Apistogramma Bittaeniata

[slickwillislim]

I am getting two pairs of these apistos and wondered if anyone had any experience with these specifically. I ordered them from apistodave on aquabid he seemed to have a lot of good feedback so I thought i would take a risk, and buy some fish online.

Currently i only have 1-29 gallon community with 9 silver tips and a small zebra loach, 2 amano shrimp, 3 ottos. I dont really expect any fry because of the loach and tetras. I was planning on putting both pairs in there but after doing more reading decided that I should put one of the pairs in a seperate 20 gallon by themselves.

The 29 is planted and i have to dose nitrates just so my plants can survive so the bio load of the two pairs shouldnt be a problem so i will see what happens with them together in the 29. I will search for another 20. I am a little strapped for cash so i am looking around for something used and cheap so it might take a little while.

I have medium hard water at a kh of 6-7 and a gh around 10. I have access to an RO system but its old and needs new filters. Do you think its neccessary to have a lower kh/gh. I know breeding is very limited at this higher gh/kh but will the fish still be fine. I was thinking about using have RO water to just cut those numbers in have so my plants wouldnt suffer to much.

Thanks for your time
-William

 

[MET]

I would not put both pairs in the same tank. These can be pretty agressive to each other. As long as you have twqo tanks I would put one pair in each.

bitaeniata are generally found in soft acid water so anything you can do to provide these conditions will be of benefit. I think they will survive fine in your water but I wouldn't expect to get live fry from a spawning.

There are currently many different color forms and locality forms of bitaeniata coming to the market. However, the husbandry stays the same for all. If possible give them live food as this will bring out the best in them. I have not had good experience feeding them flake but most sinking pellets are eaten.

Dave has been breeding and selling fish for about 15 years so he should be able to give you good advice. A word of caution - make sure you have free time if you call him because he loves to talk about dwarfs!

 

[slickwillislim]

Ok i have done some more research since my last post. I sent dave a few emails with some questions and i also found my way over to apistogramma forums. They basically said what you did except that the two pairs should be fine for a while in my 29. I only currently have 1 tank sorry if my las post was confusing.

I am shopping around looking for cheap used tanks on ebay and aquabid, I am interested in breeding them so I will have to get a new tank and get my RO unit to work first

. Thanks for the advice MET.