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L129 - Columbian Zebras (Hypancistrus sp)
Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 5:35 pm
by smithrc
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?
Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 6:57 pm
by Artic circle
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
Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 7:09 pm
by smithrc
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)
Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 7:17 pm
by Artic circle
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
Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 7:24 pm
by smithrc
how can I measure conductivity?
Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 7:35 pm
by Artic circle
I have Hanna's microsiemens meter DIST3 that has worked fine, i have bought it Germany and it costs about 40 euro.
Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 8:19 pm
by Adam
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?
Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 8:48 pm
by Artic circle
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.
Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 8:59 pm
by Adam
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.
Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 11:16 am
by andyj
smithrc wrote:how can I measure conductivity?
By buying one of these
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 81723&rd=1
Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 2:07 pm
by smithrc
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)
Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 4:36 pm
by Adam
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
Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 8:34 pm
by smithrc
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.
Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 9:42 pm
by smithrc
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...
Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2005 5:03 pm
by smithrc
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?