NOLANANO

This is what I'm talking about. I have no idea how I made these guys spawn. I had the guy at my LFS tell me he has kept apistos for 3 decades and has never had a spawn...

Its the standard mesh breeder box, not very big. I don't have BBS but will get them for next time. We will see if the coconut hut works. a few more questions if you don't mind: 1) How often to they breed? Is there anything I can do (water changes, etc.) to influence it? 2) I have 3 females and 3 males. Only one of the females turned yellow and laid eggs. Will they all take turns or will just the most dominate female lay eggs? From what I can tell, they don't pair like Rams. The female turned yellow and claimed the cave and then the 3 males all competed for the ability to mate with her. it wasn't clear who she favored.

Yes but doesn't it mean she is preparing to drop eggs and entice a male to fertilize them? In my mind, I would put the coconut hut in the tank and then she would claim it as she is preparing for fry. Maybe I put the hut in the tank at all times? I wouldn't say I am necessarily trying to breed the apistos but if they are gonna breed, I want to give the mom a better chance at raising her fry than how this first round went. The sad news is the fry are all dead. I am not sure exactly where it went wrong but I think its because I couldn't find a low enough flow spot in my tank to hang the breeder box. My spray bar makes the top have decent flow and I think the flow killed them. IDK, I am grasping at straws.

Prior to me taking the fry and mom out of gen pop, the mom was aggressive toward any fish that came too close but she was not able to go after any for longer than it took to back them off because she needed to get back to her babies. I did have a rummynose turn up dead recently but they are over 2 years old so I chalked it up to regular attrition but maybe the mom killed it for getting to close. I will just release mom back into the tank when I get home for work and try to keep the remaining babies alive on my own. I have a sample pack of the below food so I will try to feed them that until the ACO fry food comes in. I don't have a brine shrimp hatchery or eggs. Maybe I will try to better prepare for the next batch of fry. LEGIT. Fish Food - #1 Best Nano Fish Food (legitfishfood.com)

Would it be of value if I see a yellow female in the future? I am trying to figure out a way to get a better survival rate than 5-10 fry before I notice them and can put them in the breeder box. On another note: Do I need to get a 10G tank for once they outgrow the breeder box or can I release them into the community tank at that point. The Apistos are the largest fish I own so I don't think they'd get eaten but maybe bullied? Also is frozen Daphnia small enough for fry? just curious.

Thanks for the information! For number 3, I was more referring to next time I see fry. If I put a coconut cave in the tank when I see a female in breeding colors, is it possible for her to raise the fry in the tank? I ask this because I am not sure whether or not I harmed the fry when sucking them up in the turkey baster and putting them in the breeder box.

I have no idea how I did it but my Apisto Borelli have fry. Seeing the mother on top of a rock with about 6-8 fry made me do a little research which taught me that she was most likely out in the open because the cave she chose to lay her eggs had too many openings and she couldn't properly defend her offspring. This makes sense since there were so few left. Upon my research I also found that the fry most likely wouldn't live in my 75G community tank because there are too many predators. being a good fish owner, I ran to the store and got a breeder box and a turkey baster and sucked up the fry and put them in the breeder box. I also cooped up the mom and threw her in there too so she could be with her babies. I think I messed up though because the babies are hiding under the plastic frame of the breeder box and I fear they will not make it. I have purchased a coconut hut and fry food from ACO so that I can give the female(s) a better chance of protecting their fry next time. I don't have any other tanks so I can't remove any fish other than into the breeder box. I do have a few questions though: 1) What do I do now? 2) Was moving momma and her babies into the breeder box a good idea? They don't seem nearly as happy as when they were in general population. 3) Is there any shot the momma can raise fry in a community tank if I provide a proper cave for her to shelter her fry? 4) How did I get them to mate? I have read that Apistos aren't as easily bred as Rams but I have never had rams get beyond the eggs and I have Apisto fry within a month of getting them with zero effort on my part. 5) were the conditions just right and this is likely a one time thing or once they start breeding is it likely they will do it again? 6) If I do get fry to live, what's the going rate to a LFS? @anewbie @Guppysnail @Lennie @tolstoy21 tagging a few people that I think have experience with Apistos.

2 CPO would work but you’d need either 2 female or a male and female. 2 males will fight unless you have enough room for them to spread out. CPO do well by themselves too. you could also put a CPO with Neocardina. They are too slow to catch the shrimp with any kind of consistency. Sure they make get lucky every now and then but as long as the shrimp are breeding, the CPO wouldn’t even slightly impact their population.

could also be a flow issue. Pearl Gouramis don't love a ton of flow so if the water is whipping around in the tank, she may be chilling in the lowest flow spot.

I looked more specifically for the history of home aquariums and didn't find much on the topic. I was curious as to how long ago it started, what kind of fish were kept, what they fed, etc. I did find that the first aquariums were salt water which surprised me.

How is the clearance/access to the 180? If it seems too tight do you have the ability to scrap the top tanks and remove the top section? The other reason I mention it is because access and visibility of tanks on top could be an issue as well. Not trying to be a downer, just pointing out some things I see. The 180, sump, and QT all look awesome and the Aquaponics is such a cool idea. What are you gonna grow?

Do you have a planted tank? If you do, I would honestly say the shrimplets would have a good chance of living in the main tank given the opportunity to hide in some moss or something like that so long as you don't have a ton of predators in the tank. In a net they should live no problem. Some shrimp get berried and drop their first clutch of eggs without hatching them. They get better at it as they get practice.

Very easy plants. Either attach them to a rock or a piece of wood with superglue or wedge them between 2 rocks or pieces of wood. If you bury them, the Rhizome will rot and it will die.

Anubias Nana or Gold coin are smallish slow growers that are somewhat bush like that do not spread. Anubias Nana Petite is even smaller.

In my experience keeping water parameters stable and keeping nitrates as close to zero as possible is the most important aspect to keeping rams.