hiding coconut cave

[zhihuai1982]

i find that apistogramma tend to hide their cave with sand for the security when they lay eggs, but doing this also stop water flow into the cave, so the eggs have less oxygen, why apistogramma do these things?

 

[regani]

Because it works for them?

 

[gerald]

The "caves" they use in nature are mainly wood and leaves with plenty of gaps for water flow. Even in slow moving streams there is probably enough water flow to provide adequate oxygen. And egg predators are certainly a bigger threat in nature than in our carefully managed breeding tanks. It is possible (I'm just guessing) that the female may adjust her sand-moving and egg-fanning behavior in response to the dissolved oxygen content that she can detect near the eggs.