the second is stand alone tanks ?? is this right ?? something you may not of thought of is your time, it will be easyer to maintain the water quility by keeping up with the water changes(small dayly 5% water changes of your sump) even though #1 will cost more to set up. the prob with #1 is if you get a disease in the system it will go right through all your tanks this is why I run a blood big UV filter in mine, although if you run a flow through filter it may filter(seperating filter medium with glass bafels the water flows over and under the bafels filtering the water as it moves through the medium, ceramic noodles, gravel, stones, sand what ever) out things like white spot and similer parasites. #2 stand alone tanks is the cheepest system but requires more time to keep clean.

one thing I forgot to mention is that it can be very difficult to tell when they have spawned, as the female is always yellow, the thing to look for is a slite change in the yellow - from deep to every so slitey washed out yellow, I noticed this change in my female this morning and blow me down checked the pot and sure enough there were brite red eggs clusted to gether high in the pot.

Hi Jordan I have had some limited success at breeding my pair of panda Apisto's. water conditions: there kept and breed in are Ph 7.2 GH 30ppm, spawning site: 150mm up sided down terracotta flower pot with a hole in the lip for access, tank:300mmx600mmx300m, standard 2ft tank. If you read this link it is recomended a lower Ph and GH. http://www.apistogramma.com/cms/index.p ... &Itemid=44 If kept warm and feed good food(live food or similer)they should breed every 14 days. But as mentioned in the link, this species can be very difficult, you do need a compatible pair other wise they will ripe each other a part. I kept my pair in there breeding set up for 2 months seperated my a mesh devider untill they begain there spawning dance, before that the female tryed to murder the male every time she saw him. As mention my success has been limited, I am about to change the conditions to the ones metioned in the link to see if this helps with a higher hatch rate. p.s do you have any other Apistogramma species?? good luck Stu

Caryl!!, all I have to say to that is ss..

Thanks Luke, cameras a ricoh 5mp with 4.8 optical zoom.