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A question on egg fertilization..

Sal

New Member
Messages
11
Location
Poona, Maharashtra, India
Hello people,

Greetings from India.

I have a pair of agassizi red, and the females(I have three females and a male) had spawned last month. Eventually ended up eating the eggs, i guess that was because it was their first time.

Now again all the females are showing breeding colors and one of them did lay eggs.

The female(who spawned) even after laying the eggs at time comes of the cave and flares at the male.

Here is where the question comes to mind.

>> Is it possible that the male has not fertilized the eggs?
>> Does the process of fertilization occurs while laying the eggs or after laying the eggs??

Just curious as i want to see if I might be failing with water parameters.

The eggs are pink in color as of now..

Thanks in advance!!
 

Mike Wise

Moderator
Staff member
5 Year Member
Messages
11,202
Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
>> Is it possible that the male has not fertilized the eggs?

Yes it is possible but unlikely. Apistos are rarely infertile, even domestic strains.

>> Does the process of fertilization occurs while laying the eggs or after laying the eggs??

Fertilization occurs during laying the eggs. The female will hang some eggs on the roof of the spawning site and then the male releases sperm into the water and fans it toward the eggs. This will occur multiple times during the egg laying process. The male does not need to be in contact with the eggs like many substrate spawning species. Their sperm is very mobile and can travel a fair distance (over 10 cm). Because of this, the male doesn't need to enter the breeding cave. I once separated a pair of A. agassizii with a mesh tank partition because I didn't want them breeding again. About 2 weeks after separating the pair, the female came out with about 25 fry.

My guess is that your female either needs more practice, or that the tank is unsuitable for raising fry for some reason. The reasons could be physical lay-out, water chemistry/quality, tank mates, or even nutrition. Without knowing other parameters it is impossible to say why she is unsuccessful hatching eggs/raising fry.
 
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Sal

New Member
Messages
11
Location
Poona, Maharashtra, India
Thanks Mike,

This information is really helpful in understanding the process.

This was the females second breeding. One more today morning did lay and ate up the eggs. And the third female is now ready for the process...!

Nutrition wise, I am feeding them tetra bits, home grown bloodworms and daphnia. I will try to experiment with the set up, may be after a month if these female fail again to bring up the fries.

Will keep updating.

Sal,
 

Sal

New Member
Messages
11
Location
Poona, Maharashtra, India
Tank is 2x1x1 feet, 60x30x30. Now I have separate tank for females, put them in the 2x1x1 when i feel they re in breeding colours. These fishes as of now haven't shown any aggression, but I expect it may change if they successfully hatch n raise the eggs/fries..!

This, as I mentioned ,is the second spawn with all these in one tank, and all the three females are spawning a day after other!! so now keeping females in separate tanks, a precautionary measure to avoid injuries to male.. :)

Leaving it to time now.. :D
 

lastOne

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
14
Location
Bucharest/ROU
At one time I had a trio of Agassizi in 80x30 tank. Both females were spawning at the same time, a day difference, each in a coconut cave located in opposed sides of the tank. In the middle of the tank I had a big stone, mostly to break line of sight. Around noon the females were meeting in the middle (on top of the bit rock) and beat the crap of each other. Then they were going back to eggs and eat them all. After about 4 months the bigger one died from injures.

After this adventure I've sold them and took big cichlids and manage to breed: Laetacara, Fire mouth, blue acara and Dimerus.

Now I'm thinking to give it another go with apistos.
 
Last edited:

Sal

New Member
Messages
11
Location
Poona, Maharashtra, India
For me I have bred the cacatouides before, but due to some circumstances I lost them. I loved dwarfs and especially apisto, so I grabbed another 6 juveniles, out of which 5 were male and 1 female. I got a pair and the males died at a friends place. When I got the custody of the remaining pair, and thought to breed them, the female died when I was out of station, and later the male coz of bloating!

I never had any such luck, but this time I made up my mind and grabbed another 6 babies, of which two died of bloat...again!! i was about to give up the idea of petting them, as I used to get saddened with the deaths over my hobby!

but since then I decided, with the four babies I am gonna try to the best level this time..! Luckily one turned out to be a male, I got them in breeding conditions.

Putting IAL extract, alternate day 20% water change, live food came to my rescue! I was very happy to see them breed, and all the three in three days! I have put a driftwood such that it cuts line of sights of females, and then there are six caves to save themselves!

Females aggression as of now is been okay! But I await to breed them and raise up the frys! It had been the most important task of my life now!! :p Usually after breeding a type I move onto another. I have discus now to breed..! And may be after that I will just have display tanks, all community tanks with biotopes!

I have decided not to try much and keep the fishes healthy..will see for their 2-3 spwans, if they still continue to eat the eggs, I might try raising them separately from parents...!

phhheww...!! :D
 

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