Apistos had babies!

[Venom_]

Hello today I came home from school to find my female apisto surrounded by some of her fry. I was very surprised because I really let the tank go because ive been so busy. I had turned off my filters and let the tank sit there, I was about to give up and just sell all my fish. Why did they breed in such bad conditions? The fry are all doing well, I have about 35. The mother is being a good parent and protecting her fry from the tetras and everything seems to look normal. What should I do? What should I feed the fry? How old do you think the fry are? the tank is a 36 gallon backwater Amazon biotope,


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[Venom_]

The apistos were sold to me as apisto. Viejita but I know they probably not viejita


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[Gillie]

The fry will pick at micro fauna like they are in the 2nd pic in between feedings, but you will need to feed them live or frozen baby brine shrimp and try crushed flake 3-5 times a day. The fry are free swimming so they are at least a week old. You'll also want to kick your water changes up to a few times a week this will help the fry stay healthy and grow faster.

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[Venom_]

Thanks for responding gillie everything seems to be going well. The female apisto takes very good care of the fry as she picks them up with her mouth and putts the fry back in the group when they stray away. I'm going to pick up some brine shrimp eggs but right now I'm feeding them hikari first bites. I also removed the tetras from the tank. When should separate the fry and the adult apistos?


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[Dallascowboys16]

Thanks for responding gillie everything seems to be going well. The female apisto takes very good care of the fry as she picks them up with her mouth and putts the fry back in the group when they stray away. I'm going to pick up some brine shrimp eggs but right now I'm feeding them hikari first bites. I also removed the tetras from the tank. When should separate the fry and the adult apistos?


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I believe that the female is good to stay with them whir you can take the male out now. Im not sure though so wait for someone else to confirm that. My apistos spawned the other day and its a really neat process to watch!

 

[Gillie]

Keep both parents in the tank and when she spawns again or after a month is when you want to pull the babies.

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[Venom_]

Do you think it would be a good Idea to transfer the parents into a 10 gal tank after a like 2 weeks? I'll just use water and a peace of drift wood from the original tank with a coconut husk and new sand


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[Gillie]

No, don't put those fish in a 10g, they are one of the species that get too big and nasty for a tank that size. You could put the babies in there to start growing them out in a few weeks though.

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[Venom_]

Ok thanks for your input


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[Venom_]

Ok the apisto fry are growing but are still small they can swim normally and have visible Finns and patterns but my concern is that the mom has abandoned them and has been hiding in the coconut husk for the past 2 days. I think she is raising another batch of eggs. What should I do? Who should I move the fry or apisto pair?


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[Gillie]

I read a paper the other day about a study that showed that females with new spawns will steal fry from females with older spawns and introduced them into their own spawns. The older fry already being familiar with signals given by a female on where to feed, group up or when to lay low so the younger fry do as the older fry do, thus learning the signals faster and more fry survive. Of course if there is any aggression toward the older fry, move them to their own tank.

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