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Breeding Apistogramma Hongsloi


Goosedub
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Good morning fam, 

 

I have had terrible luck with apistos. I first had a pair of Apistogramma Borellii. They did ok, but I could never get them to spawn. They eventually died when my auto water change system went haywire and killed a big portion of my fish room. I then got a pair of Apistogramma caucatoides orange flash. Within a month, I could no longer find the female, she just vanished. Then I moved the male to one of my community tanks out of my 10 gallon breeder. He died a few days after the transition. I do not know what happened to him. I suspect it was a compatibililty issue. 

Now I have very hard water approx 150 Gh, Kh is about 40. My Ph is around neutral at 7.0. 

I now have purchased a trio of apistogramma hongsloi red. I did not put them in the same 10 gallon I had the other 2 pairs of apistos. gave this trio a planted 20 gallon long with only some endlers as dithers. So far they are doing well, but I want to breed them and be successful. Do I need to do RO water for apistos? Everything I have read is they are easy to breed usually. I have had crummy luck. Never had a spawn. I don't want to do RO water if I can avoid it. Has anyone else had luck breeding apisto hongsloi in hard water or do I need to bite the bullet and add the additional work of the RO for myself?

Advice appreciated. 

 

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Also have had terrible luck with Apistos, got a pair with an aquabid purchase they were amazing and i fell in love with them but they never breed then the female got sick and didn’t make it, bought 4 more females for the male to choose from and he just passed away randomly smh, I think they need caves, any caves will probably work, I don’t think they need R/O but I’m not positive, I also have very hard water, as I said never got mine to breed yet, but I’m not giving up yet eighter, I just had to chime in on your post to let you know your not alone out there with the Apisto bad luck lol

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On 9/4/2022 at 12:15 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

RO water is just the same as normal rain water (whenever I breed tetras I wait for a storm and put a bucket outside).

pH is ok, maybe try using some Indian almond leaves to soften the water and bring the gH down.

As for breeding, either be patient or try conditioning them with live foods or high quality frozen foods.

Thanks for your feedback. Do I need to soften the water for them is my question? If so I will do that? But if not I will leave it as a last resort

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On 9/3/2022 at 10:37 AM, Goosedub said:

Now I have very hard water approx 150 Gh, Kh is about 40. My Ph is around neutral at 7.0. 

You might want to try to just wait and see what they do in the current params. I've bred cacatuoides in similar Gh.

Leaves in the tank are always a good idea with apistos because as they break down they will acidify the water a tad and lower the Ph a little. More importantly they are beneficial to the health of the aquarium and will foster micro-organisms that the new born fry can feed on.

A lot of apistos in the wild live in areas with dense leaf litter and twigs etc.  This is probably meaningless to the generations of tank-bred species in the hobby, but leaf litter certainly won't hurt.

Indian almond leaves work well. But so do oak leaves (which can be found for free in many locations in the US).

Edited by tolstoy21
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Hongsloi should breed in that water but they will require softer acidic water for the eggs to hatch. I think something around tds 60-80 and ph 6.5 will probably do; they do not need water more acidic and softer that some species require. Like cockatoo they are polygamous and the male will aggressive chase away the female when she is not ready to breed (why your female cockatoo died); and the female will aggressively attack the male when she has eggs. A 10 is way too small for keeping a pair that is polgymous - though you can have them together when they are ready to spawn and then remove the male. For a 20 long make sure the tank is well laid out with lots of barriers (long drift wood/leaf litter/sponge filters ...) where a fish can easily hide out of sight when they need to escape or you will find one or the other dead sooner or later. Borelli and cockatoo have a good chance to breed in your tap water though you might need to dilute a little - not sure - if you do need to dilute something like 2 part tap one part ro/rain/distill should be fine. Again a 10 is likely to result in a dead fish if left full time though borelli are smaller and more passive than cockatoo.

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