Harem density

[tjudy]

I have eight A. cacatuoides (4 male and 4 female) that I have placed in a 20H to hold. I was hoping ot find homes for them in the short term, but the store that I'd hoped would take them has not. There is one decent size piece of driftwood in the tank and one flower pot. The only other structure is the sponge filter and a clump of java fern. I have pretty much been ignoring the tank.

I took a closer look at the tank today, because I had decided to try harem spawning one male and three of the females in a 40 gallon. I do not think that I need a tank quite that large. Two of the females are parading nice size spawns around the tank, and a third has a clutch of eggs inside the flower pot. Watching these females keep their distance from each other is amusing. The females with free swimmers are not letting the fry out of territories no larger than about 3 sq. in. It will be interesting to see where the third female leads her brood to.

 

[blueblue]

Are there any updates? ^.^

 

[tjudy]

The third female was harassed mercilessly until she left her spawn. That left two females with spawns. The female with the younger spawn is a lot more aggressive than the female with the older spawn, and has gradually taken over more of the available space. I removed all of the males except one and the two females without fry. I will leave this trio in the tank to breed and sell the others. Last check, the more aggressive female seems to have taken over the brood of the less aggressive female. The less aggressive female is out of brood care colors and the remaining brooding female has more fry than she did.