Breeding Agassizii

H

humerjeep

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Feb 16, 2006
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I have 1 male to a harem of 3 female Agassizii housed in a 12"x8"x8" tank.
My questions are how easy/hard are these to spawn. Also I have a very bossy female that picks on the other two females and is the only one that the male does not chase away. Can anyone give me advise on what I can try to get a spawn started, should I rehouse the other two females. I've heard that if a female spawns she may turn on the male, is this true, also does the male have any parental tendancies? Any feedback appreciated.
 
that's a REALLY small tank for that many fish. If the odd females are getting picked on, and the male is not picking on the dominant female, then i would remove the odd females. In nature apistos can exist in very high densities, but traditional aquascaping just doesn't allow for enough structure.

To induce a spawn, condition the female for a couple weeks with a good variety of frozen food. If she doesn't spawn on her own, then wait untill a low pressure system passes through and do a big 50% or largerWC with RO from the grocery.

Yes, females can and do kill males in smaller tanks. It's not super common, but common enough to worry about. If you want to be safe remove the male as soon as you see the female holed up in a cave for a day or two. Most problems will arise about 6-7 days after spawning, when the fry go free swimming. If the male is not attacked right away, the chances are he will be tolerated, but might spend another week being forced into corners before being allowed to participate in brood care.

I've only kept this species once in a 10g. The male was such a bully I had to seperate the two (sometimes a pair of apistos just don't click)
 
Cheers, will do as you advise and move the submissive females back to the main tank, and take if from there, if I have to move the male back due to the dominant female picking on him I'm gonna have to do some re-arranging as he was once king of the main tank until I introduced a male Nichols mouthbrooder and it didn't take long before the tables turned. If a spawn does occur when will I be able to return the male back so he can take up his parental duties.
 
Once he gets pulled, he should stay out untill AFTER you remove the babies and she's ready to spawn again. I pull my fry at 1-2 weeks (after that they start to spread out too much and are hard to siphon out). Give the female a week to recouperate (lots of good food), and then add the male back in. Otherwise she will just see him as a male looking to eat her babies so he can spawn with her.
 
As suggested I've removed the other females and the pair remaining seem to be getting on fine. The male is following her like a puppy dog, so for now I leave them alone and let nature take its course, Oh i've been reading back thought the thread appologies my tank size is 24"X8"x8" approx. 8gals. If I do manage to see these two spawn you say that I should siphon out the fry out, it may come over like a dumb question but do you mean I use something like my gravel cleaner to do this ? Being some what limited space and financial to setting up a rearing tank can they be raised like guppy fry in a breeding net until there big enough to fend for themselves.
 
Yes, I just use a length of hose. Go in AFTER the lights have been out for a couple hours or BEFORE the lights come on. They will be all clumped up and sleepy. Give them at least a week with mom though.

I've never had any luck with breeding nets, they're fish killers IMO. It will take the fry about 4-5 months to reach sellable size, so they really do need a growout tank. My grow out tank is barebottomed, styrofoam cooler lids as a cover, sponge filter and heater. THAT's IT!

Maybe you could use the 8g itself for growout, and remove the parents to another tank?
 
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