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Breeding Apistogramma cacatuoides

Vijendra

New Member
Messages
16
Apistogramma cacatuoides - Acquired these beauties few months ago
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The king with his queens
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I have made a harem comprising 1 male and 3 females. Previously they were housed in a 50”*24”*24” densely planted tank all by themselves, where they bred for the first time, now they are housed in a 18”*12”*12” where 2 females are breeding round the clock bullying the third one as she is the smallest and as the tank is too small to house all of them. All of them will soon be shifted to a 48”*12”*12” tank.

Conditioning them – I feed them shrimps (RCS), eisenai fetida worms, micro tubifex and grindals. Feeding them live food drives their desire to breed.
Feeding eisenai fetida
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Spawning Rituals
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If you see a very bright yellow color on the female that means that she has definitely laid eggs.
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They are cave brooders and the female lays her eggs upside down with the male fertilizing them in the same way.
A female which has recently laid eggs
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It is the responsibility of the female to guard and look after the eggs and the fries. She will guard her nest like anything and wont fudge even if you lift her pot, have even separated the eggs along with the female to another tank by just lifting the pot with the female inside and placing it in another tank with the same water from the tank in which they were, just ensure that all the parameters are matched.
Female looking after her eggs
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The eggs hatch within 3-5 days and the young ones leave their home to search for food guided by their mother within a week. This is the time she will become very aggressive and not tolerate any other fish near her young ones.
1 Day old fries
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4 Days old fries
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The fries feed on microorganisms within the tank for the first few days so ensure that you put a lot of moss in their tank from a matured tank which will have a lot of these organisms or culture some infosuria and feed them 2-3 times a day. Then as they start to grow feed them with other bigger wrigglers like microworms. My fries just love them and it has shown a visible difference in their growth……..
Around 20 days old fries
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Around 1 month old fries
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Feeding time – Eating microworms
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Sorry for the quality of the pics as I am just an amateur photographer learning to click better pics…… :)
 

Linus_Cello

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
276
Location
Washington DC
Excellent photos (and very high quality)!
You said you feed these RCS- red cherry shrimp? Did you mean brine? Or the very small RCS?
 

Vijendra

New Member
Messages
16
Excellent photos (and very high quality)!
You said you feed these RCS- red cherry shrimp? Did you mean brine? Or the very small RCS?
Thanks.... :), Feed the male with medium sized RCS while the females are fed small ones, The male has even gulped down shrimps as big as an inch......
 

Water Changer

Member
5 Year Member
Vijendra - First off welcome!

Enjoyed reading the thread and especially the very nice images of your Cac.'s - they are beautiful!

I know the males get all of the attention, but the females are beautiful little creatures, especially when they bring on their golden color.

I purchased my first ever apisto cac's recently, a very young pair that have spawned once since their arrival. I only witnessed 2-3 small fry in total.

What size aquarium (gallons) have you found the most success in terms of quality spawns and fry survival rates?

Thanks!
 

ste12000

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
619
Location
Cheshire..UK
Welcome to the forum.. Great photo time line, great quality pictures and a very nice group of fish.. I really enjoyed reading that! Keep em coming :)
 

Vijendra

New Member
Messages
16
Vijendra - First off welcome!

Enjoyed reading the thread and especially the very nice images of your Cac.'s - they are beautiful!

I know the males get all of the attention, but the females are beautiful little creatures, especially when they bring on their golden color.

I purchased my first ever apisto cac's recently, a very young pair that have spawned once since their arrival. I only witnessed 2-3 small fry in total.

What size aquarium (gallons) have you found the most success in terms of quality spawns and fry survival rates?

Thanks!

Thanks....:)
The cac's were first housed in a 125gallons planted aquarium, where they bred for the first time... In this tank only I was able to get a good survival rate and a quality spawn. Ard 35 fries survived and are still with me (since 2 mths). Now the cac's are housed in a 20 gallon tank where they have bred 5-6 times but the fry survival rate was not high as the 125gn tank spawn. The max fries that I got in this tank is 16....
 

atmagoulick

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
53
Location
Livonia, Michigan USA
Handsome guy, he looks like he has some orange flash in him also. Your blog has helped me learn about my a. cactuoides. My female turned yellow, so she laid eggs. The eggs are on the underside of a Telathera leaf. Thanks!
 

Vijendra

New Member
Messages
16
Handsome guy, he looks like he has some orange flash in him also. Your blog has helped me learn about my a. cactuoides. My female turned yellow, so she laid eggs. The eggs are on the underside of a Telathera leaf. Thanks!

Thanks Andy... yes he is actually orange, had one yellowish green cacatuoides as well from the same spawn...:)
 

malik g

New Member
Messages
1
This post is so great and nice

Handsome guy, he looks like he has some orange flash in him also. Your blog has helped me learn about my a. cactuoides. My female turned yellow, so she laid eggs. The eggs are on the underside of a Telathera leaf. Thanks!
 

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