Breeding Tips For Apistogramma Borellii?

[Optimus]

Hey AC

I have a borellii trio in a 50gal community tank. I've introduced spawning caves, my water params are double 0,0ppm with nitrate barely measurable. I'm on day two of a week long frozen blood/brine feed and although they seem to get excited by the live food and flirt/display I don't see any signs of breeding. The females have divided the tank into two separate territories and rarely venture into the others side. Though one will attack the other if and when they feel the male spending too much time with their rival.

I should also mention that my kh is liquid rock and my ph fluctuates every couple of months or so between 7.5 and 8.

Any advice/tip you could give would be greatly appreciated.

 

[RBoydIV]

I have always heard that RO or even Rain water helps turn them on. Also the addition of Oak leaves. Let me know if they do breed have always wanted a trio and my LFS has never had them. Good luck!

 

[tolawdjk]

Try a WC with a lower temp. Many fish seem to use that temp change as a kick off for breeding. Also "liquid rock" might be more than is acceptable for them. Maybe bring that down with some RO/DI during WCs.

 

[stephcps]

+1 on the cooler water change. Also watch the other female if you do get a successful spawn. When my panduro's spawned, the first spwaning female killed the second as soon as the eggs hatched.

 

[Optimus]

I appreciate the feedback guys

Interestingly enough, EVERYTHING I have read so far suggests turning the heat up to induce spawning. In fact, until this thread I had assumed that would be the way to go. I'm documenting/taking vids of the whole thing and might have enough footage to make a vid if they do breed.

I have these vases in the aquarium



The mouth looks large but the actual neck is only large enough for the Borelliis. Do you think these will work? They have been in place for two days on either side of the aquarium and the Borelliis ignore them...

I'm doing frozen brine today so that might change things.

I am also only allowing 7 hours of my t5's because I have a planted community and need to curb algae, is that too little light for breeding? I could add two hours of led moons via timers making 9 hours of light total.

 

[fishnfreak]

they should be fine. A lot of SA riverine fish are stimulated by the rainy season to spawn and you can mimic this by allowing your tanks water to evaporate quite a bit and then top up with RO water that is cooler than your tanks, to give the impression of a monsoonal break in the weather.

Myself though, i added a male and female Apisto. Borelli and 2 days later they had spawned. Today i transferred 30 babies to a grow-out tank and left her with about 20