PlanetCatfish.com

Norman wrote:Hi Niels,

NielsV wrote:Here they are around six weeks old. The biggest is around 2.5cm and the smallest 1.8cm.

I am sorry but this is too small for this age.
With arround one month they should have reached a size of at leat 3,5cm. Most other species in the releationship of P. apithanos are growing faster, but 2 or 2,5cm is too less. I think they didn't got enough food in the first important days.

NielsV wrote:Yesterday i chanched 50% water and a hour later i saw them spawning.

Fortunately P. apithanos is very easy to spawn, but unfortunately it's absolutely not easy to raise the fry.

so long
Norman

The problem is, i feed them in the morning around 5 o'clock and than i go to work. And 9/10 hours later im home again. Thats a long time without food for young fish. Thats another problem why they are to small.

What kind of food and brand would you recommend me?

Hi Niels,

What kind of food and brand would you recommend me?

In the past I had very good results with OSI Shrimp Pellets. At the moment I try NewEra Diskus Pellets.
P. lamina are growing fastly with both.
The fry of P. thorectes and P. apithanos are too jung at the moment to tell anything about growing with Diskus Pellets of NewEra.

But I always raise the fry always in a steril nursery case wich I have to clean twice a day. The growing in such a case is much better than in a large tank.

so long
Norman

I used crushed Tetra prima or now JBL discus granules. They work really well but overfeeding will kill young and adults as the food seems to swell inside them.

Jools

I have never lost any but when I last raised some domestic Discus they would gulp Tetra Color Granules too fast.
Then the food would swell and the resulting pressure pushed against their swim bladder and that would throw off their equilibrium for awhile. They were in a lot of distress until the food moved along.
I still feed this food to my Discus but I always pre-soak it for five minutes first. This procedure eliminated the problem.

Hi Jools,

Jools wrote:I used crushed Tetra prima or now JBL discus granules. They work really well but overfeeding will kill young and adults as the food seems to swell inside them.

Because fry of P. apithanos as well as P. sp. "Marbled" are very aggressive while feeding. In a short time they feed as much as they can. If that food will swell it could be problematic. Thats why I try now the Diskus Pellets of NewEra. This food doesn't swell and is very well accepted.

so long
Norrie

I've had these fish for a about two and a half years now and they are entering their third spawning season. The longest I've been able to keep the fry alive was 6 months. They really are sensitive to water quality and overfeeding. I chronically get busy and neglect my husbandry duties and my young apithanos pay the price. My L. sp. Atabapo and Sturisoma fry are much more forgiving. This time around, I am passing on my fry to a friend who is much more diligent than I. Hopefully is as lucky.

Hi,

zipper wrote:The longest I've been able to keep the fry alive was 6 months.

Can you please tell us the size of the offsprings with about 6 month?
At this age they should have reached a size of more than 10cm.

so long
Norman

they were much smaller than that. They may have reached 7 cm but my memory might be stretching that a bit. They were painfully slow growing.
I would share some pictures, but they are stuck on my broken computer.

zipper wrote:they were much smaller than that. They may have reached 7 cm but my memory might be stretching that a bit. They were painfully slow growing.
I would share some pictures, but they are stuck on my broken computer.

You do know that a Mom and Pop Computer store can recover your files from the broken computer's hard drive, right? I just had a local shop put all my photos from an old computer on a 4.7GB DVD-R disc.

Norman do you have a album at planet? I already visit your "my aquaria".

Hi Niels,

Not yet about the fry.
But I want to make a little diary of photos raising P. apithanos fry taken every week.

so long
Norman

NielsV wrote:Norman do you have a album at planet? I already visit your "my aquaria".

At the right hand side of any of Norman's posts, you will see some links, one of them says "my images".

Cheers,

Jools

I enhanced I picture of a fry consumed the yolk sack.
So they start feeding with a size of about 17mm.

so long
Norman

With about 2 weeks the fry measures around 25mm.

Breeding Apithanos is .

Hmm that type of 'paper' is very handy. I have to buy that also.

At this moment i have only 5 young apithanos, the rest died. But the next clutch is almost there.

3 weeks after hatching the fry reach about 3cm

Spawning P.Apithanos

Very nice, Niels!

Great video Niels, would be a great one to add to the site...

Jools

Hi Niels, great tank setup an very nice catfish specimens .

What are you going to do with the youngsters ?

Jools wrote:Great video Niels, would be a great one to add to the site...

Jools

You can use the video for your site.

I send you also a mail whit some pictures from apithanos and tatia perugiae. You can pick out the good one.

Phyllonemus wrote:Hi Niels, great tank setup an very nice catfish specimens .

What are you going to do with the youngsters ?

I dont have enough time to raise young apithanos, i tried many time. So when the yolk sac is gone i put the young apithanos in a well planted tank, whit a group of N.Rubrocaudatus. I hope they can find some food between the plants, wood and rocks. I trie to feed them 2 / 3 times a day, more is not possible.

Hi Niels,

Important for young apithanos is some food two times daily and especially a very good water quality!
I raised some fry of P. apithanos to a size a currently 7-8cm (pictures of the fry in this thread).
Unfortunately my female died, so currently I am looking for a/some females (if anyone have some for me I would be very pleased!). Otherwise I have to wait till my youngsters get mature.

Unfortunately I don't think you will have success raising them in a 'large' planted tank.

so long
Norman

Hi!!

a friend of mine had a spawn of these but lost them after some weeks
and lately another friend had a spawn of P. laticeps!!
Congrats!!
Cheers
Yann

Norman, how are your Apithanos growing?

A few weeks ago i find some small/medium (4cm till 9cm) P.Apithanos for sale. I buy 8 apithanos, 3 for my and 5 for a friend of my. I hope for a extra male, or 2.....

Hi Niels,

The largest adolescent fry is about 8,5cm.
It is an offspring from august/september.
In some few weeks I will put them to the adults and hope for a female.

so long
Norman

This time i filmed my spawning pseudohemiodon apithanos whit a high definition cam.


Protecting the eggs

Great video's Niels. Wat do you feed your adults on?

Regards
Kev

they are like Trilobites...in fish form.

whats everyones thoughts regarding the sex of these i just acquired? they look a little skinny imo so i will get them into good condition as the fish shop probably did not feed them enough

any thoughts and opinions are welcome regarding these fish