Can 2 pairs of cacatuoides live together?

[chriscarnivorous]

Can 2 pairs of cacatuoides live together in a 4ft x 15" x 18"?

I have 1 full grown adult male that has been occupying my tank for a few weeks now so i decided to get him another female as he killed hes ex because he fancied the krib i mentioned and uploaded a video before
http://www.apistogramma.com/forum/i...oides-paired-up-with-krib-s.12715/#post-70721

i bought a young super red female theat was showing yellow in the lfs, and from another lfs i bought a pair of young red golds i put them in my 200l tank dimentions stated above. so far the big male has taken a liking to both females and chased the other male around do you think they can live together happily? Will they settle? do i need to separate the red gold pair?

thanks in advance

 

[Mike Wise]

This is to be expected. A. cacatuoides is a polygamous species. The dominant male will 'claim' both of the females (and most, if not all, of the tank). The subdominant male will always be harrassed. All 4 should survive in a tank of your size if properly decorated.

 

[chriscarnivorous]

cheers so ill be best off moving the smaller male to another tank then? Maybes with the female of the same kind? Or will the other cacatuoides male breed with both females at the same time?

 

[Mike Wise]

It is your choice. If you keep one of the males with the 2 females, he will breed with both at the same time.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
I've never been successful with 2 males for the reasons Mike mentioned, but these do really well as harems.

I kept one male and 7 females successfully, and if I'd had a bigger tank I could have added some more females.

If you work on a single cave in the middle of each 30 x 30cm2 basal area of the tank for each female, with some "spare" area and caves for the male, and another spare "cave" (length of pipe) high up in the corner of the tank for any fish that may need rescuing. Then aim to break up line of sight from each females territory.

In the multiple female tank, I stored all my spare planted wood, like a giant game of jenga, and I covered the bottom with 1/2 coconuts and java moss, these provided small "caves" for the surviving juveniles. If you have very complex, weedy tanks you will get some fry survival without any direct intervention until the fry are big enough to take Grindal worms etc.

When you have multiple females you get a lot of territorial interactions, including fry stealing and cave swapping.

This tank has Dicrossus maculatus, and the main plant is a very large Anubias specimen, so it doesn't have many real caves, but it gives you an idea of the sort of tanks I have.

From above

cheers Darrel