My Apistogramma are breeding

[johnpeezy]

I have a male Apistogramma cacatuoides, a female Apistogramma cacatuoides and a female Apistogramma borelli(the male of this pair was deformed on arival at the pet store so they split them up) all n the same tank.

the male is breeding with the female, I have only had them for about two weeks (or less), am I lucky or are these fish just freaking hornballs?

also does anyone know if I'm going to get some sort of mutant mut fish or will these two just create some classified color morph of the species. I'm totally new to the apistos, and the whole fish breeding thing.

[johnpeezy]

Originally Posted by johnpeezy

I have a male Apistogramma cacatuoides, a female Apistogramma cacatuoides and a female Apistogramma borelli(the male of this pair was deformed on arival at the pet store so they split them up) all n the same tank.

the male is breeding with the female, I have only had them for about two weeks (or less), am I lucky or are these fish just freaking hornballs?

also does anyone know if I'm going to get some sort of mutant mut fish or will these two just create some classified color morph of the species. I'm totally new to the apistos, and the whole fish breeding thing.

Sorry I misidentified one of my female's the Apistogramma borelli is actualiy a Apistogramma cacatuoides also just a yellow sunburst color morph the other female and male are both Apistogramma cacatuoides triple red color morph

[flyfly]

To answer your first question, no, your not that lucky. Although luck helps, cacs reproduce pretty easy (no pun intended.)

To answer your second question, you shouldnt get any crazy mutations or anything because they're all the same breed. You may get some interesting color morphs though...

[johnpeezy]

umm so I was gone for about 5 hours today and I got back home and theres about 50-100 eggs in the top of one of my pots. It would be a nice instore credit if they hatch but there a pale yellow color. Shouldn't they be a red or a pink or does that come with time?

[sarcare]

No--I've never heard of the eggs being red--when my angel pair spawn, which they do with annoying regularity, the eggs are a light tan or brown. If they are white or fuzzy then they haven't been fertilized and the parents will probably eat them.

But, what steps have you taken to get ready to raise the fry? Do you have a grow out tank? Fry food? It can be a hassle.

[johnpeezy]

Tomorrow we are getting some java moss from the LFS we have some liquid fry food from raising TIMMAH!!! we have a 10gal on the way that we are thinking about moving her and the eggs into but we might just leave them alone. We moved the other female out of the tank because they were harassing her and are going to reintroduce her after the fry hatch. Right now in the 20L there are two red dwarf gromies the male and female Apisto. and a gold nugget pleco.

Right now i am a little worried about the temperature. There is a massive heat wave in washington, upwards of 90+ (who knew it could stop raining) our place is on the third floor and the coolest temp that we have been able to maintain is about 84 in the house and tanks. This is with front window, back door, and fan all open and on high. Should I be worried about the fish? is there a safe way to bring down the water temp without purchacing a chiller? would doing WC with a little lower water temp (like a degree or two) be ok or would that have bad effects?

[joephys]

Freshwater fish should have no problem with a 3 degree difference in water changes. Heck, a water change 10 degrees cooler can trigger spawning behavior in some South American fish. I wouldn't do a water change with that big of a difference when trying to raise fry. I don't have enough experience with fry to suggest doing that.

You may want to keep the lights off while its hot, and you can use fans blowing across the top of the tank to cool by evaporation.

[johnpeezy]

I'm thinking I'm going to do my water changes in the morning, until it cools down a bit. that way I can cool my apartment slowly during the night and the heater will moderate the temp, then i don't think it will be as dramatic for the fish

[johnpeezy]

Well the eggs got lunched two days ago, but I wasn't toally sure until today. Now the female is acting very odd... shes going over to the air stone in the tank gathering a mouthfull of air and releasing it into the flower pots of the tank, she has been doing this for about 2 days and not eating, its like shes OCD or something. should I be worried? Do you think re-arranging the tank may help curb this behavior?

[sarcare]

Fish do strange things--I enjoy watching my fish do odd things!

[johnpeezy]

SHe is pretty crazy! Especially when she is swimming almost verticle because of the air in her mouth!

[sarcare]

My louie angel fish watches tv with me, he prefers prime time shows, and was particularly entranced by bones and house last night.

[khombre]

Originally Posted by johnpeezy

Now the female is acting very odd... shes going over to the air stone in the tank gathering a mouthfull of air and releasing it into the flower pots of the tank

LOL maybe she thinks that the bubbles are her eggs and she's trying to move them to the pots lol jk

One of my cichlids sort of does this too. Puts her mouth near the powerhead output and gathers bubbles.. then does a 180 degree turn and swims real fast with the current while releasing bubbles through her gills. Kinda weird actually, specially because she does it over and over again. Probably bored lol

Anyway do you have pics of your apistos?

[johnpeezy]

they will be crappy cell phobe pics but I will see what I can do.