Apisto question

[NinjaSmurf]

I was thinking about getting a pair of apisto's for my two ten gallons, I read they should have a ratio of 1m:2f, but since they can't all be in the ten gallon together, what I was thinking of doing is having a just a female in one ten gallon and a male in the other ten gallon, then moving the male over to visit her, wait for them to breed, then move him out once his job is done. That way the female would have the entire ten to herself, and the male would have another one pretty much to himself (I have four cories and some ghost shrimp). I can't do it now though because of growing out guppies and lack of funds, but do you think this would be conceivable?



If not shake your head and say 'For crying out loud, just get over the apistos Ninja!'

I'll take it like a man, promise.





And on a unrelated topic, how long abouts am I going to have to wait for my firemouth to get bigger than an inch? I remember cichlids growing faster than this....

 

[Seb R]

No exper on apistos, but it'd probably be ok if they don't get too lonely or miss each other too much (correct me if I'm horribly wrong).

Anyway good luck with the breeding. Which type will you get?

 

[Colin_BC]

I've also read that in a small tank like a 10G you should only keep a pair of apisto's. As with any fish regarding compatibility, it depends on the individual fish. I actually have 4 apistogramma cacatuoides in a 10G species tank (1M:3F). Initially one dominant female made life miserable for everyone else. After seeing this, I made sure that I had 5 or 6 pots/caves throughought the tank. Each pot has a ton of java moss that I formed to walls around it. Since I noticed that once a female stakes out a pot, she usually stays in the mouth of the pot and chases anyone that comes into her line of sight, I just reduce her line of sight with moss. I have java moss around each territory so when the female sits at the mouth of the pot, she can't see farther than 2" in front of her. Think of it this way as an office scenario: Just picure the overturned flower pot as a desk, and the java moss as the cubicle walls. From inside the cubicle (territory) nothing else is visible other than the desk (flower pot/cave) and the cubicle walls (in my case, java moss).

I hope that makes some sense.... Once my 3 females staked out their seperate territories there has been very minimal chasing. Lots of plants and other things to act as "cubicle walls" are key to keeping the peace (as well as caves of course). My male has just spawned with 2 of the 3 ladies in the last few days (their first spawn attempts, eggs now wriggling for both mom's), and the 3rd lady is courting him as we speak. HTH

EDIT: It just dawned on me that you are hoping for these potential apisto's to breed for you. Not to be rude, but have you planned on where you're fry are going to be grown out if they do breed? Unfortunately a 10G will eventually get too crowded for healthy growout of the fry. This is the first time I've had my cacatuoides spawn for me, however I remember when my Krib's spawned for the first (wish it were last) time without me being prepared for it. I ended up with 70 Krib fry. That spawn was from September 14 and I'm still trying to get rid of them. Fortunately I won 32G in early November and used this to grow them out, but I was quite concerned about where I was going to keep all these babies without causing a disaster. I had failed to prepare for this in advance but was lucky in the end.

Colin

 

[pnyklr3]

I have seen 4 (1m 3F) comfortable in a 20 gallon, with territories established. I have read about 1:1 in a ten gallon, and I think you would be fine. Unless someone knows otherwise, my male doesn't harass any of my females. He's only interested in mating when they are yellow. Otherwise, he just checks out his territory, and eats. You will be fine, though, if you want to just intorduce them to breed.

Yes, you will need a larger grow-out tank if you are breeding. If the quarters are too small, the fry don't grow as fast, and it takes longer for them to show their sex. You will also have to closly monitor the pH and temp, as these two things will decide the sexes of the fry. The sex is determined in the first 3 weeks if a fry's life (starting as eggs). If you need more infor, PM me.

 

[NinjaSmurf]

Yeah, this most likely won't be happening for a little while, as I do want to get another tank for the fry (summer's coming, so I'm gonna be scrounging around at yardsales and looking in the paper.... muhaha. Course, if I get one bigger than my thirty.... I can forget the tens...) and I have to wait till my older brother gets my pictus out of the thirty, so I can move the firemouth and have the other ten gallon free. I dunno, I just wanted to see if I could put the ten gallons to use, since they don't make for the greatest community or anything else... Gah, I don't know, I need sleep lol.


Thanks guys....


Oh, I forgot, anyone know about the firemouth? I've got to figure out if I'm going to be overun by guppies before he's big enough to eat them....

 

[simonbrown403]

I was thinking about getting a pair of apisto's for my two ten gallons, I read they should have a ratio of 1m:2f, but since they can't all be in the ten gallon together, what I was thinking of doing is having a just a female in one ten gallon and a male in the other ten gallon, then moving the male over to visit her, wait for them to breed, then move him out once his job is done. That way the female would have the entire ten to herself, and the male would have another one pretty much to himself (I have four cories and some ghost shrimp). I can't do it now though because of growing out guppies and lack of funds, but do you think this would be conceivable?



If not shake your head and say 'For crying out loud, just get over the apistos Ninja!'

I'll take it like a man, promise.





And on a unrelated topic, how long abouts am I going to have to wait for my firemouth to get bigger than an inch? I remember cichlids growing faster than this....

i've kept and bread double reds, pecocks and boriellas.
I put 3 females and 1 male in a 180ltr (40+ gallons tank), they where fine together untill the dominent female started to breed, she defended her teratory to the point where the other 2 got the stuffing kicked out of them and nealy died. since then i found it best (IME) to keep and breed them in selected pairs