Agassizii n cacatuoides

[harnsheng]

im gonna get my first apistos this weekend(i think).i bought a pair of agasizii n a pair of cacatuoides! can anyone give me some ideas of how to breed them successfully?? is it hard to breed them?? what about feeding the fry?? is the water Ph 7 suitable for them?? thanks!

 

[Apistt_ed]

hello harnsheng,

well, to answer your question, how young are these fish that you are getting? Cacatuoides are fairly a good fish to start with and Aggies I have found to be either or when it comes to spawning... but as with most every fish, I guess it's the same all throughout.

Spawning tips would be to have hiding places plenty in the tanks that they are going to be housed in and keep them fed well with a good protein such as brine shrimp, bbs, daphnia, and I feed my apistos live Blackworms (against the opinion of many others). Blackworms are a great source of protein but makes sure your source for them are reliable and disease/parasite free and use it as a suppliment in a varied diet and not the only thing in their diet. This is standard in the conditioning process to get your fish in the right state of health for them to spawn. All in all, with careful observations and preparation and a little know-how (along with patience) spawning them shouldn't be rocket science at all.

Aggies will generally do fine in your water if they are an aquarium strain, but to get them to spawn, you will need generally a more acidic softer water. I keep my double red aggies (red-tail aggies) in tap water and they do fine in the neutral ph but spawning just isn't in their interest until I condition them to softer water. The wild strains of aggies won't survive or do well in the same conditions and it should be taken into note that R/O water filtered with peat will also trigger aggies to spawn and is best for their eggs to develope correctly. Cacatuoides will live and spawn fine in water slightly alkaline with neutral or even above neutral ph. When it comes to feeding the fry, you'll generally hear that bbs (baby brine shrimp) freshly hatched would be best and even a liquid fry food or finely crushed flakes.

well, I hoped this helped a little... ask many questions and enjoy your experience with them. best wishes and cheers... john

 

[harnsheng]

thanks!

thanks for ur information....the fish that i will get probably around 3 to 3.5 cm according to the one who sell it to me!!
do agasizii really need acidic water?? can i use blackwater?? how to soften the water arr? n do the fries will take liguid fry food?? because some of the fish usually neglected prepared food like betta!! r there easily accepted the food like powder fish food/flake n liquid fry food?? i hope they will cause it will be easier la...hehehhe!!

 

[Apistt_ed]

As far as prepared foods, many people do only feed dried and prepared foods to all their fish all the time so it would be fine also just I prefer to feed them live and properly thawed frozen foods. If you have access to R/O water (reverse osmosis) that is the most practical way it's done here without raising the conductivity of the water parameters, which is critically important for keeping and spawning apistos as well as not raising nitrate levels. As far as I know, I have kept and spawned agassizii in blackwater so, I don't think it'd be a problem for you also. If you do experience that the fish don't take prepared foods and flakes then you may have to resort to feeding them live foods but this is dependant upon the individual fishes. john

 

[harnsheng]

about the RO water...do i need to use it 100% or just mix some amount of it to make it soft?? and about the prepared food...what i mean is will the fry ate them...i noe most adults will but the problem is the fry?? do they need live food completely? or they will take powdered flake as readily??

 

[Apistt_ed]

Well, a total mix of R/O is not always needed. You can go with a percentage mix of 70/30 (R/O to Tap water) and that's always been ok with my fish. The thing is that you want to do trial and error to see what's best suited to your needs and your fish.

Fry will readily take powdered flake food is what I meant. I usually start most of my apistogramma fry who are too small for even the most freshly hatched bbs and then graduate them to live foods or just keep them on flake food altogether.

 

[harnsheng]

oh ok...thanks very much for ur info....really appreciate it!!

 

[harnsheng]

finally got my apisto...so happy!! the colour is still not so nice la....probably stress la..haiiii! hope they can do well in my aquarium..n breed!! hehehehe! :biggrin:

 

[harnsheng]

ya ya b4 i forget? can a two cm females(agasizii) breed?? and one more thing...if a fish looks pale n differnt from the male..it is will be for sure a female?? it is about 3 cm n the tail got patterns like the male but very pale in color?? it is A.cacatuoides!!

 

[Mike Wise]

can a two cm females(agasizii) breed??

Depends on the age, but it is possible.

if a fish looks pale n differnt from the male..it is will be for sure a female??

No

it is about 3 cm n the tail got patterns like the male but very pale in color?? it is A.cacatuoides!!

\

It depends on the form of cacatuoides. Wild female forms of A. cacatuoides have no tail pattern. Some domestic forms do.

 

[kray]

ya ya b4 i forget? can a two cm females(agasizii) breed?? and one more thing...if a fish looks pale n differnt from the male..it is will be for sure a female?? it is about 3 cm n the tail got patterns like the male but very pale in color?? it is A.cacatuoides!!

I also have the same problem of trying to identify females when they are so small. What should we be looking at to be certain that we are getting a female and not a male?

 

[Mike Wise]

At 2 cm (under 1"), the only sure way to sex them is time. Wait until they mature.

 

[kray]

At 2 cm (under 1"), the only sure way to sex them is time. Wait until they mature.

Hi Mike, what about sizes that are over 1 inch.. any feature to look out for, even before maturity? Thanks.

 

[harnsheng]

my small cacatuoides 3cm long looks like a male but the dorsal fin not elongated,i mean like long and spiny on the first ray(??) n the color r just pale while the male r for sure with the same size like the other wan which the breeder tell me that it is a female!! it got patterns la on the fin....thats wat make me confuse!!!

 

[Mike Wise]

At 3 cm I look for the first appearence of markings on the caudal fin, and the back of the caudal becoming squared off (truncate). This would mean that it will develop into a male.

 

[harnsheng]

errrr.....i dun really understand la...wat is truncate??? do u have any picture to show it?? thanks!

 

[Mike Wise]

A truncate tail fin is a round fin, but the back edge is straight (not round).