BREEDING Apistogramma njesseni
By Sal Silvestri
from Wet Pet Gazette, Norwalk Aquarium Society
Aquarticles.com
At last, "success!!". It only took me 10 years and "a lot of $$$$!" to
breed this fish. I can honestly say that I have had my share of success in breeding most
of the species in the Apistogramma genus. But, the two fish that have eluted me
in the past ten years are A. nijsenni and A. agassizii. Well, "one down and
one to go" and I hope that it won't take another ten years for the other.
Background
In my opinion the A. nijsseni is in a class by itself. They were first
collected in 1979 by the Swiss Patrick de Rham. But not successfully bred until 1983. They
were collected in a small black water stream near the town of Jenaro Herrero,, a frontier
outpost between Peru and Brazil. The water, where they were collected, was clear, dark
brown, pH 5.4 and total hardness <1 dH (very soft!). It's a very beautiful and distinct
specie. There is hardly any other female of an Apistogramma species that can
match the beauty of a mature A. nijsenni female. When reaching maturity, the
female usually assumes a beautiful yellow coloration, which they almost always maintain.
They have a pitch black spot on the gill-cover, and also the large lateral blotch change
to light green during various phases of courtship. They also display a large black round
to oval blotch on the base of the tail and the most distinguishing mark of all is the
unmistakable semi-circular band on the outer edge of the caudal fin, which could vary in
color from fire-red to yellow.
The female may reach 2" in total length while a mature male could grow up to
3" and look very bulky. The males have a pretty yellow chest and belly region and of
course the caudal fin is round with a semicircular fire-red fringe. The rest of the body
is light blue.
Care
Wild caught fish do best when kept in moderately soft water. But, tank raised species
do very well on straight tap water. The only time you should consider lowering the pH and
hardness is when it's time for breeding. But even here you have some flexibility, as I
explain later on in the article. I like to give this specie a lot of room. Common practice
for me is to place six to eight fry in a 30 gl. tank. The tank is set up with natural to
dark colored substrate, a piece of driftwood in the middle of the tank, which I cover with
Java Moss, two sword plants on either side of the drift wood and at least one cave for
every fish in the tank. A sponge filter at one side and a box filter on the other side of
the tank. For caves I use anything from pieces of slate to broken flowerpots, coconut
shells and the black base of a two liter soda bottle. I raise them in straight tap water
(moderately soft), pH 6.91, conductivity at 150 micro-Siemens and the temperature at 78
degrees.
This fish is less shy than many other species of the genus Apistogramma. If
provided enough space and properly decorated aquarium they might even be considered
"tame". The cleanliness of the water is of outstanding importance and a varying
diet should also be given special attention. Take it from first hand experience, if you
neglect this fish and/or feed too much live or frozen food, of the same type, they have a
tendency to come down with "bloat", which of course leads to "death".
I feed twice a day , usually a good quality flake food in the morning, which I alternate
with my own "home made paste food", and in the evening I alternate between
frozen blood worms, brine shrimp and once a week live black worms. Provided these
conditions, they grow rapidly and start forming pairs when they are about seven to eight
month old. Which leads me to.....
Breeding
Like I stated before, I tried many times to breed this fish with all types of set-up
variations. But, it didn't make any difference if I started with three wild pairs or a
dozen fry, I would always end up with a solitary male and sometimes with a very
"bossy" female. On April/98 I purchased eight fry in a local fish auctions. I
set them up as described above. Everything went along fine until they matured and pairs
started forming (eight-month-old). I ended up with six females and two males. I wasn't
totally disappointed, I figured that I would remove a quad and placed them in a 20gl. long
tank.
I decorated the tank the same as the 30gl. tank. Please note that I did NOT condition
the water. But, I did try extra hard to keep the water very clean. I would do partial
water changes throughout the week, especially if I would notice any uneaten food. As I
mentioned above, when it comes to conditioning the water you have flexibility (choices).
You can choose to do nothing, just keep the water extra clean, like I did or you can go to
the extreme. There're many ways you can bring the pH and hardness down. For example; (1)
filter water through Peat Moss (messy, but it works), (2) collect rain water and add to
tank very slowly to avoid pH shock. A gallon or two, each time you change water until the
desired level is reached, (3) get a RO (reverse osmosis) unit, could be expensive! and
lastly (4) use chemicals, such as Discus Buffer and pH down etc. etc..."You get the
picture!"
Anyway, back to the fish. War was declared immediately by the dominant female of each
group. She kept the other two females from eating, they slowly started to look emaciated.
