female or male cacatuoides?

Awesome!!
Nice to hear...
Some like to breed Apistos by taking out the eggs from the parents..and then hatch eggs in a special tank!!
I think/guess that it`s better to let them "teach" the fry some things by caring for them the "natural way"..
at least for a week or two.. Until separating??..(if you want to save some fry/ more than a few!!)

Good luck!!

/Micke

Hey guys I ended up taking her babies away 6 days ago because the dad was eating them but she has more eggs again (yay) but she's digging another nest. Why would she be doing this is it possible for her to have 2 batches at once?

Hi!!
Nice with new spawningresults!!

I guess she is preparing to move the "wrigglers" to another cave when they hatch..
(Maybe a safer place in her opinion..)
That is a common thing for Apistos to do..!! (maybe not for the "mouthbrooding" species?..)
Sometimes they move them 2-3 times if they feel for it..and not always to a "cave"..
A crack in a root can do just fine !!

As long as the female have new eggs developed inside of her , they may spawn again..
But usually the batches get smaller and smaller by the time then..due to lack of quick egg-production
or if the food amount is not enough for developing new eggs...

My Apisto-spawning-experiences :
A pair of Apistos can have 2 batches at once, but normally not with only a few days in between..
Maybe if some weeks have past .. Normal time for this to show is 2-3 weeks after swimming around with the 1st batch.... Apisto-females focus on guarding/caring is often way to strong to give up a batch and start a new one..!! Anyway..it may end with the larger ones eating the eggs/wrigglers/ small fry.. at least in small tanks or if the tank is lacking "sheltered"/safe places for fry to hide!!.. It is the same thing with many other cichlids also.. but not all!!!! ..Maybe lots of leaves on the bottom helps to save some fry???.. And.. if they have 2 generations of fry I guess they will only care "a lot" for the youngest of the fry..the larger ones can almost swim around in their territory like they want to or the opposite,,get chased quite badly....(Maybe the grown parents have "emotional(??) problems" too chase them away also?) ..I think that it is individually..from couple to couple... I have seen both kind of behaviours!!!
If you keep them in a larger, longer tanks( 200-400liters) some fry may survive, but it`s most common however, that the female/mother(maybe father too..?) chases them away from the breeding-cave before starting to spawn for the 2nd time!!

And if your question was referring to "Why 2 batches???".. Because they can I guess
..and the more fry produced before a draught or else occur in the nature, the better are the chances for some of their fry/genes to survive in the future!!

Cheers,
Micke