Apisto eggs

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Okay thanks for the info. Before the fry my weekly water change was keeping the tank good. I will probably increase it to 25% two times a week when I get my python just to help the fry grow.
 
Okay thanks for the info. Before the fry my weekly water change was keeping the tank good. I will probably increase it to 25% two times a week when I get my python just to help the fry grow.

You may have a misunderstanding about water changes like many others initially. The thinking that "my weekly water change was keeping the tank good" is probably false. And doing two 25% water changes is not as effective as one 50% each week. Now I'll try and explain these.

Fish impact water in many ways. Releasing ammonia and excrement are the two most aquarists recognize, but there are others. Fish also release pheromones and allomones; these are chemical signals that other fish can read, and some of the signals can cause stress to other fish. Filtration does not do much with all this "pollution." Ammonia can be used by plants and bacteria, but that is about as far as it goes.

The breakdown of solid waste leaves pollution in the water. No filtration can fully deal with this. No filtration can begin to deal with the pheromones and allomones. Live plants can help, but the fish load to water volume and plants would have to be so small for this to work effectively that we might as well assume nothing is going to deal with such pollution. Except water changes.

Water is continually passing into fish via osmosis through the cells and gills. Fish release copious amounts of urine which is not the ammonia as it is with land animals but the urine is "dead water." Eventually the fish are swimming around in nothing but dead water. At the same time, the pheromones and allomones continue to increase, and this stresses out the fish.

In their habitat, the ratio of fish to water volume is immense by comparison to the largest aquarium. And the water in nature is continually changing; this involves the passing of water downstream in rivers and streams, or vertical circulation in lakes, as well as rain and snow melt. Fish live in the same water for no more than a second. There is absolutely no way to even come close to this in a closed aquarium unless you have continuous flow-through of fresh water. Even most public aquariums cannot achieve this. The water change is the only method.

The longer fish remain in the same water, the more detrimental it becomes, for their physiology, metabolism, lifespan, health...everything. So the more water you can change the better.

Which brings me to the amount. When you change say 10% of the tank's volume, you remove 10% of the pollution, leaving 90% behind. The next day, fish have added more pollution. If you change another 10%, you are then removing 10% of the 90% that was left plus the new pollution added since the previous day. So even with these water changes, the pollution is continuing to increase from day to day. Doing a larger change like 70% once a week will thus remove much more pollution week by week that the much smaller daily changes. This doesn't have to be extreme, provided you do not overload the fish, don't overfeed (more in means more out), have live plants, and ensure the fish are all truly compatible because this lessens their impact biologically.

Using test results like nitrate to determine when a water change is necessary is therefore pointless, as by the time the nitrates have risen the damage is being done, and this is irreversible. Only a regular routine of adequate water changes can improve the health of the fish. Provided the parameters, being GH, KH, pH and temperature, are reasonably close, you really cannot change too much water. But changing what is adequate and sufficient for the specific aquarium is all you need.
 
Okay thanks for the info. Will defiantly start with the bigger water changes as soon as I can. If I start water changing directly into the tank what do I do to de chloronate the water.
 
Add the dechlorinator to the tank before you start refilling. You don't need to add enough dechlorinator for the whole tank, just enough for the new water.
 
Thought I would give a update. About four days ago my female stopped giving the male access to the fry. Since then he has went from hiding in fear from her until being bold and not responding to her threats until yesterday. When I got home at lunch yesterday they fry were fine and ate when I fed them. Somehow before my nightly feeding the male decided he was done with her aggression and he went over to the corner the female had claimed kicked her out and devoured the fry. I did not directly see this happen but the behavior I saw towards then pointed to him eating the fry.
 
I looked for a while and I could not find any. Her behavior was very frantic also as if she was looking for them. I will look again when I get home at when I usually feed them. I don’t know if it was the male it could of been my cories. But my apisto was acting very weird and I think it was him.
 
Might I suggest that you move him to a holding tank next time.

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I looked for a while and I could not find any. Her behavior was very frantic also as if she was looking for them. I will look again when I get home at when I usually feed them. I don’t know if it was the male it could of been my cories. But my apisto was acting very weird and I think it was him.

This is not at all surprising, as I think I may have suggested earlier on. I would also consider the cories as the most likely candidates for the devouring fish, not the male Ram, though that is not out of the question. Cories are nocturnal, rams are not, so eggs or fry are extremely vulnerable during darkness.

I had a pair of Bolivian Rams who spawned four times and each time the female and male argued over this and that; the cories got the eggs three times, and the fry the fourth. Then the male killed the female. And this pair was in a 5-foot 115g tank with heavy planting.

Cichlid pairs must bond. They must select each other. Any male and female placed together may or may not bond, and results depend upon their bonding. So, in future, you may have success with these two fish, or you may not. As you have them, it is worth the try in case you luck out.
 
Oh no. Are there any left.

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When I got home today there was still no sign today. Tonight my male is back in spawning colors so I think they are all gone.
This is not at all surprising, as I think I may have suggested earlier on. I would also consider the cories as the most likely candidates for the devouring fish, not the male Ram, though that is not out of the question. Cories are nocturnal, rams are not, so eggs or fry are extremely vulnerable during darkness.

I had a pair of Bolivian Rams who spawned four times and each time the female and male argued over this and that; the cories got the eggs three times, and the fry the fourth. Then the male killed the female. And this pair was in a 5-foot 115g tank with heavy planting.

Cichlid pairs must bond. They must select each other. Any male and female placed together may or may not bond, and results depend upon their bonding. So, in future, you may have success with these two fish, or you may not. As you have them, it is worth the try in case you luck out.
It could of very well been the cories but most of the fry vanished during the day so I don' know for sure it was them. As soon as I noticed the fry were gone my male apisto was acting very strange which led me to thinking it was him who did it. It could of very well been the cories however as I recently put a sponge intake on my HOB and they might of hid under this to get close to the babies during the day. I knew they did not have a good chance of making it but I thought I would give raising them a try as the opportunity presented it's self. I will try again next time they spawn and see I have better luck.
 
Recently my apisto has had another batch of fry. Would it be worth it to try to move them or should I just try to leave them with the mother again and see how it goes? If i decided to move them I would move as many of the fry as I could to a breeder box to grow out a little bit till I could add them back to the tank to continue growing out.
 
Recently my apisto has had another batch of fry. Would it be worth it to try to move them or should I just try to leave them with the mother again and see how it goes? If i decided to move them I would move as many of the fry as I could to a breeder box to grow out a little bit till I could add them back to the tank to continue growing out.

I think we answered this earlier in the thread. Once there are eggs (or fry) being guarded, you are best to leave them alone. You could move the eggs (if they are laid on a surface as this species usually does) but then you need to "fan" them like the female will. Most dwarf cichlids are reasonably good parents, so in future, after this spawn, moving the pair to their own space for the next spawning, or removing all other fish from this tank, is the best way to go. If the pair are in their own tank, spawning is usually successful. And it is interesting to be able to observe the parenting.
 

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