L129 - Columbian Zebras (Hypancistrus sp)

smithrc · Post by **smithrc** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 5:35 pm

Hi folks -

We bougt a group of 5 L129s this time last year, we have fed them well and following on from the sexing topic it looks like 2 females 1 male and 2 undecideds...

The leaving the to it approach hasn't worked up to now, so its time to put the effort in

Last weekend I raised the temp to about 29ºc. They have been out and about loads more - its been great

Mid week I added 4 move 'caves' (to the 3 already in there) 2 of them are now in caves

Last night I did a 25% RO change.

What else can I do to help them along? feeding program?

Artic circle · Post by **Artic circle** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 6:57 pm

Hi smithrc!

If you have breeding ready feamales, continuing Ro-water changes will get them spawn soon or a later. I think that you can raise the tempetature to 30.

Temperature can drop after the water changes 30 to 26 i think that will also work.

I have done Ro-tap water changes every other days when i will them spawn, this works with L-66 and L-46, L-46 has spawn once this week and another is now starting

Pasi

smithrc · Post by **smithrc** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 7:09 pm

cool - I might have to set up the RO unit then - I'm buying it at the moment.

I'm pretty sure one of the females if egg laden - the male now has is own cave too (he was in a tunnel before)

Artic circle · Post by **Artic circle** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 7:17 pm

That sounds good

i have mixed ro-water and tap-water so that the conductivity is 120 mS and they all have started to spawn.

Good luck!

Pasi

smithrc · Post by **smithrc** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 7:24 pm

how can I measure conductivity?

Artic circle · Post by **Artic circle** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 7:35 pm

I have Hanna's microsiemens meter DIST3 that has worked fine, i have bought it Germany and it costs about 40 euro.

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 8:19 pm

Hi smithrc,

Ro water is definately the way to go, you really need to have water with a low conductivity/TDS for things to start happening. I pretty much do as Arctic does with the tap water RO mix.

Arctic, do you find that your PH is stable with a conductivity of 120 ms?

Artic circle · Post by **Artic circle** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 8:48 pm

Hi Adam!

My PH is stable, i didn't change water at four days and it was same when i started, 7.1

Our water conductivity at the tap water is about 500mS, i think that it the reason why the ph stay stable.

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 8:59 pm

Cheers for the info Arctic.

My conductivity at the tap is upwards of 680mS sometimes as high as 760mS.

With RO tap water mix I reduce it to about 200mS and the PH is stable.

Thanks.

andyj · Post by **andyj** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 11:16 am

smithrc wrote:how can I measure conductivity?

By buying one of these

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 81723&rd=1

smithrc · Post by **smithrc** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 2:07 pm

so its the same bit og kit for measuring the salinaty in marine setups they

I'll be needing one of them anyway

Thanks andy (see you friday)

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 4:36 pm

Hi Andyj and smithrc,

Without getting too technical a conductivity meter will measure how conductive your water is by passing a tiny current between two electrodes. The more dissolved substances in the water the higher the reading, however it will only pickup ions that have either a positive or negative charge. A lot of "neutral" non-charged pollutants/substances such as pesticides and other organic compounds will not be detected. They are still a very useful tool for measuring overall water quality in aquaria but please bear in mind that they do not provide a "true" picture of water quality. A TDS meter is pretty much the same thing as a conductivity meter all it does is convert the microsiemens conductivity reading into parts per million.

It's worth considering a conductivity/TDS meter that has been factory calibrated. Recalibration will then be by pressing a reset button to restore the factory default setting as opposed to messing around with calibration solutions, just a thought.

Adam

smithrc · Post by **smithrc** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 8:34 pm

for £17 all in - I'd get one of them and see how i get on i think.

We've done one 20% RO changes - can I do it again and not worry about anything?

The PH of the RO is a little higher than they are used to at just short of 8. (they are in approx 7.2)

Any tips on feeding - they have gone of cucumber and prawns

They are still eating though - JMC catfish pellets go down well.

smithrc · Post by **smithrc** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 9:42 pm

I'm going to try cucumber again tonight.

I think I'm going to try and sort out some smaller caves - I only noticed tonight how big they look with the fish in them...

smithrc · Post by **smithrc** » Sat Jul 02, 2005 5:03 pm

Hello again - Just thought I'd update the 'progress' so far...

I have still got the 35mm tubes in there but i've been working on getting some smaller caves sorted for them.

They are a lot more active with the temperature higher and are in and out of each others caves a lot.

I've got some beefheart to try them on tonight too

I've just done another water change - this time i've used rain water rather than RO - Is this ok?