My Apistogramma Cacatuoides are having babies! What do I do?!

[MikeIsOrganic]

The first two fish to live in my new tank are a couple of Aposto's that've already taken a liking to each other. I haven't even done my first water change and there're already eggs in a cave from them! anywho, just wondering if that should alter anything I do with the tank? should I still do weekly water changes? anything else I should know? Just wanted to make sure I didn't kill them by doing something stupid. They're being kept with 12 cardinal tetras and 7 amano shrimp.

Info requested in that sticky post up top the forum:

1. 55 Gallon planted tank
2. 78 degrees or so
3. 7.5 pH and pretty hard water (150 ppm or so I think)
4. Blood worms and flake food, the second of they tend to ignore.
5. Just getting used to the place, they hadn't been in there but a week maybe. The female has always been pretty bright.
6. Underside of a cave formed by two rocks

Photos coming soon.

 

[thatmagicguy]

Alot of times, dwarf cichlids will be stimulated by being introduced to a new aquarium and lay eggs.

Hopefully the eggs will be fertile, if the water is hard the sperm become weak and cannot penetrate the eggs.

Some dwarfs are a little less finicky when it comes to water hardness, my cacatuoides lay fertile eggs in my hard water and I have no problem raising the young.

In a 55 gallon aquarium the parents will take good care of the fry should they hatch. The newborn fry really will have no impact on the bioload of a 55 gallon aquarium. I would hatch brine shrimp when they become free swimming and feed them at least twice a day to get them off to a good start.

I have always recommended to my customers to do a 10 percent water change weekly. When it is a new tank being set up I don't usuallyu have them start the water changes until 4 weeks into the "cycling". There are special circumstances when this doesn't apply.

In your case I would just monitor the water parameters, specifically ammonia/nitrite and do changes accordingly.

Bill

PS, I would recommend having some sort of light nearby the tank so it isn't completely dark after the lights go out. In my fish room my breeders all have light at night, I never suffer from those mysterious overnight fry dissapearances.

 

[MikeIsOrganic]

Thanks for the advice, I'll probably be off to get some brine shrimp eggs soon if all works out. The tank was cycled when I put them in, and the water's been in there for about four weeks now.

I just went to take a look at them this morning, and most of the eggs are gone. The female wouldn't come out for breakfast and is staying more upright (when all yesterday she was laying on her side fanning the eggs) and appears to have a larger mouth, is she keeping them in there for now or was it more likely an unsuccessful batch of eggs?

 

[thatmagicguy]

I can only speculate. Female apistos are not mouth brooders so the fry are not in her mouth. They take on very strong colors when guarding fry and usually swim in a very alert head down position. The female's body becomes very yellowish with a horizontal type stripe coloring along the body.

Their eggs, depending on the water temperature hatch in 2-4 days. The fry of course at this point are very tiny and are nothing more than a little red egg with a vibrating tail. Over the course of the next 7 days or so, give or take a day, they absorb the egg and become free swimming fry.

It is a canundrum at times, because if you have relatively course gravel, the fry are usually in between the gravel and you cannot see them. The female will remain at the spawning site and it can drive an aquarist crazy wondering if there are fry. And often enough, curiosity takes over and aquarists go in looking for fry and the end result is usually failure.

Take it from someone that has gotten his share of gray hair worrying, just let her be and be patient. You may be rewarded in a week or so and you will see her herding the small brood of young about.

In a 55 gallon tank you tend to get a better look at natural behavior as opposed to a 2 or 5 gallon tank. What you will observe is mom herding about the young and the male staking out and protecting a larger territory around her.

They don't always follow the rules, and sometimes the males do indeed help with the tedious care of the young. In either case, in tanks with other fish swimming about, the parents tend to be better parents, their protective instincts are heightened in the face of real threats.

Often when people try to breed pairs alone in a small aquarium dwarf cichlids eat their eggs and young. It happens less in a community aquarium.

Again I must reiterate, if you keep a small lamp nearby the tank at night they will be less likely to eat the eggs/babies when the lights go out.

Wait until you actually see the fry swimming before you start introducing the brine shrimp.

Bill