A. agassizii Fire red breeding... can't seem to make it happen

[kylekvk]

I posted this in the general dwarf cichlid forum, sorry for the double posting -- I thought that was the right area.

I have a pair of A. Agassizii Fire Red. They’re in a 20G tall. I wanna breed these guys so bad but the female seems to hate the male and he keeps chasing her. He spends his days eating and stalking her. She spends her day hiding and only comes out to eat.

She can’t seem to get away from him. I’ve had these guys for months and she hasn’t shown spawning colors even once.


I don’t know how old they are, maybe she could be a juvenile?


Things I’ve done:

- Given them little houses. They have two. One cave and one coconut shell, they don’t use them.

- Fed her mostly freeze dried bloodworms, she loves them.

- Increased the water temperature to 82F

- Maintain the pH at approximately 7, I’m not "chasing" pH but that’s what they like

- Given them some dither fish. I have a small school of cardinal tetras, a mystery snail, an Oto cat, and two male Endlers. Everyone else is happy and keeps to themselves.

- The tank is moderately planted and has driftwood for them to hide under.

 

[Mike Wise]

Too many unknowns: tank decor, territorial boundaries, opening size of cave entrances ...

I will say that it would be better if you could keep the pH below 7, in the 6.5 range. Your feeding leaves a lot to be desired. Try feeding mostly live and frozen food. Also cardinal tetras are well-known apisto fry predators so do not expect many survivors if the female has a spawn.

 

[kylekvk]

Thanks for your reply! I think the problem might be they my female is actually a “sneaker male”. You made a lot of good points, but I realize I didn’t post pictures

 

[MacZ]

Can you post a picture of the whole tank? I have a suspicion.

The stocking sounds like a community tank. I would not expect them to successfully breed in such company. Spawn maybe, but with the cardinals no fry will make it. The pH most (not all, but a lot) Apistogramma need to successfully spawn is far too low for any Guppy, those I would rehome. If not for the Apistos breeding, then for their own good. Now that I think about it, Guppies are always moving, this might bring too much fuzz and ruckus into the tank.

 

[kylekvk]

It is a community tank.

Can you post a picture of the whole tank? I have a suspicion.

The stocking sounds like a community tank. I would not expect them to successfully breed in such company. Spawn maybe, but with the cardinals no fry will make it. The pH most (not all, but a lot) Apistogramma need to successfully spawn is far too low for any Guppy, those I would rehome. If not for the Apistos breeding, then for their own good. Now that I think about it, Guppies are always moving, this might bring too much fuzz and ruckus into the tank.

It is a community tank. One day I’ll have one just for Apistogramma. Can you confirm that my Apisto I posted the picture of is in fact a female?

 

[MacZ]

It is a community tank.

It is a community tank. One day I’ll have one just for Apistogramma. Can you confirm that my Apisto I posted the picture of is in fact a female?

Yeah well... community tank means breeding is unlikely. And no, sorry, colour breeds are so far off my field I can't tell you the sex of your fish. Plus it seems they are quite young.