Vijendra
New Member
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Apistogramma cacatuoides - Acquired these beauties few months ago
The king with his queens
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
Spawning Rituals
If you see a very bright yellow color on the female that means that she has definitely laid eggs.
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
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
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
4 Days old fries
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
Around 1 month old fries
Feeding time – Eating microworms
Sorry for the quality of the pics as I am just an amateur photographer learning to click better pics……
The king with his queens
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
Spawning Rituals
If you see a very bright yellow color on the female that means that she has definitely laid eggs.
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
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
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
4 Days old fries
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
Around 1 month old fries
Feeding time – Eating microworms
Sorry for the quality of the pics as I am just an amateur photographer learning to click better pics……