I place a couple of cardinals as dither fish hoping that the other females would get a
chance to eat. "Yeah, sure!" The dominant female completely ignored the
cardinals. The dominant female showed all the signs of wanting to spawn. Her body was an
intense yellow color, with a large black blotch on her cheek, mid body and on the base of
her tail, and an orange semicircular edge on her caudal fin. "She was
beautiful!" She would dance in front of the male trying to entice the male to follow
her in her chosen cave, but he completely ignored her. She, of course would take her
frustration out on the other two females. The same scenario was being played in the 30 gl
tank. I was getting ..soooo.. frustrated that I started venting to my fellow hobbyists.
Since I have veryyyy understanding friends?? They showed a lot of compassion by making
remarks such as.."OHH?..my Nijsenni spawned while I was guaranteeing
them!","what seems to be the problem Sal?...lost your
touch!?"..."Maybe you need to go on another business trip and let your wife
spawn them". This type of compassion went on & on & on.... But, one of my
"so called friends!?!?" "Hi, Basil!" did volunteer to give me one of
his extra males. By the way, he spawned his group (four males and one female) in a 20gl
long tank with a mixture of (70% rain water & 30% tap water). The pair that spawned
stayed on the right side of the tank and the extra three males on the left. All co-existed
peacefully and managed to raise three spawns. "You figure it out! I have no
answer!" By now I was so desperate that I was willing to try anything. Basil's male
was much larger than my younger male. I placed him in the 20gl. long tank with the others
and waited for nature to take its course. Within a week I had to remove the young male
because he was being harassed and traumatized by the bigger male and I would never see the
other two females. I would catch a glimpse of them as they tried to eat some food passing
nearby. One day I didn't see the dominant female when I went to feed them, usually she
would be the first one to come to the front of the tank. After I dropped some live brine
shrimp she came out of her cave, ate very quickly and return to the cave. I tried to hold
back my excitement but I started mumbling to myself ,because this behavior usually meant
that she was tending eggs. I was even tempted to steal the eggs and hatch them
artificially but I did not succumb to the temptation.
The eggs are usually laid on the ceiling of a cave, but my experience has been that if
a female is ready to spawn she will lay her eggs anywhere. I had females lay eggs on a box
filter, on the side of a rock, under a leaf , on the glass and under a piece of driftwood.
At about 78 degrees the eggs hatch after approximately 48 hours. After four to five days
the fry are completely developed and become free swimming. As it was, on the morning of
the fifth day when I went to feed the tank the only fish I saw was the female. The male
was at the other side hiding behind the box filter. He would come out and eat but kept his
distance. If he moved too close to the female she would attack him viciously. I knew what
this sign meant. I put on my reading glasses and looked very close for any movement around
the female, sure enough..."there they were, FRY!".
They were feeding on the Java moss. I had some newly hatched baby brine shrimp, which I
fed immediately. I usually try to feed light the first week. The last thing I wanted to do
is foul the water by overfeeding. "Which is something none of us do
anyway.."right?". They took to the brine shrimp immediately and you could see
their bellies turning orange. I estimated the clutch to be around 25 fry. At this time I
recommend that you remove all other adult fish because if the female sees them she will
hunt them down and ....you can guess the outcome?. The female alone cares for the fry but
helps the male defend the territory. As the fry got larger and started to wander away from
the female she would allow the male to come closer and even stay among the young fry. Here
is where you have to be careful, the female will spawn again as soon as she becomes
gravid, usually after about 5 to 6 weeks. If you don't remove the first batch before she
comes out with the new batch she will eat or kill the older fry. I didn't pay close
attention and I lost half of the first batch.
I removed the remaining fry and put them in a 15 gl. Tank. With proper food and water
changes the fry grow surprisingly fast. At three months the largest fry measured
approximately 1 1/4" TL. Even though sexing sub-adults is difficult, at this size you
could start seeing the difference. The females are the easiest to sex because they will
start showing a more pronounced black coloration in the anterior part of the ventral fins.
There's a theory that sex ratio is depended on the temperature that the eggs are hatched
and the fry raised during the first week after hatching. But I won't go into this now,
since this is the topic for another article. All I can say is that my fry were hatched and
raised at 78 degrees and the sex ratio was 80% females, in both spawns. Next time I'll try
80 degrees and see what happens. This pair only had two spawns since the male died for no
apparent reason and the female has not yet paired off with any other male.
