So, that's interesting...

[Zack Wilson]

Came down yesterday morning to something nice, but a little unusual. My maculatus spawned again, but I found the male guarding the spawn and keeping everyone away, including the female. After watching for some time, he refuses to let her anywhere near the spawn. This morning the situation is the same. He's watching them, and taking care of the spawn, so we'll see. Not much I can do since they spawned on the silicone. Never seen this with the dicrossus though.

 

[Mud Pie Mama]

Very nice fish; and great photos too! That's quite interesting about the Papa being Super-Dad. I'm hoping that my fish keeping skills progress to the point that I can try some Dicrossus!:wink:

I just had some similar backwards behavior from a male Apistogramma sp. 'Masken'. He let Momma in on the brood care for the first week. After that, he chased her away so relentlessly I had to remove her from the tank. When he's swimming close to the fry the leading edges of his ventral fins turn black. When he moves off to scope-out the periphery of the tank they go light colored again.

Unfortunately my photographic skills are still seriously lacking. I do so wish I could document his color morphing in pictures.:frown: I just need tons more practice, I guess.

 

[brad]

Hey Zack,

2 questions for ya.

What are your water conditions?

Is this the first time this pair has spawned together?

Wonderful pics. \congrats.

 

[Zack Wilson]

This is the first time this pair has spawned together. The female produced a clutch with a different male a month or so back. I moved the other male out and this previously sub-dominant male colored up. These are both F1's that were spawned from my wilds about 8-9 months ago.

Water params:

pH 3.9
Conductivity 80
Temp 80F

No real hardness. It's straight RO with a little bit of mineral reconstitution.

BTW, the male ended up eating the spawn the next day after the first post, so no earth-shattering precedents set. Still was rather odd to see at first.

 

[brad]

wow 3.9!!!

 

[Zack Wilson]

Yeah, well, it was actually 3.82 on the meter, but who's counting. That's pretty low, even for my tanks, but they're happy as pigs in mud and spawning and producing young, so I don't worry about it. The water settled to a fairly low pH and most of the time the pH reads about 4.2-4.5, but for some reason things read low that day. The anubias take it a little hard, but no big deal.