Aggressive female agassizi. What to do?

[Jshill103]

I recently got a pair of agassizi off aquabid and due to space constraints I can only have a 10g tank. I had read people have bred them in 10s so I figured i would give it a go. When the fish came in we ha a frost overnight here in idaho and the male was in a kinda weak state but the female arrived and instantly yellowed up. She picks on the male and the male just ignores her for the most part. She nips at him and he kinda just takes his time getting away. I started feeding them frozen brine shrimp trying to beef him up to be ready to breed. But it seems like she has claimed the whole tank as her territory. Is this normal for a female? Should I try to seperate them? The tank is planted with lots of Java moss and tons of crypt wendtii and 2 cut in half pots. The female sleeps in one of the pots. I'm just worried she will not allow the male to get to a state to breed. Suggestions other than a larger tank?

 

[Ekona]

Thanks for your post. You have picked a nice species to work with IMO. In my experience 20L aquariums are the smallest I would use to try to breed apistos - even though they are small cichlids, they still set up territories and require a certain amount of space.

I was able to have a pair of aggies breed and have fry hatch and survive in a 20L, but only after placing a divider in the tank to give the female and fry their own territory and the male his. The female was just too vigorous in defending her territory and fry, and the male was hiding in one small area on the other side of the tank prior to the divider being put in. I used a 2" thick piece of poret foam cut to fit the height and width of the 20L which wedged in tightly in the center of the tank, and allowed water to flow through the tank as the intake of the filter was on one side and the outlet on the other. Eventually, I removed the male to another tank and then removed the divider, and now the female and juvies have the whole 20L to themselves.

So, if I were you, I'd invest in a 20L tank, a divider of some kind (in case it's needed) and two sponge filters (one for each side of the divider) or another holding tank for the male, should he need to be removed.

The current situation does not sound good for the male and it sounds like he needs his own space to recover and settle in.

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

 

[Jshill103]

This is the female. Super super pretty. And my male..

 

[Ekona]

Very nice specimens; thanks for posting the photos - may I ask where you got them?

 

[Jshill103]

Aquabid. User named matter3188. They were pretty cheap for a pair too.

 

[Ekona]

Yours look much better than in the photo from his bid - good find!

 

[rr16]

How long have you had them? If it's only a matter of days then perhaps the female has laid eggs on that first day when she coloured up and is now defending the area. When she chases the male, what are her displays like? Does she defend a certain small area/her "sleeping place"? Also, you mentioned a 10 gallon tank and then Ekona, you talked about 20 litre tanks. A 10 gallon tank is around 50 litres (not sure of the exact conversion and it does depend on if you're talking about American or British gallons). Also, what is the overall layout of the tank like? Do you have leaf litter for them t hide in, lots of wood or other objects?

 

[rr16]

Also, your male looks very young (but I'm no expert), so it may take him a while to be successful at breeding (again, just ideas and I'm no expert!)

 

[Ekona]

How long have you had them? If it's only a matter of days then perhaps the female has laid eggs on that first day when she coloured up and is now defending the area. When she chases the male, what are her displays like? Does she defend a certain small area/her "sleeping place"? Also, you mentioned a 10 gallon tank and then Ekona, you talked about 20 litre tanks. A 10 gallon tank is around 50 litres (not sure of the exact conversion and it does depend on if you're talking about American or British gallons). Also, what is the overall layout of the tank like? Do you have leaf litter for them t hide in, lots of wood or other objects?

20L in America stands for 20 US Gallon Long aquarium = ~76 liters.

 

[rr16]

Ha ha, so it does, I just realised this! I don't however know what the dimensions are for 20L, 40L etc. Are we talking around 2 ft x 1ft x 1ft and 4ft x 1ft x 1ft respectively? Although that doesn;t quite add up so I'm guessing I'm out a bit. Have been curious as to the dimensions of a 20L though.

 

[Ekona]

2oL aquarium = 30" long x 12" wide x 12" tall

 

[rr16]

Cheers, sorry, I mean thanks!

 

[Ekona]

Thank you for posting, as always!