In conclusion, I still think that this is one of the most interesting and beautiful
dwarf cichlids. It has two important characteristics (traits) - It's not a shy cichlid and
it's not easy to breed. Therefore, not only do you get to enjoy them because they don't
hide but they will also present you with a challenge when you try to breed them. So,
"What else can you ask for in a fish?! I leave with this parting thought... "A.
AGASSIZII...You're Next!".
SELECTED REFERENCES
STAECK, W & LINKE, H (1994): -American Cichlids I : Dwarf Cichlids
SCHMETTKAMP, W (1982):Die Zwergcichliden Sudamerikas
Apistogramma nijsseni
by Ed Katuska
from Wet Pet Gazette, Norwalk Aquarium Society
Aquarticles.com
Being a long time cichlid fanatic I was thrilled to return home one evening from an
aquarium society meeting with a bag of Apistogramma nijsseni . There were five
fry in the bag which were bred by a fellow hobbyist. I have successfully bred and
maintained several other species of the genus but this was my first attempt at the
beautiful nijsseni.
The new arrivals were soon placed in a forty gallon breeder tank I was currently using
to grow plants. I placed various types of cave-like dwellings in different areas around
the tank. The caves along with the dense vegetation growth provided the new inhabitants
plenty of security while settling in. To my delight the next morning they were swimming
around happily in their new home. The tank was also home to a school of juvenile Corydoras
elegans and a family of rummy-nosed tetras, Hemigrammus bleheri . This
combination of tank-mates. along with the flourishing plants and darkish fine gravel that
covered the bottom made this tank a sight to behold.
An Aquaclear power filter maintained the water quality with a pre-filter helping on the
intake tube. I also had a large sponge filter lending a hand. I’d rather have a
sponge filter at the end of the airline than an airstone, it just makes more sense to me.
A Hagen plant bulb supplied the lighting and the tank was placed in a very well lit room.
A thirty percent water change was done once a week. The water flows out of my tap at a
fairly soft rate so it is easy for me to maintain conditions that are suitable for South
American Cichlids. Adding a small amount of filtered rainwater into the tank mixed with my
tap water aided in keeping the tank at a soft enough level to keep the inhabitants happy.
The pH was kept around 5.8 to 6.0, the temperature was held at 79 to 80 degrees
Fahrenheit.
The dwarf cichlids were fed a variety of foods such as frozen mosquito larvae, brine
shrimp, bloodworms and a mixture of dry flake foods. All the inhabitants were tank raised
and did not mind the flake food being served from time to time. Feeding the apistos was
not a problem at all. They relished anything edible that was in front of them. In my
opinion a good varied diet and proper water quality is the key to successfully raising
aquarium fish. A varied diet aids in growth, color, breeding conditioning, and longevity.
As the nijsseni started to mature their adult colors started to become
vibrant. The males sport a light blue body with a yellow coloration in the lower belly
region. Jet black pectorals highlighted with bright yellow tips. This species has a nice
round caudal fin with a bright red ring bordering the outside. The females hold a
beautiful bright yellowish coloration with a dark black blotch on the operculum and on the
mid body. The pectorals being a deep black like the males with an orange coloration at the
tips. The female also possesses the red ring in the caudal fin but was only noticeable
when she was guarding fry.
I approximated the dwarfs being about nine months old when I first noticed fry in the
tank. As I went to do a water change one day I noticed the proud mom swimming with her
small brood. The enclosure she was in was a small ceramic cave in the rear of the tank.
Due to the surrounding heavy vegetation I did not realize a spawn had taken place.
I’m glad there was enough room in the tank for the others to give her space. As with
most apisto females they could get nasty guarding their young. I removed eight small free
swimming fry from the large tank and put them in a ten gallon tank of their own.
Unfortunately only three survived. I thinned out a lot of the plant life around her
dwelling to give me a bird's eye view of the next spawning event. Also most of the other
tenants were removed as well. I took about another month but the second spawn (at least
that I know of) was in the works. The opening was to small for me to take a count of the
eggs but at least I knew there was more than eight. When the fry became free swimming I
had thirty-six new additions to the family. This time around I let the parents raise the
young for a while before they were removed. It’s a wonderful sight to watch cichlids
parent their young. All in all I ended up with twenty-four viable fry. The youngsters were
fed newly hatched brine shrimp along with prepared fine powdered foods. As they started to
grow mosquito larvae was also added to their diet.
In conclusion I would say the A. nijsseni is one of the most enjoyable fishes
I have ever raised. Whether you’re a fan of dwarf cichlids or not I would recommend
giving this little beauty a try.
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