Apisto. cacatuoides unexpected fry. Help!

[Johntheskier]

I am new to apistos but not fish keeping. I got 6 cacatuoides juveniles about a month ago. I wasn't exactly sure the male to female ratio and put them in a 10 gallon tank. As it turns out, it is 3 male and 3 female. I noticed today that one of the females laid eggs that had hatched. I didn't expect that they would breed so quickly! So there are about 20 fry in a pretty heavily wooded tank with the six "mature" adults. I know that this tank is too small for this situation. I would love to preserve the fry, so I'm wondering who has to go. All of the males? The two males that are clearly not the father? What about the nonmaternal females? I have another tank that is planted and has neon's, black skirt, and x-ray tetras, 3 dwarf cory's as well as a large ghost shrimp colony. Would the nonpaternal male apistos be ok in there with out any female apistos? I really like my tetras and have a great balance of fish and don't want to upset it. I plan on getting another tank set up soon but can't do it immediately. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[MacZ]

Definitely remove all adults besides the mother (and the possible father) from the tank and rather rehome them. But with all the catching commotion I would expect the mother to eventually eat their fry due to stress.
Don't know what size your other tank is, but as a rule of thumb: Males have territories of 60cm diameter, females 30cm. So unless the second tank has a big enough footprint and good structure, definitely give away at least one pair. At least they won't impact the tetras, but might chase the Corydoras and will surely eat shrimp fry. A single male will be 99% peaceful and at most chase the tetras away from foodsources.

Do you have a growout tank and a place to get rid of the fry? Especially domestic strain A. cacatuoides can be hard to get rid of as they are ubiquitous in most areas.

 

[Johntheskier]

Definitely remove all adults besides the mother (and the possible father) from the tank and rather rehome them. But with all the catching commotion I would expect the mother to eventually eat their fry due to stress.
Don't know what size your other tank is, but as a rule of thumb: Males have territories of 60cm diameter, females 30cm. So unless the second tank has a big enough footprint and good structure, definitely give away at least one pair. At least they won't impact the tetras, but might chase the Corydoras and will surely eat shrimp fry. A single male will be 99% peaceful and at most chase the tetras away from foodsources.

Do you have a growout tank and a place to get rid of the fry? Especially domestic strain A. cacatuoides can be hard to get rid of as they are ubiquitous in most areas.

Thanks for the input. I went out today and bought a 20 gallon long tank and i am going to set it up as a Matten filter. This seemed the quickest route to having a somewhat suitable tank that I can pretty much instantly cycle using donor filter material from my other tanks. It's not ideal but should be able to start moving non parent fish out tonight. I'm going to move the one sub-dominate male into my tetra tank right now just to hopefully alleviate some of the stress and hostility. It blew my mind seeing how aggressive the mother fish has become. I've had African cichlids in the past and they did not get nearly that mean when fry were present. Thanks again for your help.

 

[MacZ]

I've had African cichlids in the past and they did not get nearly that mean when fry were present. Thanks again for your help.

You're welcome. I came the same way. Bred Malawis and Tanganyikans for a decade and after a hiatus I'm now keeping Apistos.

 

[yukondog]

It blew my mind seeing how aggressive the mother fish has become.

I have some females that will not tolerate the male in the same tank after breeding and some that dont seem to mind, but the next batch all that might be reversed, with apisto females you just never know.

 

[Johntheskier]

I'm becoming more and more fascinated with these fish. They are unusual. I'm very glad that I got them and even more excited to be a "Fish Daddy". Hopefully some of the separating I did earlier today can keep things a little calmer until I can get this other tank up and rolling tomorrow. Thanks for the tips.