Interesting Cacatuodes Behavior

[fairone2]

Hello ~
I recently purchased pair of cacatuoides 'orange flash' and they are already raising their second family! (Yes!!). I noticed the male swimming along and suddenly he stopped, leaned over and 'spit' out about a dozen or so of the fry! (I wish I could've caught this on video to show you~ maybe next time!). I'm still pretty new when it comes to Apistos and was wondering if it was normal for the males to be such 'good' at parenting as the female is? They really are fascinating to watch! Also, I also have a pair of red Agassisii I bought 1 month before the orange pair and they haven't had a brood yet. I had them in the same 50 gal. as the orange pair but decided to move them to a 10 gal. of their own but they still haven't had any. The water is alright and everything (RO). Maybe they're not compatible??
Thank-you!
Lisa

 

[Ade205]

Hi Lisa. I'm in similar boat to you as I'm new to Apistogramma breeding too. Been keeping various males for years in Discus tanks with other dwarfs, but only just gotten the bug for breeding them and it's taking over my tank space lol

My first spawning pair was a few months back and the male, he's the one in my avatar, showed no parental care whatsoever, and would snack on his babies given half a chance, however, I've just had another spawn with different parents, cacs again, and this pair are totally different with the male helping out and chasing down any runaways and spitting them back into the pack just like mum. Re yours, I've only ever seen either do just one baby at a time though I'd imagine a fully grown male could fit a fair few new born fry into his mouth!

It's fascinating behaviour, and will be interesting to hear what others have to say on their experiences... in mean time, try and video yours, would be awesome to see.

Ade

 

[Mike Wise]

As both of you have seen, this type of parental behavior varies with the individual fish.

 

[fairone2]

Hi Lisa. I'm in similar boat to you as I'm new to Apistogramma breeding too. Been keeping various males for years in Discus tanks with other dwarfs, but only just gotten the bug for breeding them and it's taking over my tank space lol

My first spawning pair was a few months back and the male, he's the one in my avatar, showed no parental care whatsoever, and would snack on his babies given half a chance, however, I've just had another spawn with different parents, cacs again, and this pair are totally different with the male helping out and chasing down any runaways and spitting them back into the pack just like mum. Re yours, I've only ever seen either do just one baby at a time though I'd imagine a fully grown male could fit a fair few new born fry into his mouth!

It's fascinating behaviour, and will be interesting to hear what others have to say on their experiences... in mean time, try and video yours, would be awesome to see.

Ade

Thank-you!!