Spawning A. norberti & fry

[Bart Hazes]

Ten days ago my A. norberti kept me up all evening pretending to spawn. That is, the female was pulling out every trick in the book to get the male interested to spawn but whenever she dove in the coconut cave the male would just leave. Next morning the female was still at it and the male still didn't want anything to do with it. However, things had changed when I got home and shortly after 5pm the female started to pop in and out of the cave more frequently. If the male hang around in front of the opening she stayed inside, when he left she would pop out to 'haul him back'. After about 10 minutes she went in and stayed in for the next half hour. The male would visit the cave about once a minute, hover near the entrance and then position his vent with belly turned sideways towards the cave opening and while finning with his pectorals. The female had piled up a mountain of sand to reduce the cave opening so that only she could get in so the pectoral action was probably to get the sperm to enter the cave. On a few occasions I saw the female finning heavily with only her head poking out of the cave, maybe to further distribute the sperm. After a half hour the male lost interest and the female came back out. They went in/out for another 15 minutes or so and after about a full hour the action was over.

On the morning two days later I noticed the female more actively entering the cave and I presume eggs had turned into wrigglers. This morning at 6am, exactly 9 days after spawning, the female was popping in/out of the cave and always going to the corner of the tank next to the cave, rummaging between a rock and plants. Sure enough, by 7 am it was light enough for me to see the fry. I bet she had been ferrying them to this spot by mouth. Here are some pictures.

The pair with the female trying to get the male in the mood.

Female in front of her cave with sand piled up to make the opening just the perfect size for her.

Female got her guy where she wants him and about to enter the coconut

Female entering the cave.

Male releasing his sperm.

Female with fry. Probably a few dozen but too early to tell.

Close up of the fry

Dad keeping the other 14 apistos at bay

 

[Shane Puthuparambil]

I am enjoying the photographs!

 

[Bart Hazes]

I am enjoying the photographs!

Thanks Shane. Two more female norberti have been added. One has started to clean out a coconut cave and is trying to impress the male, but again with little initial interest on his part. Here is a picture of her spitting out a mouth full of sand that she excavated from inside the cave on the growing pile before the entrance.

The second female is with a younger male who initially was bullied by her and hiding. Now he has found his inner strength and it actually much more active in responding to her advances and tail-slapping her back. The first spawn in just over 3 weeks old and doing great whilst still in the community tank. After two weeks they already started to eat grindal worms and are growing well. I hope to get a nice breeding group going for this interesting species.

 

[Shane Puthuparambil]

My Apistogramma Abacaxis female did this very often as well. The grain of sand wasn't quite so fine, but she still managed. I can see why Apistogramma are classified under the Geophagines now! Haha.

 

[Bart Hazes]

When they do this to search for small edible particles a bit coarser sand may actually make it easier to separate the food from the sand in a process that isn't quite understood yet but probably relies on the higher density of sand compared to organic material. The sand in this picture is play box sand, I've got a very fine silica sand in other tanks as well as a larger grain pool filter sand. It all seems to work for apistos.