Apisto cacatuoidies male chasing off the female!

[Steven Melia]

Hi all.
I'm new here so hope I'm doing this right. About two weeks ago I purchsed a pair of apisto cacatuoides triple red male/female. Their not my first pair but it was a while ago. The pair I had bred loads of times and I was looking forward to that again. I have a 30 gallon and My stocking levels are the pair of apistos and 10 rummy nose tetras.

All was good everything happy and the female spawned in less than a week. However it was unssucessful but I thought, it's their first time some never mind. That was couple of days ago. Ever since then the male has decided he owns the tank won't let the female have any peace. He chases her everywhere. She goes to hide at points in the top corner to get away from him. This I usually associate with being bad.

Not to sure what's happened, usually they would just be cool together. Has anyone had this before? My tank setup has loads of places to hide but he hunts her out. Any help would be appreciated. I'm hoping this is some kind argument stage and they'll work it out.

Cheers steve

 

[Mike Wise]

There are 2 possibilities that I can think of. The male wants to breed and the female isn't ready yet. The other is that your female isn't a female at all, but another male acting as a female. Did you see eggs/fry? Either way, you might want to add another female. Your male seems overly eager/aggressive. Just remember adding a new female means removing to pair you have now, re-arranging the tank and introducing all the fish at the same time. Otherwise the new fish will be considered a territorial intruder.