Sudden cacatuoides death

[Corine]

Yesterday afternoon as I fed my fish, everything was fine with George, my cactuoides male. He chased the food, flared at other fishes, swam around normally.

Yesterday evening he was dead and shredded to bits. I am slightly at a loss as to what might have happened to him. I suspect he was dead before he was shredded (I have shrimp in the tank and they usually clear up anything dead), but why he died? No idea.

My filter is not the culprit, the intake flow is not strong enough to pull him in, because I have the fry with their parents until they're about 2 months, the filter is a low level intake filter, so that even the fry can escape it.

The other inhabitants are not big enough or strong enough to kill him (honey gouramis, pygmey corydoras, fanhand shrimp, japonicas and endler's). So whilst his shredding can be explained away by the clear up crew, his death doesn't look to me as if it can.

I have a 20 gallon long. Water parameters are spot on, the youngest fry (second batch from this pair) are a month old. I have not seen fighting between him and Mildred at all. All the other inhabitants act and look entirely normal and healthy.

George was young, a juvenile not into his adult colours yet when I obtained him about 5 months ago.

I know it's quite impossible to tell what's going on in my tank if I can't even tell, but does anyone have any experiences to share? Am I just going to have to chalk it up to bad luck, sudden onset illness or the like? Or is there something I could look into?

I'm going to wait until the latest batch of fry is big enough to go to the grow out tank before I even try to introduce another male and I first want to find out what might be going on to see if there is anything I can rectify in my tank.

 

[samcsd]

I would simply keep an eye on the other inhabitants and make sure their all eating and looking fine. but to me is sounds like bad luck im afraid. Have you introduced anything to the tank recently?

 

[Corine]

I would simply keep an eye on the other inhabitants and make sure their all eating and looking fine. but to me is sounds like bad luck im afraid. Have you introduced anything to the tank recently?

Other than the fry, nothing has been introduced. The fry were born in the tank. My tank hasn't changed (other than fry) for the last 4 months, since I got the cacatuoides.

Mildred isn't looking too good either, she is very swollen with eggs and in breeding colours, but no interested in caves, she just mopes around.

I'm wondering if I should get her another male. Do cacatuoides become egg bound or will they simply absorb the eggs or deposit them to leave them unfertilised?

 

[Apistomaster]

The life span of Apistogramma cacatuoides seems to be shorter than average for most other Apistogramma. They reach sexual maturity early, maximum size within six months and many appear senile at 12 months. I don't think there is anything wrong with your fish or their environment. At best, A. cacatuoides live no longer than Mikrogeophagus ramirezi, Blue Rams. They are the closest we have among the Apistos to an annual fish.