Separate dad and fry of Apisto. cacatuoide?

[boyohboy]

Hi

I've recently acquired a pair of A.cacatu triple red, in a 5G tank of their own. They had spawned once already but no fry was left after a few days of free-swimming stage

They've just spawned again and the fry (~40) are just free-swimming now. The female seems to be taking good care of the fry, herding them. However the male seems to be just go randomly picking off the fry and drop them off in random place.... and will sometimes repeatedly pick/drop the fry, sorta like playing with them. I'm just really worry that the dad is gona eat and/or hurt the fry if he keeps doing that unnecessarily. At the very least, he's making the female working alot harder then really needed. Should I separate the dad?

I'm kinda worry about killing the male if I move him around tho I thinking if i can DIY some net to hold the male in the same tank now... but still looking what i can use in my apt now......

any helps appreciated

 

[aspen]

i would think a 5 gal is a little small for a pair of cacs, but if there isn't much agression, leave them. it sounds like your male wants to participitate, but isn't sure of what he's supposed to do. i'd leave them together unless there is too much agression or if he starts eating fry. ime cacs are good parents but sometimes fish need a little time to figure things out.

rick

 

[boyohboy]

My pair are pretty peaceful together, whether have fry or not. Now once awhile when the male goes on picking up too many fry, then the female will go kinda poking at him a little. But it looks more like a gentle kiss than anything aggressive, so it's all fine

Problem is I can't really tell if the male is eating the fry or not at all. From the last spawn, I've seen the male keeping 4 fry in his mouth, and swimmin around for almost 5 min!!! before releasing them :?

BTW, aspen, since you from toronto, do you know of any particular place that have whatever sp . of apisto for sale? Not easy to find them really...

 

[aspen]

i consider separating parents to be a last resort. it sounds like your male is fine. as you know, the mouthing of fry by the parents is normal.

try big al's at yonge and steeles or dundas street in mississauga. call and ask for the fishroom and they will tell you what they have in, or just drop in occasionally like i do. aqua tropics at dundas and keele (416-604-3530) has some a. elizabethae's left from the batch i bought. they don't look like much in the tank, but mine are colouring out and growing nicely.

rick

 

[boyohboy]

Here'r the pics of my pair of fish

The tank
http://www.pricenetwork.ca/forum/attachment.php?s=&postid=107689

Male
http://www.pricenetwork.ca/gallery/albums/userpics/14793/DSCF1930small.jpg

Female
http://www.pricenetwork.ca/forum/attachment.php?s=&postid=107767