tolstoy21

Yeah I never see the eggs either, and I don't typically even see any fry visually for like two weeks. I kind of just proceed on blind faith that fry are in there and feed the tank tiny food like infusoria accordingly. If I don't see fry by week three, I'll start removing all the moss and leaf litter and sometimes, bingo, there will be a couple dozen to many, many more fry that were just being secretive.

They happen at the same time. The eggs are fertilized external to the fish. The fish might chase each other and flirt a bit. But as the eggs are laid, the male will swim over them and fertilize them. This is pretty standard for egg scatterers/layers. As for keeping eggs safe, I put a heavy layer of live sphagnum moss and oak leaves down when I breed emperor tetras. The eggs fall into that and the parents don't go diving into it to any degree that impacts the number of fry born. I leave my breeding adults in the tank for a week. Any fry born in that time will hide in the protection of the leaf/moss bed. I don't bother looking for eggs. But to do the above assumes you're using a dedicated, separate breeding tank. I breed mine in a 20 gallon high.

I watch everything but the live streams. @Cory I love/appreciate your other channel in which you focus on business topics. I don't mind that your output there is sporadic since I'd rather wait a while for decent, information-rich content than a re-hash of the same old topics just to meet the demands of a regular content-release schedule.

Do they technically have to be in "love" to achieve your goals? 😜

Thanks! But . . . to be honest, the clarity was less than desirable and took a lot of work in Adobe Lightroom to adjust the exposure and get the 'hazy' look out as best as I could. I did my best to keep the colors accurate to the fish themselves by not tweak thing like hue or saturation and just focused on fixing the lighting/exposure issues. I'd like to get better pics of the acara, but they have a dimly lit blackwater setup. I love those fish, always come right up to the glass to greet me. Not shy at all.

Some pics I took tonight. Apistogramma agassizii double red and super fire red, and a female zebra acara (Ivanacara adoketa).

Dan's fish just posted a video on removing gudgeon eggs from a tank the other day. The eggs were laid on glass, not wood. But maybe this can give you some indication of how you might accomplish the task.

Yeah this is what the recommendations are on the package.

👍. Yup. The above. I just mix mine up in a small jar, scoop out portions with a spoon and drop those into the tanks to feed it. It's super easy and not very labor intensive. Just microwave some water, mix it with Repashy in jar and DONE! Takes about as long as it takes your microwave (or stove top) to boil some water. I make enough to last 2 weeks and stick it in the fridge.

Thanks everyone. I guess I'll just nuke this thing form orbit and start anew. I'll just circulate some bleach solution in an empty system, then flush that out and dose heavily with Prime. I'll grab some media from another tank to jump start the cycle. Really, I was just hoping to not throw out a ton of Flourite Sand substrate. But it has many years of fish doo-doo in it, so I should probably just let it go. I was also hoping to avoid all the various diatom and other algae phases associated with a new tank. Those are the most 'not fun' part of the hobby.

I've had a 125G running for some years now. In the past year+, fish have been dying off, one at a time. Typical symptoms are progressive bloat (no pine coning) and red patches on sides or belly. I maintain a lot of tanks, and this is the only tank that I've had any systemic illness in. I'd like to just move all the fish out, take out plants and decorations, and start anew. However, i don't want to nuke this from orbit. So, if I want to keep the substrate and try to maintain the current biological filter to a degree, what are my best options, if any? Should I dose the whole tank with salt and let that run for a week+. Will a salt treatment and 2 or so weeks without fish kill off any pathogens / parasites effectively to reintroduce fish? Will salt affect the beneficial bacteria? I've heard this suggested in the past and was wondering is anyone has had success with this. Theoretically, I could also ad a UV sterilizer to the tank (I have a large one sitting unused), but I'm a bit reluctant to hook it back up because it needs a replacement bulb and Im feeling lazy. Any tips, aside from empty it out and scrub it down (cause I know I can do that if needed) would be appreciated. I'm basically trying to avoid having to remove and replace substrate and re-cycle the aquarium. Plus, if I were to sterilize it by manually washing, this would include overflows, plumbing, check valves, sump, etc. And that's a lot of work.

Well it worked out very well because I put 5 of the angels on Craigs List and gave them away very quickly (as breeding pairs +1), and kept a single Angel. I originally got them when I went to buy plecos locally, and the breeder included them in the sale by saying 'Oh hey here are some angels too!" When I showed up, they were already bagged and in the box ready to go, so how could I say no. I'm guessing he had too many. I did give them a good chance, but I'm guessing the environment, with its many large sword plants to breed on, was too inviting to resist baby making! My 125 is maybe a foot away from my office desk, so I got to watch them violently (understandably so) defend spawn after spawn from some very fast and hungry Odessa Barbs and full-sized Colombia Tetras. Shame too because the parent were very good at caring for their eggs and getting them to hatch in copious amounts. But, a hungry Odessa's gotta eat too! Poor little wigglers. Nature has its ways.

Use something like Equilibrium for Gh and find a good buffering product for Kh/Ph.

Someone gifted me 6 angels and I put them in a 125 community tank and they all paired off (3 pairs) and laid eggs and hatched fry like every week, on every amazon sword leaf in the tank, then went into non-stop psycho mode and attacked everything and each other in the tank in a non-stop frenzy of fish-on-fish violence. Gave them away after 2 months of continual blood baths! Not doing that again. I cant say how often they will breed if the male is left in, as I don't normally do this, so I don't have any genuine observations about that. I do have one male and three females in that 125 community, and I never see breeding activity. It's also full of Odessa Barbs, so my guess is, if they do breed, the fry probably last 5 minutes tops. I don't typically see male on female aggression. The males can get a little pushy with trying to breed, but the females are pretty good at batting them off, or retreating to their caves if they males become annoyingly flirty.

