More Females Needed?

[MHEAD]

I am just starting with Apistos and have 1 pair of cacatoides and 2 pairs of agassizii, each pair alone in its own tank. The male in each tank is constantly chasing and nipping at his mate. Should I add another female to each tank or just leave things as they are? Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[jose_vogel]

What about the size of the tanks?
Are they heavy planted?
How many "caves" do you have in each tank?
Is there any other fish in the tanks?

 

[MHEAD]

Jose, thanks for the reply. Each pair is in a 10 gal tank, not heavily planted but with numerous caves and/or hiding places. There are no other fish is each tank. What do you think?

 

[ampdaman]

hey. im new at apistos too and dont even have fish but i was told that it woudlnt be recomended to keep more then a pair in a 10 gallon. perhaps alot more plants would help to break the line of sight (also advice from others) hope i could ahve helped

 

[ProF_FR]

Hi,

I agree Jose, a 10 gallons tank will be a little bit short for a trio. in the meantime, when the male is harrassing the female, its generally recomended to add one....

Try to plant your tank as much as you can, in one of my small tank that helped a lot

ProF

 

[wickedglass]

A common misconception is that because they're called "dwarves" they don't need a large tank, but in the wild their territories may actually be quite large and also in nature, the victim of an aggressor can just swim away, where in the narrow confines of a small tank such confrontations and constant harrassment may lead to the death of a fish. Which, however, is not to say that they can't be bred in such small tanks.

One strategy that may work (assuming your aim is to breed them and you have another tank to hold the males in) is to allow the females to establish themselves in the breeding tanks first before introducing the males ... condition the girls on a variety of food, especially live foods until they're nice and plump, then put the males in. If they breed the aggression will reverse and you'll have to take the male out again unless you had larger tanks where the males could hide.

Another approach, assuming the males are much bigger than the girls, is to place a cave with a small opening into the tank to allow the girls to escape and hide. If they breed, the male will stay outside the cave and fan his milt in. Fertilisation however is not guaranteed in this case and often results may be unfertilised or only partially fertilised clutches of eggs.

 

[RiC]

I have to agree with taking the male out after spawning; my two males were killed by their females when guarding fry, even if they were in a 15g and a 20g, both extremely planted and with full of hiding places.
Another idea is a divider; this is the option I have chosen here.

 

[nc_nutcase]

I've often read about removing the male... and I've often read about keeping them as trios...

But my experience has been when I put one male with two females in 20 Gal tanks the females constantly fought until there was only one left. Then she would mate with my male and The male would 'guard' then upper levels of the tank while the female stayed with the fry.

This isn't to say the common suggestions are 'wrong' only that in different cases different things will work...

My first suggestion is to upgrade to 20 Gals as opposed to 10s...

 

[MHEAD]

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions. I will try a divider as at present there is no more room for me to upgrade to larger tanks and because of my inexperience when I have tried to heavily plant a tank either the plants have died or all I have grown is algae. Tom (mhead).

 

[Nick S.]

What about dithers are they not suposed to help?