Apistogramma hongsloi female breeding agression

[Russ Hennessey]

Hi All,
I need some input or advice. I've seen several posts about breeding Ap. hongsloi and wanted to get your feedback on what i am experiencing with them.

WOW - are the females aggressive or what!!! Way more than others that I am breeding. The biggest problem is that the females get hyper aggressive when protecting their caves and don't seem to stop till they've killed their male. I've lost 2 males so far...When I started I had 2 pairs in a 20g and 1 pair in each 5g.& 10g. Right now I have 2 pairs remaining (in 5g & 10g tanks) but both my males are in breeder boxes as they would be dead otherwise...No fry and not sure about re-introducing the male to the tank.

For breeding, my typical setup is a pair/10g or 2 pairs/harem in a 20g. To start, i put the pair or harem in with small dither fish like ember tetras or pencil fish. I then play match maker till a pair develops. Once breeding occurs and I've seen fry I normally remove the dithers and let the parents look after the fry for a while.

With the Ap. hongsloi everything appears typical. They pair up and the female gets brood colour and starts protecting her cave. Then after a day at most all hell breaks loose. In my cases I've not seen any fry yet from either remaining pair even though they appear to be on it. To date i have already lost 2 males and 2 female due to the quickness the females go from (I'm happy" to "I'm going to kill you state". In the last 2 cases I've been watching and pulled the male out before he died.

I know that 10g is smallish but I am not having any problems like this with my other species, (aggies, cacas, borellis, Sp. putumayo, steel blues, pandurini, viejitas) and wonder if its just this species that is this aggressive or if i am missing something. I've done all the typical stuff to try to stem the aggression but it doesn't seem to help.

Questions: Do i need to use bigger tanks or just resign myself to being vigilant and moving the male as soon as she starts guarding the cave? Also once i have had to separate them Is there a way to get the female to settle down and let the male enter the territory again or should i try to switch the male female combinations or go back to harem style?

Any help or hints would be appreciated.
Thanks Russ

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
You could try a lot more structure in your tanks to break up line of sight and also put a cave up in a top corner of the tank, so a harassed fish can rest out of sight.

cheers Darrel

 

[Robi]

I agree with Darrel, you need a drift wood in middle, bunch of java moss on the bottom and 2-3 more caves to divide up the tank spatially. 1 male and 1 female in the tank if you intend to breed them, they get super aggressive around breeding, might kill ditter fish or other Apistos in the tank. Initially the male, then the female gets very territorial. The female eventually mellows down, after couple of broods. I had 3 broods so far, the latest one actually, they divided the babies and dad is guarding about 1/3 and mom is about 2/3 of them. In this complex the male can help in brood care if female allows. Good luck and don't worry if she brings out zero babies initially, it might take them couple of tries until the female actually brings out fry. Again no more than the breeding couple in a 15 - 20 G tank with lots of hiding spaces and java moss. Male can stay in (if he can hide from the female). What are you water parameters? (TDS, pH, etc)

Robi H

 

[Russ Hennessey]

I agree with Darrel, you need a drift wood in middle, bunch of java moss on the bottom and 2-3 more caves to divide up the tank spatially. 1 male and 1 female in the tank if you intend to breed them, they get super aggressive around breeding, might kill ditter fish or other Apistos in the tank. Initially the male, then the female gets very territorial. The female eventually mellows down, after couple of broods. I had 3 broods so far, the latest one actually, they divided the babies and dad is guarding about 1/3 and mom is about 2/3 of them. In this complex the male can help in brood care if female allows. Good luck and don't worry if she brings out zero babies initially, it might take them couple of tries until the female actually brings out fry. Again no more than the breeding couple in a 15 - 20 G tank with lots of hiding spaces and java moss. Male can stay in (if he can hide from the female). What are you water parameters? (TDS, pH, etc)

Robi H

Thanks Robi and Darrel.
Things are more or less under control now and no deaths or fry to report yet. I do have very copmplex environments for them lots of driftwood caves and mosses and they are managing to get along kinda...i have also seen them go back and forth with the male going crazy then the female. No fry to report but one of my females is guarding the cave again now for 3 days so hope to see fry soon. Robi i seem to be going down the path that you describe and hope that success is coming soon. Stay tuned and thanks again
Russ

 

[Russ Hennessey]

Eureka I've got wigglers, lots of em!! Feb 14th the female in my 5g brought out a brood of approximately 40 fry. I had to move dad into a breeder box as he was not being accepted by the female and have started them on bbs and i now have live micro worms that I am going to feed them. This was her 2nd attempt and so far she seems to be a very good mom and my fingers are crossed that I can get them to grow out en masse.

 

[Russ Hennessey]

pics of the mother and fry

 

[Robi]

Nice job!