Presenting?

[JasonC]

okay... so probably a stupid question, but I have a female Cac that is following a male... every once in a while she starts swimming on her side. Is this a form of her presenting to the male? Just want to be sure that I dont need to pull her to qt for sickness reasons... I keep seeing her laying on her side and thinking "great... gonna loose another fish now?"

Thanks!!!

 

[Mike Wise]

Yes, she is indicating her willingness to breed with the male. Now if he will only respond.

 

[JasonC]

Cool! I was hoping that was the case. I just got home from work, and she is still begging for his attention. Short of breaking out a Barry White CD, is there anything I can do to help him realize that she is quite literally throwing herself at him? ;P

 

[Mike Wise]

All that I can suggest is patience - along with good quality food and tank maintenance.

 

[electric eel]

maybe he needs some competition(or some other fish to make them have to form a pair bond).i've had fish that would'nt spawn add another male or female and boom.i've also had the reverse happen.i tried for a year to get my leluipi to spawn(1female and 3males in a 75gallon tang comunity tank) pulled the 2 extra males(at least i think they were male) and she spawned like 4 days later. i had an orange marble albino angelfish female(by far the most beautiful albino angel in my opinion )that i really wanted fry from in a 55 with 2 males and she would go from the male at one ends slate and peck at it and then to the other end of the tank and peck on the other males slate.if she did lay she would eat the eggs.i pulled one male and in like a week had wigglers.my point is maybe try something different if what you are doing is'nt working.

 

[Mike Wise]

maybe he needs some competition(or some other fish to make them have to form a pair bond).

Not applicable; Apistogramma cacatuoides does not form pair bonds.

my point is maybe try something different if what you are doing is'nt working.

I agree; it can't hurt.

 

[JasonC]

Well, the female seems to have lost interest. she isnt giving the shimmy n' wiggle anymore... unless they did get a room... but I thought that once the deed was done, the female stayed in her cave at all costs til she was ready to bring the young'uns out.

A change may be something to try... It seems that the male was a little gunshy, and more interested in chasing off the other male in the tank. There has never been any question that he is the alpha of the tank though.

Either way, its nice to see that they are happy enough in the tank to consider breeding. I dont know if I will be able to actually attempt raising a brood for a while, but maybe someday I will try since my dominant male is just absolutly stunning to look at... be nice to be able to pass that on.

 

[electric eel]

maybe that was a poor choice of words Mike but their is some type of temporary relationship formed during the spawning and rearing period.i did'nt realize he already had other fish in there.i do know from personal experience that in the confines of an aquarium adding or removing just one fish can completely change the dynamics of the whole tank(sometimes bad,sometimes good) angelfish in the wild don't form a permanent pair bond sometimes spawning with up to 3 or 4 different partners over the course of a breeding season but i can definetly assure you that in an aquarium they can form very strong pairbonds.i have a male that will mourn for 3 months or more if i remove his partner and will refuse to fertilize a female actively in the midst of spawning which is very unusual.Steve Rybiki(angels plus) told me he has rarely seen a male that would'nt accomadate the female if he dropped her in the tank right when she was ready to go if she started to lay.i was skeptical so i have tried it a few times and everytime except for the one male(an awesome specimin that i was trying to get fry from as many different females as i could) they have taken care of business.