Apistogramma agassizi female always hiding

[brittanykluss]

She's always hiding, I have a male and female. She's always in her little cave I never see her come out. I even moved the cave to make sure she was alive in there and no matter how I move it shell stay in the cave while I move it lol. The male was chasing her when I first got her and she was swimming out freely but she's always in that cave!? Is this okay? I always try to drop food in front of her cave to see if she'll eat so idk of she's eating or if she swims at all???

 

[Aspencer]

I have had a pair of Kirbs and had the same situation exactly. I recently resecaped and replaced rocks (She dug cave under a big one and stayed there, coming out for a few moments and got chased back in) with Cichlid stones.

Now he stays in one cave next to her cave. Both have head out, seeing each other. She still does not come out much but he does not chase her either.

 

[kindafishy]

My female Apisto Baenschi did pretty much the same thing at first, mostly because her mate is a big meanie who claimed the entire tank for himself. I was really worried about her for the first week or so, I thought she was going to be traumatized (or worse). Little by little, she settled in and I started seeing more of her. Now (3 or 4 weeks later) they have seemed to form a couple, and she has truly changed...no more hiding in corners and caves, and even has quite the little 'tude going on. Her mate still chases her (and is still a tyrant), but she is no longer cowering, sometimes she is even the instigator. And now, more often than not, they hang out peacefully together. I actually can't believe the difference. I was convinced I was going to have a dead fish on my hands.

How long have you had her? Maybe she just needs time to settle in, like mine did. Having her own little coconut cave helped immensely, made her feel secure. But now she no longer hides in it, she hangs out there with her little head poking out (keeping an eye on her man, I am assuming).

 

[brittanykluss]

I've had her for about a month maybe a week more. The first week I got her she was out swimming freely and didn't seem to care about the male chasing her. I have (the 2 apistos), juvenile honey gourami male, dwarf gourami male, ( both gouramis are very docile and nice ) , school of rasboras. The apistos only chase the honey gourami if he gets to close to them and the honey doesn't care at all. But my girl apisto has been in her little cave for 3 weeks straight I never see her

 

[kindafishy]

Our situations are not the same I guess because I only have the 2 apistos in the tank, and nothing else. Still, maybe if you add more caves for her? I found that there was a vast improvement with my female when I added more hiding spaces for her. That way, if she was being harassed, she never had very far to go to find a hiding spot. When she figured that out, she started to come out more often.

It took a good two weeks before I started seeing a lot of her. Might take longer for you because there seems to be a lot more going on in your tank? Then again, I'm no expert -- I've only had apistos for a very short time! Good luck anyway, and hopefully someone with more experience will chime in here

 

[Illusion447]

My 3 babies are always hiding also they rarely come out. I think it's normal until they get a little older or feel more comfortable in a place. Also I have 1 question.. What water do you keep your Apistogrammas in do u you a special purified water to give them a low ph or what do u do to keep the ph low for them? Or do u not really do anything different for their water?

 

[kindafishy]

My 3 babies are always hiding also they rarely come out. I think it's normal until they get a little older or feel more comfortable in a place. Also I have 1 question.. What water do you keep your Apistogrammas in do u you a special purified water to give them a low ph or what do u do to keep the ph low for them? Or do u not really do anything different for their water?

You are probably asking the OP, but I'll answer anyway. My pH is around 6.8 - 7 ish, I don't do anything to adjust it any lower. I have heard that stability is more important than the actual number, and I am not really *that* far off from what is considered 'ideal'. I will be interested to see if they breed even though my pH is a little higher than optimal for breeding (according to what I have read anyway). My guess is that they will -- there's been lots of signs so far (but they are still quite young, like 5 months old, so we'll see...)

In any case, optimal pH or not, they seem to be thriving.

 

[brittanykluss]

here in houston texas the ph is very high in the 8.0's. so i get tank bred apistogrammas from houston, and the male is always out swimming around being very active, eats food right from the litte syringe i use. and he has gotten very colorful. my ph is stable, and the parameters are perfect... so far so good its been about 2 months id say since i got them, and i dont know how old they were when i got them. the male is about a inch and a half, the female is like an inch and a quarter