Sounds Fishy Posted March 4, 2012 Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 My first batch of apisto babies born in September last year are parents! I am thinking there must be something in the water, my 2 foot tank which I was using as a grow out for them is now a nursery, I have 4 females with fry and 1 very smug male. My big concern is that the females get extremely protective of the fry and will have a go at each other. I also have other females that couldn't find a cave otherwise I might have had more with babies. I have placed indian almond leaves sideways in the sand to act as blockouts from each of the female parents hopefully that will minimise the aggression. For little fish they sure have moxy. I took some pics of them getting jiggy with it, eggs and the fry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sounds Fishy Posted March 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 The last picture is showing in the rock cave the wrigglers on the right hand side. Here is another female with her free swimming fry. The other two females are more secluded and hard to take pics of with fry. Apologise for the fogginess of some of the pics, I read that the fry feed off the algae that grows on the glass so I leave it on when they have babies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sounds Fishy Posted March 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 (edited) oops thought the last post didn't go up Edited March 4, 2012 by Sounds Fishy double entry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shanoz Posted March 4, 2012 Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 You definately have it down pat when it comes to breeding these guys, great work!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingerbeer Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 My rule of thumb for Apistos is one foot of tank per female, and an extra 1/2 foot for the boy. However when you read accounts of the habitat of creek apistos, you can be talking up to 300 per square meter!. The reason these numbers survive is due to the complexity of the envirnment. We are talking about stremas with around 2-3 foot of leaf material sitting on the bottom. In this omplicated envirnment the fish can live much closer then we would expect. If 4 females are breeding in the 2 foot tank, and judging by the phots you have quite a complex environment that is working - if it works keep doing it. If it doesn't then you need to change something. It can be the best fun with apistos the harem breeding and the fish do get better in a bigger tank with bigger behaviour - supertettritories and subterritories, famles will steal each others fry, and you can also get sneaker males that pretend to be females. I had a four footer with 2 males and 4 females, was great fun. I would not be worried about removing the food source from the glass, java moss and IAL are wonderful in apisto tanks as so many microscopic bugs seem to make there home within. I will be at the auction this Saturday looking for a bag of java moss, and thinking of buying the pair of wilhemi I saw a week ago.... johnbetta 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sounds Fishy Posted March 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 Thanks Shannon, don't know about having it down pat, I wanted to start with the Apisto Cacas because I had read they are a good one for a beginner, I must say I am very tempted to buy some of the other apistos, they look amazing for colour and I feel slightly more confident to tackle a more challenging apisto. Gingerbeer thanks for taking the time to share you knowledge, very interesting and I prefer to have a pair in a 2 foot tank, its just that they had other plans and before I knew it I had a tank full! I moved the parents into another tank and they did it again. I have made up another tank to put one of the female and her fry, two of the females had a go at each other today, some of the fry had strayed passed the IAL and they were at each other, I have set up another tank to separate out the female with the most fry. Should I try and pair back female daughters to father to look in the triple red trait? I think I was lucky to get a high percentage that were triple flash, from what I read they can throw single, double and well as triple. I googled wilhemi, verrry nice. If you get them please pop up some pics and let us know how you go with them, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingerbeer Posted March 6, 2012 Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 Did they actually swap fry. You can have the situation where one day a female has lots of fry, the next the girl next to her as the kids have been frynapped. Personally I would be looking at more bloodlines. Rather than breeding back to Dad. Having said that - you may well decide to move on to your next species. Cacatoides are forgiving to bad pH, but if you are keeping your water soft and acidic, there are many great fish. I like the regani group as an early group - fish like eunotus, masken, alacrina are fantastic fish and easy to breed. Gets away from the predicatable ABC of Apistos. (Aggies, Borellii, Cacatoides) Having said that a good opal borellii is one of the ultimate apistos...... I currently have no apistos...... But keep getting tempted. TRying to focus on tangs... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sounds Fishy Posted March 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 Hey Gingerbeer, I now have 6 females who have made themselves a cave, there is one lone female up the top in the floating weed trying to be invisible, it is nigh on impossible to move in there without going into a females territory. I think you might be right, there are fry everywhere, so if they frynap does this mean they won't eat the fry? As to the apistos, I might do a bit of research of the different types, I liked the look of the viejta that rod posted up in reply to little goby saying they were getting in wild caught viejta, maybe that might be doable. I am on tankwater so my water is soft and it is usually neutral for ph, haven't checked it since we have had all this rain, it would be interesting to know if fresh rain makes a difference. Oh and gingerbeer... be tempted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sounds Fishy Posted August 16, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 16, 2012 (edited) Thought you might like to see some of the fry all grown up. I tried to take pics but found it hard to show up their colours and of course they are moving! Sorry for the quality of the video I am no expert, I think their colours show up really well though and I am happy with the quality of the fish. http://s1120.photobucket.com/albums/l491/Lyn1961/Apistogramma%20Cacatoides%20Triple%20Red/?action=view¤t=P1300571.mp4 Edited August 16, 2012 by Sounds Fishy link didn't work, fingers crossed this time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
