Cacuatoides Won't Breed

[MiKyong]

Hi - I have a question regarding my A. cacuatoides. I have a pair in a 60cm long tank. The female in the tank has produced three spawns by two different males in this tank. Each male died shortly after the spawn (not due to abuse from the female - one died while in another tank when I separated them to try and get more fry to survive). I introduced a new male into the tank about a month ago and it looked like they were going to spawn again immediately. Unfortunately, no luck so far. The tank is full of hiding places - three half flower pots for caves, lots of drift wood and live plants with oak leaves on top of a sand substrate. I'm using peat moss in the filter. Any idea why they aren't interested? Is it too soon for the female? I thought I read somewhere that you can try dropping the temp in the tank down by to the low 70s to simulate a cold rain - has any heard of this working? My temp right now is in the upper 70s (~78). I feed almost exclusively live glass worms with occasional live white works, frozen brine and frozen black works. The only other fish in the tank is one surviving offspring (about a 1/4 inch long) and a 3/4 inch long L85 pleco. Any suggestions are appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[bigbird]

Morning,

How old are the apistos and what are the water perameters ?
Sometime it just takes time , I would not worry yet.
I have not tried the water reduction method. cheers jk :biggrin:

 

[MiKyong]

I don't know how old they are. The male is just over 2 inches and the female is just slightly smaller. The pH is 6.5. I don't know what the hardness is but my Panduro's have been breeding in a similar set-up so I assume it's soft enough.

 

[georgedv]

Hi MikYONG,
First let me say I am a pre-beginner. I just want to share this with you and maybe give some ideas. In a 29gal I had 2f and 2m cacs. Eventually one paired up. The other two always fought. So I aced those two in separate 10gal tanks beside each other.

The pair in the 29gal (only one otto lives with them) has spawned four times. The male keeps the older spawns on one side of the tank while the female raisis the new batch at the opposit end. It SEEMS that more time elapses from one spawn to the next...maybe to allow the youngest batch to grow more and survive their older siblings (just a guess here).

The two in the two 10gal seem to spend more time running along the side the tanks face each other. The female has finaly turned yellow and is doing some fance twists and bends for the male that is also showing his color and "feathering"

I set up a new 10gal for them. We'll see in a few weeks how they do.

So don't worry too much. Just give them time.

g

 

[Bev N]

For me these were the last of my first apistos to spawn. The female can start spawning at a very small size but it seems the males (at least for me) had to grow up a bit.

Since the panduros are spawning I wouldn't think there is anything wrong with your water. When I do water changes (about 50%) I only add cold water. For a number of species that is followed by a spawn in a few days. I have Sterbai corys that will spawn each and every week within 2 days of the water change. Water changes and live food seem to be the ticket in getting most of the apistos to do their thing.

Bev

 

[chris1932]

I would try separating the male and female for a week or so and feed them both live bbs. At the end of the week put them back together and do a water change. If that does not work they may just be incompatible, I have had it happen a few times where two fish just dont get along. If you could try a different female with the existing male or throw an extra female in with the pair it just might kick them into spawning mode. Good luck. I hope they get it done soon.

 

[MiKyong]

Thanks

Thanks for the advice - I will try separating them again and when I re-introduce them I'll do a partial water change with some cold/cooler water. Bev N - how cold is the water you add?

 

[Bev N]

Boy...I am not sure it's just pure cold straight from the tap. I'll have to run a temp check on it. Maybe 58-60 right now. It definately drops the temp in the tank which seem to jump start a lot of them.

I just went and checked and the temp of the tap water is 63...a little warmer than I thought it would be.

 

[MiKyong]

Finally -- cacuatoides babies

Hi - just wanted to update you on the cacuatoides. The female went into hiding last week which I usually take as a good sign that maybe she has some eggs. Today the male became extremely aggressive towards the one other fish in the tank (a cacuatoide baby from the last spawn a few months ago) and suddenly the female brought out a batch of tiny babies! Hopefully I can get more than one or two of the fry to survive. I plan on using a turkey baster to suck up the fry in a few days when they are a bit older and transfer them to a separate tank to grow out. (The tank they are in is heavily planted so I don't have any other ideas on how to get the fry out - any suggestions?)

 

[electric eel]

about a foot long piece of1/4" rigid tubing with a 2 and a half (or so)feet piece of airline works really well.just stick the rigid tubing in the tank and give the airline a good suck.the sooner you do it the better.if you get them while they are still staying in a school you can usually get most of them.if you have to try to chase them down it is frustrating.the female may start eating the fry when you do this so do it quickly.it can be tricky to get the airline over the end of the tubing but it will fit.silicone airline works a little better.