Keeping and Breeding Microgeophagus altispinosa
(The Bolivian Ram)
by Rich Grenfell
From Wet Pet Gazette, Norwalk Aquarium Society
Aquarticles
I have been in the hobby most of my life, but somehow I never really got into the
breeding realm until I happened across the NAS website, and decided to join. At my first
meeting I met a few people that were breeders and I was instantly hooked. I just HAD to
breed some fish! As you can see by the title of this article, my first breeding experience
happened with Microgeophagus altispinosa aka the Bolivian Ram.
I first saw them at the store I happened to be working in at the time. And as was
customary with fish that I was interested in, I put all six of them into a tank by
themselves for a quarantine. I fed them well, with frozen bloodworms, and chopped frozen
krill, and meanwhile, I did some reading. The book that gave me the most information was
American Cichlids I (Linke and Staeck) and I discovered that it was recommended that the
pH be in the slightly alkaline range. I thought that this might present a problem, as my
tap water most always has a pH of 6.8. I tested the water in the store, and it was about
neutral. They seemed fine, so I didn't worry about it. After two weeks, they started to
develop nice round bellies, and good color. I saw no sign of disease so I took them home.
At this point, they were about 1 inch in total length. I put them into a 46-gallon tank
with the Ph at 6.8 the hardness at 4dH and the temperature at 83 degrees. I planted with a
few anubias, some water sprite across the top, and a large piece of drift wood with Java
moss. I also lay some flat rocks about the bottom, at the advice of another NAS member. As
dithers, I added a small school of rummynose tetras.
I fed three times daily, with a rotating menu of frozen and freeze-dried krill, frozen
bloodworms, frozen brine, frozen glassworms, and color flakes. The water changes were done
once per week, at 30% of the tank volume.
After about six weeks they had doubled in size and I knew I had a pair. There were two
fish that would hover above the same rock, and chase all the other fish away. In talking
to other NAS members, I was told that this meant that they were ready to breed and would
do so soon. A day or two later, I went into my fishroom and there they were…. About
60 or 70 little eggs on top of the rock that they had been defending. This batch ended up
being eaten, as did the 2nd batch. The 3rd batch hatched and were bought to the
free-swimming stage, but disappeared two days after. As the spawns came with regularity,
and I became more familiar with the pre-spawning behavior, I began to watch for it and one
night I was talking on the phone to another member, and I was able to witness them
spawning right before my eyes! The female, would make a few passes over the rock, and on
the third or fourth pass she began to lay eggs. The male was standing guard and keeping
all of the other fish out of the area. They were very aware of my presence so I turned the
overhead light in the room out got off of the telephone, and backed off a few feet. After
she had laid a dozen or so, the male made some passes close to the eggs, and I assume that
he was fertlilizing them. This went on for 45 minutes to an hour or so, and when all was
said and done, there were about 75 to 100 eggs, in a tight little group. They hatched in
about 60 hours at 83 degrees, and were free - swimming in about 72 hours. I was told that
it was probably the tetras and not the parents eating the fry so as soon as the 4th batch
became free- swimming, I removed them, filled a 5.5 gallon tank with water from the parent
tank, added a mature filter, some Java moss, and put the babies in their own tank. I
started them with microworms as a first food and fed three times daily. After about two
weeks, I took some color flake, spirulina flake and small bits of freeze-dried krill and
crushed it into a powder. After about a week of the flakes, I noticed that the number of
fry was becoming smaller. I thought that maybe I wasn't changing the water enough, so I
began doing 25% every other day, but the babies kept dying till I had only ten left. At
this point I moved them to a 10-gallon tank till they were about 3/4 of an inch long and
they were auctioned off at the NAS auction.
While the rearing of the young was going on those fish just kept on spawning!
They spawned every 14 to 20 days or so. I didn't have the room for so many of them so I
decided to let nature take its course. I watched carefully and was able to verify that it
was indeed the tetras eating the babies. They would pick them off a few at a time.
For my first time, I must say, that it was pretty problem free (except for so many of
the fry dying off). I would think that I was probably feeding a bit heavy and bought the
Nitrogen content of the water up as a result. I need to thank Sal, Don, and Ken for all of
their help and advice, and especially for putting up with all the phone calls!
I think that the most important lesson I learned about breeding (in my opinion anyway),
is that good quality food and water are of the utmost importance. As well as providing the
fish with a proper environment with which to breed. If I was hooked before, I am REALLY
hooked now! I currently have five different types of Apistos and will be trying my luck
with them in the months to come.
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