Apistogramma eggs

[Paul_Obermiller]

I have a female quad. red that laid eggs underneath my sponge filter in a 10 gallon, and she's doing an amazing job guarding them but they are all white. Which I believe means they are infertile (if I am wrong please correct me). She isn't beating up the male or the pair of guppies I have in there, but I don't want her to stress over eggs (I got the guppies and apistos last week so they are still being quarantined) that are not going to hatch. I was wondering if I pulled the eggs off the bottom of the filter, would she attack the other fish thinking that they ate them?

[Fish Folk]

Hmm... some options come to mind here.

1 - Leave everything alone. She’ll continue to be aggressive, but is honing her good parental instinct. Eventually she will give up on infertile eggs. It is important to provide Apisto caves. We’ve used coconut shells, resin caves, and piled wood and rocks up to makeshift natural caves before. Specially designed Apisto caves can be bought too.

2 - If you’re sure that the eggs are definitely infertile, you could just pull out the sponge, scrape them off, squeeze it out, and put it back in. It’s a toss-up whether this will “reset” the female, or if she’ll keep coming back to look for the eggs. Eventually she’ll get over it, but the short term reaction is hard to predict. Probably no problem. Maybe a bit of aggression that will wane with time.

3 - You could drain tank water into a bucket, and catch the female out, and cover the bucket so that it is dark. Then clean out the eggs, squeeze out the sponge, maybe move some Hardscape around, add an Apisto cave. Turn off the aquarium lights. Then reintroduce the female. Something about lights out for awhile calms and resets fish sometimes. 

[Paul_Obermiller]

I have a coconut cave but she decided to spawn on the bottom of the filter, and they were infertile and they are gone now, she doesn't seem to have damaged any of the other fish fins, thanks!

[FrostiesFishes]

it can be hit or miss on the eggs being fertile, I will say keeping the cave away from high flow points seems to increase the good egg count . I normally turn the caves into the best dead spot in the tank. 

[anewbie]

I presume it is a cockatoo. I also have coconut shells but they never use them - mine prefer driftwood...

[Paul_Obermiller]

22 hours ago, FrostiesFishes said:

it can be hit or miss on the eggs being fertile, I will say keeping the cave away from high flow points seems to increase the good egg count . I normally turn the caves into the best dead spot in the tank. 

She spawned at one of the highest flow points, but my gold red agassizi spawned in a low flow point, so maybe they have preferences. 

 

[Paul_Obermiller]

21 hours ago, anewbie said:

I presume it is a cockatoo. I also have coconut shells but they never use them - mine prefer driftwood...

How do you place the driftwood? I'd like to give that a shot.

[anewbie]

2 hours ago, Paul_Obermiller said:

How do you place the driftwood? I'd like to give that a shot.

Nothing special - i just set it in the tank - if it has branches they might pick a spot between the branches or  if it is blocky they might dig a little hole under a corner (if your substrate is fine and soft). I dont' really make an effort to encourage them to use driftwood - they just find the spot they like.

[Paul_Obermiller]

7 hours ago, anewbie said:

Nothing special - i just set it in the tank - if it has branches they might pick a spot between the branches or  if it is blocky they might dig a little hole under a corner (if your substrate is fine and soft). I dont' really make an effort to encourage them to use driftwood - they just find the spot they like.

Yes I have sand with them, I like to watch their behavior, they have dug out the side of a pot and underneath my heater, done nothing with the coconut cave yet.