# Apistogramma



## Maloney (23 Nov 2011)

Hi, I have a male Golden Cockatoo Cichlid, he's pretty big ,around 4", could I introduce a female so they could may pair up?


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## jacko32 (23 Nov 2011)

hi apistogramma are hareem forming cichlids ie 1 male to 2 or more females


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## clonitza (24 Nov 2011)

Hi Maloney, yes you can, you could've done that earlier. You don't need to add more than 1 female. The cockatoo females are territorial, they are the one who raise the fry not the male so if you have plenty and not so many space for them they'll keep on fighting. Hope you are not keeping them in the 30l tank.

Mike


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## dw1305 (24 Nov 2011)

Hi all,
He might be a bit old all ready, as the males don't live very long. If you have a lot of structure they are fine as a pair, if the tank is a bit open the male will continually harass the female when she isn't ready to breed and may kill her (although this isn't usually a problem with_ A. cacatuoides_). They are naturally harem forming and if you have enough room I'd try 3 females, you need an approx. 30 cm x 30cm square around each cave per female. 

I've never had much luck with 2 females, as the dominant one always beats up the sub-dominant female, but once you have 3 females things are fine.

cheers Darrel


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## clonitza (24 Nov 2011)

Darrel, I'm sure the males would like having as many females as possible, that's the nature of things  but from my experience as an cockatoo keeper and breeder they do just fine in pairs. He tries doing his thing now and then but if the female isn't ready the male doesn't really stand a chance. Anyway sometimes you may have bad luck keeping an aggressive male, it happened to me once and I had to remove it to solve the problem. 

Cheers,
Mike


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## dw1305 (24 Nov 2011)

Hi all,
Mike I'm not disagreeing, _A. cacatuoides_ does fine as a pair, mainly because they are pretty mellow for cichlids. I've kept them as every combination from pair through to 7 females and one male (If I'd had a bigger tank I could have kept some more females ). I've also had 4 sub-adult males and several females in the same tank (60cm x 45 x 30cm) for a while although the males were all siblings. 

I'd have to say they are my favourite fish, partially because they fund my hobby, and I have them in a tank in the kitchen, so I get to see them every day.

Out of the species I've kept pairs don't work with _A. trifasciata_ or A. "Steel-blue", because the males are much more aggressive and you can keep _A. borellii_ as multiple males/females successfully, even in a 60cm tank.

Here is an old female, she lived to 4 years old, none of the males have lived anything like that long (male is face on to the left of the picture). 





cheers Darrel


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## dw1305 (24 Nov 2011)

Hi all,
Just nostalgia really, but I just found another photo, this was "Troy" (the kids named him). He wasn't my first _Apistogramma_, but he started my "Apistogramma empire", and I must admit I cried when he died (I think he was just knackered as he had the 7 female harem and had fathered hundreds of fry).

He didn't have very good finnage colour or markings, but he was a very good body colour, had a very placid temperament and was a really powerful chunky fish. 





cheers Darrel


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## clonitza (24 Nov 2011)

Great looking fellows Darrel. I enjoy keeping them too, although I miss the rams.

Here's a pic with my one year old male:



one of the little ones



and the female guarding the eggs 




Cheers,
Mike


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## cichlidfam (24 Nov 2011)

Great shots guys, 

Heres some of my F1 fry







And heres there daddy, sadly in fish heaven.




Excuse quality on first two pics as i'm waiting for my lens to come back from repair.

Matt


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## Maloney (25 Nov 2011)

Thanks for the info , all the apistogramma females Ihave seen are a lot smaller than him ,would he be ok with a small female? also does the female have to be of the same sub species? ie a Golden ?


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## cichlidfam (25 Nov 2011)

Females are naturally alot smaller, and yes i'm pretty  sure you can mix i.e a tripple red male and a golden female etc.


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## dw1305 (26 Nov 2011)

Hi all,


> Females are naturally alot smaller, and yes i'm pretty sure you can mix i.e a tripple red male and a golden female etc.


 This is right, all the colour forms of _A. cacatuoides_ are just that, colour forms. _Apistogramma cacatuoides_ is a polychromatic species and breeders have selected for the red, orange and leucistic forms. I really like the blue/yellow forms, but they aren't often for sale. 

 This is one that Steve Chesters (from the BCA) had, wild and imported from Peru.

The female will always be a fair bit smaller than the male, this is actually a pretty good clue to whether cichlids are pair forming or naturally polygamous (male/females harem). If they are pairt forming like _Hemichromis_,Rams, Oscars, Angel Fish etc the male and female tend to look similar and be of a similar size, if they are haremic the male tends to be a lot bigger and showier than the females. 

If the female isn't ready to breed it would be worth putting a piece of pipe high up in one corner of the tank, to give her somewhere safe to retreat to. If an _Apistogramma_ spends a lot of time near the top of the tank, it is because it doesn't feel safe at lower levels. If she is really small a 35mm filnm canister works quite well.

I also use 1/2 coconuts for this, you can cut a very small notch in the rim,  and the female will be able to enter, but not the male. They cover really quickly with moss if you super-glue some on, so they can be intergrated into the aquascaping unless it is a very bare tank (if it is very bare your cichlids aren't going to feel safe what-ever you do).

cheers Darrel


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## andyh (26 Nov 2011)

I have kept a pair successfully in my planted tank, as its already been stressed having lots of hiding places really helps, once a planted tank is well grown these tend to provide an ideal environment. Here are a couple of pics of my Apistogramma Agassizii 'fire red', which have become one of my favourite fish.


Pair of Apistogramma Agassizii 'fire red' by andyh_2011, on Flickr


Apistogramma Agassizii 'fire red' by andyh_2011, on Flickr

Interesting thread this one


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## dw1305 (26 Nov 2011)

Hi all,


> Apistogramma Agassizii 'fire red'


 They look in great condition, do they spawn? I must admit that I'm not usually a fan of unnatural looking Discus etc, but you can't argue about these being a striking pair.

I've just seen the full-tank shot on flickr (June 22,"fulltank shot 2") and that looks really nice, and about right for a planted _Apistogramma_ tank.

cheers Darrel


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## gillo45 (1 Dec 2011)

i love these fish cant wit to set up my planted tank great photos guys


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