Orange Flash Apistogramma *Breeding again*

[JRagg]

Last night I did some much needed pruning and other tank maintenance. I generally only do 30% water changes since the bucket I use is 4 gallons and I have a 10g tank, but last night I decided to do a 50% because the KH has been creeping up (my substrate is calcite, whoops).

Well I wake up this morning and go to feed my fish and notice that they’re hanging out in a place they’ve never spent time in before. They were in a little spot between some driftwood and java fern. So while they were eating I took a look back there and noticed about 20-30 eggs. Bonnie (my female) went back in there after eating and started laying more. She has completely changed colors from a brown to almost a yellowish brown color. I’ll try to get some pictures tonight, but the location of the eggs (in combination with my junky camera) is going to result in some pretty bad pictures.

I’m pretty excited because my male has been doing the dance since the moment I put the female in. I’m surprised that they’ve started up this quick. I’ve only had her in there for about a month. Unfortunately with this batch of eggs I’m going to have to let nature take its course. There’s a chance that some will make it, but I’m not real optimistic. I’m getting married in two weeks and will be out of town for two weeks (total) for the wedding and the honeymoon. I don’t really expect the guy that is going to feed them to try to take care of fry, but since the Apistos are the only fish in the tank there may be a chance to see a couple of wrigglers before I head out of town (in about 10 days).

I’ll keep updates posted.

[justrelax]

congrats on your wedding! and the apisto eggs! maybe they're trying to teach you a few things before the big night... lol!

[JRagg]

I told my fiance about that comment justrelax, she got a kick out of it.

Well here is a picture of the eggs, but they are in a really bad place. Very hard to see and get a shot of.

You can see the female looking at me (she's kind of yellow now), and the eggs are just to the right of her on the underside of the driftwood. You can only see a few of them from this angle (sadly the best angle), but there are more under there.

[rich311k]

Congrats!! Good luck.

[JRagg]

EDITED

I was wrong, they aren't caviar. I've got wrigglers (or so I think). Little pink things on the substrate under where the eggs were layed. I don't see them moving, but the female keeps going over and fanning them with her tail.

I have a question I got some crypt parva in the mail today, and I want to plant it. If I stick my hand in the tank to plant (about 10 inches from the wrigglers) am I risking the mother eating or otherwise harming the wrigglers? I konw nervous fish eat eggs, but will they eat these little fellas?

[JRagg]

Well, there are probably 3-4 dozen of the pink things on the ground.

I planted the parva, they didn't seem to get too stressed by it. They're pretty used to me putting my hand in the tank. I just let the female get near the eggs before I started, and I moved slowly to avoid scaring them.

I've even seen the female picking up smaller snails with her mouth and carrying them away from the eggs.

Here's another picture of the wrigglers. Pretty neat to see, and the picture came out much much better than the previous ones.

[Zagz]

Congrats on the wrigglers. Good luck with them. Keep us updated with how they are making out.

[JRagg]

Thanks, they're going to be fending for themselves in the main tank unfortunately . Luckily mom and pop are the only inhabitants other than snails, so there is a small chance they may survive.

They are definitely wriggling this morning though. I see at least 5 eggs "vibrating wildly", lol. I'm going to have to try to find a sponge to put over my filter intake. Luckily the filter intake is on the other side of the aquarium and it doesn't provide tons of current where these guys are.

EDIT

Does anyone know how good of parents these guys are? I'm guessing the female won't eat the fry since she's doing a heck of a lot of parenting right now, but I'm wondering if the male will. In the future I plan on moving them, but that's not an option this time.

[JRagg]

Well yesterday afternoon I went to get a sponge to put over my filter intake since moving them is not an option right now (going to be out of town, and I just don't have another tank) and when I got back all of the pink things were gone. I assumed the worst and thought that the female had eaten them, but upon waking up this morning I found something completely different.

Tons of fry swimming around my female! I haven't tried to count yet, but since it's a heavily planted tank, I don't think counting will be too successful.

The female is doing her best to keep the male at bay. He keeps coming around looking for osome fry to eat, but she smacks him everytime she sees him. I've never seen her so aggressive before. I tried to get a pic, but I only had to shots left on my memory card and didn't get to try again. I'll get a better one later today. For now, here is what I've got.

It's hard to tell the fry from the baby snails, but I tried to circle what I knew was fry.

[gheitman]

Raising apistogramma fry can be a lot of fun and satisfying. Once the parents get the hang of it you should see spawnings every few weeks. You do want to remove the first batch of fry to another tank before your fish spawn again to be on the safe side though. What are you going to feed the fry? I've used Liquifry which is no longer available (Wardley has something similar) and then First Bites as they got bigger.