• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Apisto Heaven

Garuf said:
An unusual and more than welcome change to the usual cardinal tetra tank, can you give us more information on the funge?

Cheers. The Killies are a race of Aphyosemion bivittatum from West Africa. They live in the upper reaches of a the rivers in Africa inhabited by various Pelvicachromis spp. (among others). There's loads more info on these, and every other West African killi on Tim Addis's site. Click on the Genera index for a list of the genera. Here's the page for Aphyosemion bivittatum. They like a quieter than average tank and are ace jumpers so definitely not for uncovered tanks!
 
ceg4048 said:
Fantastic stuff Ed. :D I love the Aphyosemion. The plants are using their carbon "reserves". Be careful with that regulator - don't gas them mate. :wideyed:

Cheers,

Keeping the drop checker a nice dark green! No Limeade colours on my tanks!!!! Also setting the solenoid to go off an hour before lights out. Rather a bit of algae to deal with than gassing the fish! Been dosing EasyCarbo before the CO2 went on so fingers crossed that things should transition fairly painlessly!
 
johnny70 said:
The apisto's are going to look stunning once they grow on a little, excellent choice of fish Ed :D

JOHNNY

Themuleous said:
Very nice, Ed :)

I really must get into Apisto's at some stage, yet another thing to try before I get to old!

Sam

LondonDragon said:
Themuleous said:
Very nice, Ed :)
I really must get into Apisto's at some stage, yet another thing to try before I get to old!
Sam
I know what I will be getting is my rainbows go ;)

Cheers guys. Apistos are great little cichlids for any tank but great for planted ones. As long as you provide them some caves somewhere and don't mind them digging out in their caves a little then they are no problem at all. And the odd bit of chasing keeps all those shoaling fish on their toes too!

And as for the killies, more planted tanks should have them. They're as long lived as the small rasboras and tetras and much more colourful IMO. And they'll breed in the tank often too.
 
fishgeek said:
you ever in sth london ed?

i have 3 bachelor fresa you may like... last of a few that i have had, 3rd generation home bred

andrew

I'm never in South London but I'd still be very tempted if I didn't already have 3 males in this tank! Don't think they'd cope if I put another three in!!!! Assuming I breed these (and one female's starting to wall up one of her caves...) would you be interested in some little females to carry on breeding yours? If so you're welcome to some.
 
Ray said:
Ed Seeley said:
And as for the killies, more planted tanks should have them. They're as long lived as the small rasboras and tetras and much more colourful IMO. And they'll breed in the tank often too.
Could you reccomend some that don't jump?

Err, basically, NO! I understand Lampeyes are unlikely to as Zig kept his in a uncovered tank but all the others are mad jumpers I'm afraid. I had some A.bivittatum in my PFK cube with the glass cover glass on and they jumped up through the gaps around the cover glass! I plug all the cable holes with floss to make sure I don't lose any more now...
 
thats an interesting offer ed, i am moving and hence trying to reduce tanks

i had 7 on a small system dedicated to apisto's , gone now and heaps more through the house, down to 5 at present and still need to reduce numbers

maybe i will get in touch once i am settled again
andrew
 
I had a female Aphyosemion Australe jump through a 2cm square hole once. I couldn't understand why the cat was sniffing around the back of the tank and then I found her covered in fluff.

You have to admire their aiming ability really.
 
beeky said:
I had a female Aphyosemion Australe jump through a 2cm square hole once. I couldn't understand why the cat was sniffing around the back of the tank and then I found her covered in fluff.

You have to admire their aiming ability really.
Except when you find them on the floor...
 
Themuleous said:
Blimey, didn't know that about apistos and jumping, worth remembering!

Sam

Apistos will occasionally jump Sam but it's the killifish I'm on about!!!!
 
The killies I keep live in small permanent forest streams, often in very shallow water at the upstream end. The species that live in pools that dry up are African Nothobranchius spp. and a number of South American genera too.

I think the jumping may be related to getting stuck in areas where the water level has dropped though. Whatever the reason it's a shame as they are otherwise excellent fish for small planted tanks. They are stunningly coloured, relatively inactive (so don't need large areas) and easily bred to build up your population (indeed many species, if added to a well-planted species tank, can produce a self-sustaining population as enough babies will survive in the plants). We should see more in planted tanks! I've put a lone male Aphyosemion australe 'Gold' in my Rio tank and he adds a great splash of colour in there and gets on fine with all the other species.
 
Well went to feed them this afternoon and one of the female Apistogrammas has spawned. She's bred at the front left of the tank under a small piece of flowerpot. Another female is doing a bit of digging under the right hand side caves and the other two girls are bickering over the third area. I think I need to add a few more pieces of flowerpot near there to improve the location! I'll try and take some pictures of Mum and Dad on guard duty tomorrow.
 
Thats good news Ed :D we have just had another spawning form the Trifasciata and Baenschi too :p

JOHNNY
 
Nice tank Ed,

I am about to set up something similar for Rams and Apistos. My instinct is, like you, to go for a sand substrate to enable the Rams to dig spawning pits and the Apistos to dam up their caves but I am also contemplating using a commercial baked clay type substrate for the sake of the plants. Do you or anyone else have any experience of how dwarf cichlids cope with AS, EC etc?

Roy.
 
Papillo said:
Nice tank Ed,

I am about to set up something similar for Rams and Apistos. My instinct is, like you, to go for a sand substrate to enable the Rams to dig spawning pits and the Apistos to dam up their caves but I am also contemplating using a commercial baked clay type substrate for the sake of the plants. Do you or anyone else have any experience of how dwarf cichlids cope with AS, EC etc?

Roy.

Thanks. At the minute this tank has some BGA due to a complete lack of maintenance! The Apistos are spawning and raising babies though!!!

I'd include the sand for Apistos as they love to sift through it, but there are loads of guys who've kept them in pure AS tanks and they do fine. The sifting behaviour is not absolutely needed by them. I wouldn't put group 2 Pelvicachromis or larger dwarfs in there though as I think they'd dig too much.
 
Back
Top