New breeding female A. Cacatuoides

[tobraham]

Hello all, I'm a new apistogramma cacatuoides breeder and have just gotten in my first breeding female. The LFS is in constant contact with a local orange flash cacatuoides breeder, and has done a fantastic job at getting me three females and two males for my breeding projects. Pictured below is 'Goldie Hawn', the adult breeding female I picked up yesterday. She's fairly aggressive and territorial in comparison to the other females in the tank. She's about 2 1/2 inches and a gorgeous gold and orange coloration.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
It might be the camera angle, but she looks a very funny shape.

cheers Darrel

 

[tobraham]

She certainly is a funny shape. The picture below is what my other two females look like. They're still pretty young, but have a very nice yellow sheen to them. The LFS and breeder who dropped Goldie off, said that it was definitely a female. I honestly don't want three males in my tank.. I already have the two females pictured below, and two confirmed males.

 

[Mike Wise]

Your new female, possibly a Yellow-gold X Triple Red looks quite old. The odd head shape probably is due to the size of the eyes. Large eyes, compared to the head, usually mean that stunting occurred sometime early in life. Neither of these problems should keep her from producing excellent quality fry. Just get her breeding soon.

 

[tobraham]

Thank you for your advice, Mike. This forum is awesome! I was wondering why she was an orange/gold color throughout her whole body. Now that I look at the yellow-gold variety, I can see where she may have gotten her coloring. Honestly.. I've looked at a TON of cacatuoides pictures on the web and have not seen one that has her particular body shape... she seems giant for a female. I've been debating on weather I should put Goldie the giant girl in a tank by herself to prevent breeding fry that might take on her abnormalities. Since she's an old gal, I was also just thinking about keeping her with the two males and seeing if she gets in the mood to breed before she passes away. Honestly.. I'm not sure she'd even let the males near her... she's extremely aggressive compared to the males and females in the tank and doesn't like anything being near her... including pencilfish. From my research.. this may indicate that she has recently in the past or is soon about to lay eggs... but I may be wrong and she might just be an extremely aggressive female all the time. I'll post some updates as I have them and might PM you in the future if I have any questions I can't get answered by research.

Thanks again!

Ben