Fire it up?

[cichlid_freak]

I have three new additions to the freak family! I have one male and two female Apistogramma bitaeniata. Now, I was told from the sales person that I really REALLY trust, that they are cave dwellers kinda like Kribs. They like flower pots turned on their side. They don't need to be broke in half, they don't need to be up-side-down with a hole chipped out, they just need to be turned on their side. THe only question I have left is

"Should the pot be fired or not?"

Now, the salesman was also nice enough to give me the pot with little red eggs that one of the females had laid since they wouldn't surrvive in the tank anyways. Now wasn't that nice. So, I put them in the ten gallon I just bought, filled it about halfway with water out of the established ten, and put some plants and a little established gravel (in a bag) I also ran an airline with an airstone to areate the eggs. Hopefully they will make it. The pot has some algea so I can't tell if it is fired, and I can't take it out of the water to scratch it for obvious reasons.

TIA for any advice.

 

[semper fi]

have use d clay pots before that i got from a garden department. i did boil the pot first to remove any residue. then used it in the tank without any problems. would not suggest using a used pot though. chemicals from the fertilizer could leach into the terracotta and be released into your tank causing fish loss. terracotta pots are rather cheap anyways. about 39 cents for a 2".

semper fi

 

[cichlid_freak]

so does it matter if it is fired/glazed or not?

 

[Pufferpack]

I would go with the plain terracotta pots (as semper fi says, new not used), they have been fired once I believe, to harden them up. If you go with galzed pots you run the risk of chemicals leaching out of the glaze in any spots that may have been missed. If you do decide that you want something glazed then your best bet is to get it from the lfs rather than home made or from a "craft" store.


edit: If you are not keen on the look of teracotta you can always smear the pots lightly in aquarium safe silicone and roll them in sand or gravel as camoflage

 

[semper fi]

the terra cotta pots in the store do have to be fired to firm the clay. otherwise it would turn to a big ball of muchy clay with a plant in the middle. i beleive what your guy was talking about was glazed pots.you do not want any pots that have a shiny or slick surface to them. if you dunk the pots in water and they absorb the water they are not glazed. if they repel the water then they are glazed.

another thing that you can do is go to a cerimic store that sells greenware. take the green ware home and very carefully, cut holes out of vases or pots that they sell. they have a pretty good variety usually. take the greenware back and have it fired. without any glaze or paint on the peice it will be suitable for the aquarium after it has been fired. if you have a very cooperative ceramic store, they will dye the clay and then pour the mold for you. this is also suitable for the aquarium after it has been fired.

semper fi

 

[cichlid_freak]

I bought three small 2.25" terracotta pots from Wally World (Wal-mart) and they aren't glazed. I'm sorry that I was kinda confused, I thought that fired was the same as glazed. When I got them home, I boiled them for about 5 min. Well, as of yet, my two females have yet to inhabit their new homes, and find it quite pleasurable to hind amung the leaves.

The eggs that I got yesterday probably won't survive, since the water was a chilly 65 deg. this morning. I didn't think the water would cool that farober night. The air temp was about 72 deg. I immediatly put the heater from the main tank in with the eggs. Then I went and bought a brand new one for the main tank. Hopefully they won't suffer from my mistake, but it doesn't look good.

Just a question, to all you cichlid/egglayer experts out there, do the eggs twitch just before a hatch? I don't know if it is the current (only has one airstone ABOVE the eggs that have fallen) but some of them appear to twitch/roll about 1/16"-1/8". I can't really see the ones in the original site because of shadows. Is there still hope that my eggs may hatch? If so, will it be soon? Am I going crazy and the eggs aren't moving at all?