Quick question about breeding, or a lack of it.

[RustedKnight]

So I was just wondering, as I have 1* Male, and 4* females and all showing breeding colouration and interest, yet totally failing to breed.

Do you think this could be the fact that my male simply has too much choice and too much of a distraction??

*possibly 2m 3f. But probably not.

 

[ed seeley]

Going to need way more info than that! Species, age, tank size, set up details for starters!

 

[RustedKnight]

Apistogramma cacatouides.

Age, unknown, somewhere in the region of 5-6 months at a complete guess.

110 litre tank.

3 plant pot caves, plenty of bogwood and leaf litter, immitating natural habitat.

 

[ed seeley]

The male will be happy as anything with that ratio then! Cacs are haremic polygamists. However that seems like a lot of girls in that sized tank. How long is it? IME female apistos like about 15" territiories, maybe a bit less, but I wouldn't put in more than 1 per 12" of tank length unless it was a weirdly wide tank. However I would have thought that the most dominant female at least would have been able to secure enough territory. What are you feeding them and how long have you had them?

 

[RustedKnight]

the tank is 36 inches long. So you reckon it can only support 3 females for its length?

Interesting, i've never heard this fact before, do you have any links on where I can read up more about it? (i'm terribly interested in making things to the utmost of the fishes benefit)

I had the dominant pair about 3 months, and the 3 other females arrived about 6 weeks ago.

So they may be slightly younger than i originally imagined (yay for dated photographs)

They get a varied diet of frozen bloodworm, daphnia and brine shrimp. They also help themselves to sinking pellets (they share the tank with 8 panda corydora, am a touch worried about the corydora being egg eaters, but so far there's no eggs to eat)

 

[Joe Gatchell]

I kept 8 Cory cats with my kribs they never bothered the eggs, but they decimated my krib fry there were too many for the female to fight off, but could be because she ran the male off, so didn't have much help. Something to think about anyway.

 

[RustedKnight]

If it comes to it, the catfish will be moved to a different tank. Thanks for the info, i'll watch those pesky catfish.

 

[ed seeley]

Females need their space too. They are the ones who defend the territories for breeding. I'd leave them for now but keep an eye on things as you may find you need to remove one or more females.

What are the caves like? Apisto females need caves with tight entrances and low roofs. They like to just be able to get and and then wall up the entrance so the male has to fan his sperm in from the outside. I'd also arrange the caves in small clusters so the females have a choice of cave type. I have used parts of plant pots broken up and the drip trays with notches taken out of the rim and both have worked well.

Not sure about reading material. Try Aquaarticles maybe?

 

[RustedKnight]

I'm using broken plant pots.

I may have to make the opening smaller though, as it's large enough for other fish to willingly swim in.

Thank you for the great advice.