In have no experience with pencil fish, but apistos tend to hang near the bottom, and pencil fish towards the top, right? I'd say they'll be fine. The larger the tank the less aggressive the female will be, as your fish will more likely be spread out naturally, and have ample space to retreat to and stay away if the female pecks at them. The female-on-male aggression I've seen tends to happen in tighter quarters, with less aqua-scaping, where the female can see the male at all times unless he's cowering behind a sponge filter. Also, the males just can't seems to stay away and so put themselves in harms way. I'd say the female apisto is more likely ti get aggressive towards other bottom dwellers who accidentally wander to near the fry. But if there is ample room and hiding space, everyone will more than likely be fine. I have two pairs now that have eaten multiple spawns but have also actually figured out how to co-parent peacefully. So, unless you're looking for instant fry to have soon, you could also experiment with leaving the male in, chancing a few spawns and seeing if the parents figure it all out. I typically don't do this, but thats only because I'm breeding fish to sell, so a lost spawn = lost revenue. As for which apisto to get -- get the one you enjoy the most! I've had luck with Cacatuoides, Baenschi and Agassizii pairing up pretty easily without much fuss or investing in a larger group. The only time I've had problems pairing any of these is when I've introduced young males to older females. In these scenarios, the females seems uninterested and to get violent towards the younger males. Good luck!

@Zac I spawn apistos in a 20 gallon high, and keep the fry in that for the duration of their lives with me. If I have a particularly large spawn, I might move half of that into another 20 high as they grow. I move the parents to either 10 gallon holding tanks, or I'll move them into vacant 20 highs, if one is available. Sometimes I'll put one of them in the grow out of another species. It all depends on where there is space and it's kind of a juggling act. I keep the parents apart until I'm ready to breed again. I typically don't keep more than one or two pairs of breeders.

Oh let me add, I have super soft water naturally, so I can't offer advice on water params. My water is just naturally good for soft-water species, so I stick with breeding those. Can't really comment on what range of params they 'will' breed in, but as I've bred them anywhere from 5.0 - 6.4ish Ph.

Sorry. Haven't tried any other tetras yet. But I would like to take a crack at Blueberry Tetras sometime soon.

@TheSwissAquarist Emperor Tetras are also relatively easy to breed. Just make sure you have a decent batch of infusoria or paramecium on hand, as they are too small to eat much else in the first week or so. When I breed them, I don't do anything to trigger them. I just put them in a tank with the bottom completely covered with leaf litter, or live sphagnum moss or java moss -- something for the eggs to fall into and the fry to hide in. I'll leave a few pairs in for a week, and then remove. I'm guessing every tetra species has its differences and takes a different approach, but this has worked for me with Emperors.

@Zac I separate the male from the female the moment I believe the female to be sitting on eggs. I'll separate her from the fry the moment they stop following her around the tank and it's apparent her part in raising them is over (this takes a few weeks). I won't put the male and female back together until I'm ready for more. This is variable depending on how large the spawn. I've had spawns of two dozen, and some as large as 100+. It takes a while, but you'll just have to get the hang of understanding how long it takes you to sell off an entire spawn, and how long it takes to have a new batch ready to go when that first one is sold off. I've been breeding and selling them for about 2 years now and still haven't gotten my timing dialed in. It's just something you have to work at and figure out according to your own schedule and selling.

Apistos definitely easier. Black rams def definitely more exciting! I've only had electric blue rams and found those to be pretty community freindly. Apistos are also friendly so long as they don't have other rival apistos.

Yeah, I love how vibrant the females get when spawning and fry rearing. They rival the males in coloration and looks.

Just sharing some photos of Ma and Pa Apisto I took today. Still trying to get better at the whole photography thing in general. Gotta work on my depth of field with some of these macro shots it seems. Thanks for looking!

I try not to clean mine much when the fry are small enough to get sucked up because I find they are always overly interested in the siphon, and everything flowing up into it, and inevitably I lose some, especially for species of fish where the fry like to congregate towards the bottom of the tank. So, I let my fry tanks get kind of gunky and concentrate on making sure the water is very clean and fresh via water changes. I do hate looking at all the gunk (make me feel like a bad parent), but unless your build up is a lot of uneaten food, you should be fine with water changes until the time is right ti start cleaning. If the build up is mostly mulm form decaying leaves, algae, etc. I'd just let it be as fry like to forage in that. Sometimes, to clean a tank, I'll temporarily use a HOB filer running gently with a sponge on the intake to circulate some of the gunk into the water column and remove it that way. (I'll also add to this a gently bubbling air stone on the opposite end of the tank to create a gentle circular flow). This gets some stuff out. I only put floss in the filters, no media. A box filter can also help in the same way.

Sorry just seeing this line for the first time! Sometimes my brain doesn't see everything thats on the page. Why I have to re-read and edit all my posts a trillion times. So ignore everything above! Hmmmm . . . I'd say the fry will probably get eaten, and/or the female will get aggressive towards any other fish that come near her. So, your best bet is to try to pull the cave, and if you have something like a ten gallon, move her and the eggs/fry to it. If not, try a breeder box, and if it is big enough, maybe leave the female in. I have no experience here but I'm guessing she'll get stressed by the tight quarters, unless it's a big breeder box. If you don't keep her in box with the fry, maybe bubble some meth blue in it for a day (that is, if the fry are un-hatched) and keep the water circulating mildly to help the eggs not fungus over. Sorry don't have more advice here, but I also keep a few apistos in a community tank, and everything born there just becomes someone else's lunch (except the cories, they seem to sneak in a few fry that grow out from time to time). Since I have dedicated breeding setups for apistos, I don't normally try to raise them in a breeder box. So, in the end, that's two long posts now offering no good advice!!!!! 😉