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Apistogramma Cacatuoides Weird Behavior?

ggkmp

New Member
Messages
5
I have matured 40g planted tank.
Had Apisto pair and they were breeding hatched many frys and all was going well.

One day the male died... I'm not sure why, the water was consistent at all times and feeding as usual.
Maybe he was too old? and near end of his lifespan? no idea but the male died about a month after the fry hatch.

Now it's been 3-4 weeks since, the female was doing well but all of sudden she is not eating anything and hides in the cave all day...

Any idea what's going on? is she also near her lifespan as well?
 

Triviashi_Maru

New Member
Messages
8
Do you actually know the ages of the fish?
If not, how long have you had them?
"it's been 3-4 weeks since" - Are the fry still in with the female? and are the fry healthy in the same water?
Was the male acting abnormally at all before he died?
"water was consistent" - What parameters did you measure and what were the readings?
Come on, help us out a little here
 

ggkmp

New Member
Messages
5
Stable water parameters, neutral ph,
Do you actually know the ages of the fish?
If not, how long have you had them?
"it's been 3-4 weeks since" - Are the fry still in with the female? and are the fry healthy in the same water?
Was the male acting abnormally at all before he died?
"water was consistent" - What parameters did you measure and what were the readings?
Come on, help us out a little here

Ph neutral, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, little bit of nitrate (from liquid ferts) it's heavily planted tank, 10 day 40% water change. (running CO2 and using crushed coral because my tap water is super soft like RO)

I have 3 otos, 5 Rainbow tetras, some pest snails and pair of Apisto with frys.

The tank is fully cycled, matured and been this way for almost a year.
No fish died, jumped or added during this time except the Apisto pair which I added 5 months ago

Both male and female didn't show any signs of abnormality (to my knowledge but first time keeping Apisto)

Everyone was doing very well. Eating and breeding.
Even now the frys are healthy and growing very well

I'm leaning towards this new pallet (but I feed combination of frozen food and pallets) that I switched to recently.
I was feeding Hikari micro pallet and switched to Thera a+ with garlic from new life spectrum.

It's hard to think they are too old and near their lifespan as I only had them for 5 months from the local fish store.
And it's just weird only the male died and other fishes are fine
 

Katsutaro Yoshimoto

New Member
Messages
22
I know that someone will eventually ask this, so I will go ahead. Did you quarantine your apistos before adding them to the tank? Running some anti parasitics and observing general health for new stock is important. Have your other fish been sick before in the main tank?
 

ggkmp

New Member
Messages
5
I know that someone will eventually ask this, so I will go ahead. Did you quarantine your apistos before adding them to the tank? Running some anti parasitics and observing general health for new stock is important. Have your other fish been sick before in the main tank?

Yes, my local fish store quarantines every fish coming in.
All my fishes are healthy and none got sick
 

Mike Wise

Moderator
Staff member
5 Year Member
Messages
11,202
Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
I quarantine all my fish for a minimum of 4 to 6 weeks - and much longer if they aren't behaving 'perfectly normal'. I strongly doubt that you LFS can afford to do this. Still I don't think quarantining them would have helped you if you had had them for 5 months. Since we don't know which apisto species you have I can't say much about your water values. The only problems that I see that are possible are water practices, other fish and feeding. First if your water from the tap is super-soft (you don't say how soft it is) just use it. There is no reason to harden it with crushed coral. Virtually all apistos are found in soft water. For food, if your apistos eat dry food that's great! Mine do not. I rely on frozen and live foods. Have you seen your apistos eat pellets (or only the tetras)? My apistos 'mouth' it and then spit it out. As for fish, are your "Rainbow Tetras" Nematobrycon sp.? I keep N. lacortei myself and love them. That being said, it is a species (after I tried it once) I would never keep with apistos. They are just too active and aggressive for a small, peaceful community. They also out-compete bottom-dwelling fish for food. My guess right now is that your apistos had some pathogen that they normally resisted while not stressed, but it slowly got the best of them as stresses increased.
 

ggkmp

New Member
Messages
5
I live in Seattle and my tap water is basically a rain water no mineral or nothing, 6~6.3ph, 0 kh, 0 gh basically it's a RO water.
So I have to add some minerals for my plants to thrive (crushed coral, or equilibrium like product)

The rainbow tetra I meant Pseudomugil (I believe they are called red rainbow tetra or something similar)
They are very small and swims high to mid water, so My apisto doesn't need to compete for bottom dwellers

My Apisto were eating anything that I gave them including the pallets and flakes.

I shop all my fish from Aquarium co-op (not to advertise them here) but they do have a quarantine room and put all fishes on cycle for 6+ weeks.
 

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