Keeping of apistogramma & other SA dwarf cichlids
KEEPING THEM
From my observation over the last decade keeping these, i would say if you maintain a very stable aquarium parameters, these cichlid can be kept without much efforts. Studying on individual species requirements will be the first step to keeping them well.
Disease & Avoiding them
As Apistogramma species will feed on anything that fits into their mouths, that include flake foods, bits etc. There is however some food that you must avoid - live tubifex worm especially, as these worms carry either parasites or bacteria to the fish's intestinal tract, causing it to bloat up like a balloon. To date there is almost no known cure or best cure to this. The key cause to “bloat” is the feeding live worms, The best prevention of “bloat” is not even thinking of feeding worms!. Basically, the intestinal tract of the Apistogramma is very long and narrow; I guess they feed on small insect larvae, fry of other fishes and other invertebrates, small shrimps & lots of plant matters from the algae etc. Live worms shall never occur in their natural habitat.
So, main disease that affects Apistogramma is "bloat". The other disease like "Ich" may appear infrequently but this occurs only with severely stressed fish. "Pop eye" may develop if water quality is poor. Treat these conditions as you would for any other fish.
Other than the above will be conditions cause by injuries e.g. from fighting & biting. Such may develop into “fungus” if not treated timely. Protozin can be applied timely to stop this.
Whenever I bring in new Apistogramma from wild shipments, I will treat them with Waterlife Protozin and Waterlife 6.5 BUFFER to ensure that the fish are parasite-free. At the same time, I may dip in some S7 Vitamix vitamin from Dennerie to strengthen them as these fishes had usually without food for long prior to shipment. Not only for wild fishes, even in tank raised fish, the stress of shipping may allow a parasite that was lying dormant in the fish's tissues to take hold. My experiences told me that do not ever just quickly dump your apistogramma esp. wild caught ones, straight into your tank. Such careless action may cause a big disaster sometimes, if the wild fishes are already very weak in health. Such action can actually "awoken" those parasite from the weak fishes into very quickly multiply using that "host" fish; finally affect even all other healthy fishes in the same tank. Slowly mix the water from the tank by "dipping" method is the best and even better if you quarantine the new fishes in a separate tank before introducing them to the main tank. Prevention is always the best medicine, so treat all arrivals and never feed tubifex or other live worms.
Disease in Apistogramma & SA Dwarf Cichlid is always an inevitable response to STRESS EXPOSURE. Stress in the aquatic environment can assume many forms, i.e. nitrogenous toxins, oxygen tension, vitamin deficiency & careless handling. Finally, preventing stress = no disease.
Acclimatization of wild Apistogramma into our tank
Here is a very good article on the acclimatization of fishes.
http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/selectingfish/a/acclimate.htm
From my observation over the last decade keeping these, i would say if you maintain a very stable aquarium parameters, these cichlid can be kept without much efforts. Studying on individual species requirements will be the first step to keeping them well.
Disease & Avoiding them
As Apistogramma species will feed on anything that fits into their mouths, that include flake foods, bits etc. There is however some food that you must avoid - live tubifex worm especially, as these worms carry either parasites or bacteria to the fish's intestinal tract, causing it to bloat up like a balloon. To date there is almost no known cure or best cure to this. The key cause to “bloat” is the feeding live worms, The best prevention of “bloat” is not even thinking of feeding worms!. Basically, the intestinal tract of the Apistogramma is very long and narrow; I guess they feed on small insect larvae, fry of other fishes and other invertebrates, small shrimps & lots of plant matters from the algae etc. Live worms shall never occur in their natural habitat.
So, main disease that affects Apistogramma is "bloat". The other disease like "Ich" may appear infrequently but this occurs only with severely stressed fish. "Pop eye" may develop if water quality is poor. Treat these conditions as you would for any other fish.
Other than the above will be conditions cause by injuries e.g. from fighting & biting. Such may develop into “fungus” if not treated timely. Protozin can be applied timely to stop this.
Whenever I bring in new Apistogramma from wild shipments, I will treat them with Waterlife Protozin and Waterlife 6.5 BUFFER to ensure that the fish are parasite-free. At the same time, I may dip in some S7 Vitamix vitamin from Dennerie to strengthen them as these fishes had usually without food for long prior to shipment. Not only for wild fishes, even in tank raised fish, the stress of shipping may allow a parasite that was lying dormant in the fish's tissues to take hold. My experiences told me that do not ever just quickly dump your apistogramma esp. wild caught ones, straight into your tank. Such careless action may cause a big disaster sometimes, if the wild fishes are already very weak in health. Such action can actually "awoken" those parasite from the weak fishes into very quickly multiply using that "host" fish; finally affect even all other healthy fishes in the same tank. Slowly mix the water from the tank by "dipping" method is the best and even better if you quarantine the new fishes in a separate tank before introducing them to the main tank. Prevention is always the best medicine, so treat all arrivals and never feed tubifex or other live worms.
Disease in Apistogramma & SA Dwarf Cichlid is always an inevitable response to STRESS EXPOSURE. Stress in the aquatic environment can assume many forms, i.e. nitrogenous toxins, oxygen tension, vitamin deficiency & careless handling. Finally, preventing stress = no disease.
Acclimatization of wild Apistogramma into our tank
Here is a very good article on the acclimatization of fishes.
http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/selectingfish/a/acclimate.htm