Breeding behaviour tank bred vs wild caught

[chris1805]

Hey guys is am really curious about this and i hope you guys can help me out.

At the moment i got a pair of wild caught macmasteri and a pair of Agassizii double red which are tank bred. As for now they both got fry and the macmasteri got the left side of the tank where the agassizii got the right side of the tank. And as for now i am noticing quite a lot of difference in the breeding behaviour. They are both not a pair bonding apistogramma which would mean the way of defending their fry should be about the right?

as for now i am noticing the following behaviour for the macmasteri which is wild caught.
The female is defending the fry from all my fish. The male is displaying constant to the agassizii male trying to keep him on a distance. Since the Agassizii are fully mature and the macmasteri is not this does not seem to work, so than the following happens, the macmasteri female joins in. Now the macmasteri are teaming up and keeping the agassizii on a distance and knocking him back in his place. The macmasteri female also allows the male to watch over the fry and be close to them.

for the agassizii i got the following behaviour.
The female does not allow the male close to her fry, and keeps him and the rest on a distance. The interesting thing is that the agassizii do not pair up against the macmasteri which means the macmasteri always fight the agassizii 2 vs 1.

the other interesting thing i found.
My agassizii had fry for i believe 5 times now and the longest i had fry was for 5 days, now for my macmasteri this is the first time they bred and their fry is currently 7 days old. For the agassizii i found the fry declining in numbers every day where the macmasteri fry is staying about constant.

Could it be that the breeding behaviour from tank bred fish without community fish is fading away or something? Because my wild ones are clearly showing a lot better defending behaviour.
Really interested in the opinion of you guys

 

[gerald]

Die-off of the fry might be due to other factors (such as food quality and abundance) beyond just having 1 vs 2 parents to protect them. In many Apistos it is common for younger males (with a small territory and just one mate) to be more involved in direct care of fry, while older larger males (with larger territory and perhaps multiple mates) stay farther from their fry. Behavior in aquariums may certainly be different from what Apistos do in the wild, but it's not necessarily due to being wild-born vs captive bred.

 

[Mike Wise]

You're comparing apples to oranges. Macs are casually polygamous (polygamous when the opportunity allows) while aggies are a more highly polygamous species. It is probable that pairs of less highly polygamous species take more interest in their joint breeding territory. This has been reported in the wild in observations of A. steindachneri and A. geisleri forms. The males protected only 1 female brood territory when there were a high number of fry predators. More highly polygamous males are not as interested in a single female's brood territory as they are more interested in maintaining or expanding their personal territory. In fact, the male is often driven away by the female. It seems that the gaudy colors and finnage of these highly polygamous males actually attract the attention of predators. The Intensity of maternal care varies with species, too. It doesn't seem to depend on how polygamous the species is. It might be due to how many predators exist in their biotope in the wild.

 

[chris1805]

Hmm very interesting information, thanks mike and gerald!