What are my Apisto's doing?

[Iamtechno13]

I have a pair of Tefe Pearl Orange's and the male chased the female around nipping from time to time it looked like for a couple days then yesterday I was watching them swim and then stop and face each other and flare their gills and everything and kind of curve their bodies then stop and go on do it again about 5 minutes later. I was told it was a mating dance but she seems small. Not sure how small they can be and still try to breed or actually breed. Still fairly new to Apisto's but love these little guys.

 

[Mike Wise]

Probably a compatibility test. You're sure they are of opposite sexes, right? Size has less to do with spawning than maturity.

 

[Iamtechno13]

Yeah I'm pretty sure that I have a pair. I know for sure the one is a male and if the smaller one was a male I would be surprised. This is one of my pairs that is pretty obvious to tell who is who. Now he is swimming up to her turning sideways, flaring out and then she swims away so he follows. No nipping or chasing or anything. He seems more intersted than she does. I haven't seen any of my other Apisto's act this way. I keep trying to get a picture when he stops and flares cause the color is amazing but it ain't working out.

 

[georgedv]

Maybe practicing the tango....it does take two.

g

 

[Cooder]

Sounds like he is interested and she isn't... This is when a decent sized tank and 2 + females works wonders

 

[Iamtechno13]

Unfortunately this is the only pair of fish I don't have backups or extra males/females.

 

[Iamtechno13]

Well I woke up this morning and couldn't find the little female anywhere, I finally found her under a piece of driftwood guarding about 20-25 eggs on the underside of it. Do I need to remove the eggs or are most apisto's pretty good parents?

 

[rr16]

My agassizzis were doing this a couple of weeks ago and then both females layed. They have been doing the back arching thing again. I'm relatively new to apistos but I think it depends on the pair as to whether they are good parents or not. It would seem to differe from pair to pair and from time to time. With my limited experience I have found that the female often keeps the fry for longer after a few goes, but with these ones the female kept some for about 7 days but then they all went (presumable eaten). Hopefully she'll be better next time. I've also read that many people have found the young grow much better with the female than when removed from her but am not sure about this as I've never raised any fry to adulthood. The main determining factors will probably be what other fish you have in the tank (as they will predate the fry) and what food is available for the fry (such as infusoria on leaf litter or plants and also baby brine shrimp or a suitable live food). Hope this helps and hopefully someone will add more of confirm/reject my ramblings! Oh, so I guess you could say they can be excellent parents!

 

[regani]

Apistos are generally good parents; for some pairs it may take a couple of spawns to figure out what to do but many pairs do ok the first time round. IMO you are better off leaving the fry with the pair for the first 2-3 weeks, then remove them to a fry raising tank to make room for another spawn. You can leave them for longer but eventually you will run into problems with territories etc and loose more compared to removing them after a few weeks.
And it definitely more interesting watching the fry and mother interact than just having the fry all by themselves

 

[Iamtechno13]

I've bred GBR/EBR with multiple different pairs and some were good parents and some weren't just wasn't sure if these would be the same. It looks like I have a few more females (Pebas, Macmasteri and Winklefleck) starting to color up so hopefully I'll see this in some other tanks soon.

 

[Iamtechno13]

So I got home from work today and the eggs were gone. I was hoping that maybe she moved them somewhere as she has been pretty protective but I couldn't find them anywhere. Now that they've done it once, they should do it again? What might be the average time between spawns?

 

[rr16]

I've had them spawn 10 days apart on several occasions when they have eaten the eggs but I'm sure there's variation in this.

 

[Mike Wise]

There are several reasons for unsuccessful spawns. Inexperience is one of them. Another is that the water values aren't right. The Rio Tefé is a (more or less) blackwater river, so you might need softer and more acidic conditions.

 

[Iamtechno13]

Before I left for work yesterday I looked at the eggs and they looked like they were progressing to the point of almost starting to wiggle. It did appear the day before that there might have been a few eggs that were not fertilized and she seemed to eat those. I was watching pretty closely when I was here and I've seen a number of GBR spawns as well as one Agassizii so I'm pretty confident the eggs were viable so I just hope it was inexperience. Watching her compared to some of my GBR's she seemed like a good mom I'm just not to sure about the dad. As for my water, I just tested it and the pH is about 5.6, General Hardness is 30 ppm, Ammonia & Nitrite - 0 as usual and the nitrates about 10ppm. I just recently picked up some Almond leaves and just popped them in a couple days ago so not to much yet. Not sure how much I'd need to lower the pH and what not from where I'm at?

 

[Iamtechno13]

This is the pair. Finally let me upload pictures

 

[MonteSS]

Pretty fish. GL

 

[Iamtechno13]

So I woke up this morning to find a number of little surprises one of them being a fresh batch of Tefe Pearl Orange eggs (also Cacatuoides Triple Reds and Electric Blue Ram eggs). This is now the second spawn and it looks like there are almost twice as many eggs as the first one. They ended up getting eating last time before they could start wiggling and I guess my question is do you think I should leave them in or remove them? Is it worth giving them another shot or two or should I just take the eggs?

 

[DarylD]

So I woke up this morning to find a number of little surprises one of them being a fresh batch of Tefe Pearl Orange eggs (also Cacatuoides Triple Reds and Electric Blue Ram eggs). This is now the second spawn and it looks like there are almost twice as many eggs as the first one. They ended up getting eating last time before they could start wiggling and I guess my question is do you think I should leave them in or remove them? Is it worth giving them another shot or two or should I just take the eggs?

I'd give the pair another chance.

Good luck with this batch. Hope they hatch for you this time!

 

[Iamtechno13]

They're all gone again. I think next time they're coming out. I want to see some little fry and I don't think I will if I keep leaving them in there.

 

[davidjp1982]

I usually take some fry and transfer to a grow tank and leave some with the mother as has already been said half the joy is watching the mother tending her babies