mouth brooding or not?

[wuvmybetta]

my dwarf a.compressiceps has been acting very strange lately

I changed the water on Tuesday and accidently bumped a rock and it fell back where she was hanging out and I was worried that I hit her, she seemed fine after I was done and she came back out, but the next day she was in her cave all day with her mouth wide open I thought "oh nooooo! I DID hit her" and she didn't eat that day at all. Then this morning she seemed fine ,waiting for food in the a.m. and all was well. I'm expecting 2 baby frontosa in the morning so tonight I did a little 10% water change and some rearranging. After I finished she checked out the way I moved the shells and then hid in a hole she's been digging out in a new spot (not her cave area) she's practically under a rock hiding and doing the same thing with her mouth again. What on earth? will a female produce eggs and try to "do it herself" without a male?

The only reason I think that's the case is because a friend of mine said her fronts do that after water changes...

 

[cichlidmaster]

Hi Kelly,

Did'nt want you to think noone saw your post..........

Dwarf A. compressiceps or Altolamprologus compressiceps "dwarf sumbu" is not a mouth brooder, but an egg layer!!

A female may indeed lay eggs without the presence of a male.

Are you sure you have a female?? The reason I ask is A. compressiceps/calvus are very hard to sex even when adults and the dwarf sumbu being only a few inches when adults would be even harder....especially without the presence of a male to compare the two.

Your A. comp. may just be stressed from the activity in the tank during the water change and such!!

Keep an eye on "her" and keep us posted.

CM

 

[wuvmybetta]

Thanks Larry!
I hardly ever post my own topics for that reason alone , but you always come through B)

I had read that they were egg layers that's why her behaviour was so odd and made me wonder , I wasn't sure what to think of it it's mouth stays wide open all day after a change and it will get real stripey & dark colored (being territorial I assumed) I thought maybe she would lay eggs in a hidden spot and scoop them up when I came in the tank moving and vacuuming , it must be just my hands all over as you said that stresses her/(him) out so much, I dread the next water change in a couple of days seems as though it just recovered from the last one. The frontosas seem unaffected by it at all

should I try adding my lake salts and such to the new water and letting the water sit for awhile before I add it to the tank? Could it be that the ph is dropping a bit and it takes awhile to adjust? I've never tested my ph right after a change.....I guess I'll try it

 

[wuvmybetta]

after I posted, I got offline and thought "hmmm I haven't tested the ph in that tank for a few weeks" I had finally got it up to 7.8 -8.0ish ph , so I tested it and OMG!!!! it's at 7.4!!! Why on earth would it drop so much???, so I tested my tap water which is usually 7.6 and it came out at 7.8 tonight .... I'm confused and NOW I'm worried for my fishies

I added a bunch of crushed coral into the substrate and some shells about a month ago , I also add potassium /magnesium with water changes. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong? I DID give them the remaining bloodworms that had defrosted in the RO water from the green's tank tonight, but we're talking a smidgen of RO water went into the cichlid tank, barely a teaspoon, surely that wouldn't affect the ph so drastically...would it?

 

[cichlidmaster]

kelly,

One question..........

Why are you adjusting the ph when it is at 7.8 out of the tap??

CM

 

[wuvmybetta]

nooooo, it's never ever come out of the tap that high before, it's usually 7.4- 7.6, last night was the 1st time I've seen it that high

 

[wuvmybetta]

Ok, I checked it again (the tank) and it's now at 7.6 , straight out of the tap at 7.8, maybe my tap water is higher in ph now because of lack of rain....(?) I'm still not understanding though.

Why would my tank water be lower? I added the coral & shells for hardness by the way, and when I tested the gh the other day I was happy with the results but NOW......

Do you think this potassium/magnesium "cichlid-gro" stuff is screwing up my ph? It says on the bottle that it "buffers" the ph....should I stop using it?

 

[wuvmybetta]

my fish died after I changed the water tonight, within 5 minutes
I don't understand wtf happened and I'm SOOOOO very upset

she was fine when I was syphoning the water, even expressed how happy she was when I moved a rock back where she liked it (I had rearranged for the new fronts)
but as soon as I began pouring in the new dechlorinated water she began "choking" looked like she was coughing, rushed to the surface gulped the air (it had never done that before) and laid on the gravel and stopped breathing, just like that , I'm so upset & so confused as to what went wrong. I changed the 29's water today too and they all seem honky dorie as usual

 

[wuvmybetta]

Thanks all for your concern , it's much appreciated