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Water changes & breeding A.congicum & other Aphyosemions


        Hi All!

         With respects to Bill and others, it just goes to show that
there are
      many ways to breed the same killies, depending on your situation.

        Jon, it is true that A. congicum comes from streams with leaf
litter,
      but the streams still have lots of water flow compared to our
tanks.
       Maintaining healthy tank conditions is very important. You can
       have healthy tanks that have mulm in them if your biomass is low
       and you have a good amount of thriving plants in the tank. In
your
       case the lowering of the tank temperature may well have been the
       trigger.

       The main thing is to not give up on a fish. I can tell many tales
of not
      succeeding with a killie on the first try. If my standard breeding

      conditions do not work with a particular fish, I adjust one
parameter
      at a time ( water, ph, temp, hardness, light , foods etc.) until I
am
      successful or the fish expire from old age. Then I try to acquire
       another pair ( or usually two) to try again. As you gain
experience
       your learning curve with new fish tends to get dramatically
shorter,
       until you can estimate from the start what conditions that a new
fish
       requires to breed sucessfully, most of the time.

          The fact that the congicum that I have raised, stop laying
eggs after
       a water change is only an observation of how the fish that I have

        respond to that particular change in conditions. I have run
across
        this reaction to fresh water only in a few other fish. One
example
        is Epiplatys lamottei. I never have much success with lamottei
unless
        I let their tank get grungy with debris, and their water old.
Over the
        years I have heard the same tale about lamottei from other
breeders
        so in most cases there must be something to it. But these
killies are
        the exception, not the rule.  Most killies respond favorably to
water
         changes as long as the chemical makeup and temp. of the water
is
        close to the water that they are currently in.

                           Regards,

                                      Monty Lehmann

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