Apistogramma spousal abuse

[tolstoy21]

This is my first time attempting to breed apistogramma cacatuoides. I went to feed the ‘happy’ couple this afternoon and the male was listless and pale, on the bottom of the tank, hiding under a leaf. I assumed he was sick (did a water change last night and now thought oh crud what did I do wrong?) so I fed the tank some baby brine and the male perked up a tad and started eating. When he got near the cave, the female came out and beat the living heck out of him. He fought back, but she really went at him!

So, I’m guessing they are soon to enjoy the fruits of parenthood? They were pretty flirty flirty last nightly, nudging each other with their tails while the male flared his fins. Today it’s a divorce lawyers dream.  

If they’ll have little ones soon, will the aggression cease after the eggs hatch? Or should I relocate the male before she clobbers him to death?

I’ve had this happy pair for about a week and the fighting began today. Marriage counseling?

Edited October 15, 2020 by tolstoy21

[gcalberto]

5 minutes ago, tolstoy21 said:

This is my first time attempting to breed apistogramma cacatuoides. I went to feed the ‘happy’ couple this afternoon and the male was listless and pale, on the bottom of the tank, hiding under a leaf. I assumed he was sick (did a water change last night and now thought oh crud what did I do wrong?) so I fed the tank some baby brine and the male perked up a tad and started eating. When he got near the cave, the female came out and beat the living heck out of him. He fought back, but she really went at him!

So, I’m guessing they are soon to enjoy the fruits of parenthood? They were pretty flirty flirty last nightly, nudging each other with their tails while the male flared his fins. Today it’s a divorce lawyers dream.  

If they’ll have little ones soon, will the aggression cease after the eggs hatch? Or should I relocate the male before she clobbers him to death?

I’ve had this happy pair for about a week and the fighting began today. Marriage counseling?

Most likely they already bred and the famale became hyper aggressive. You should move the male to another tank and let the female take care of the eggs and fry by herself, otherwise she might end up killing the male 

[Maggie]

It sounds like what I read about pearl gouramis, only the opposite. The male guards the eggs and viciously attacks the female or any fish that comes too close. 

[Nataku]

Yyyyyup some apistos do get nasty like this. It seems to be really random too, based on each individual  pair. Some raise their fry together just fine, sometimes the male gets the snot beat out of him. Sometimes the females gets totally psycho and kills the male. 

Definitely move the male to another tank to recover and give the lady some time to rear this batch. Once the fry are old enough you can either separate them to a new grow out tank and re-add the male, or if they're actively feeding and you want to try leaving them all together if the tank is big enough, you can try reintroducing the male with the fry once they are at least a month old. The female usually has gotten over herself by then. 

Just be aware that if she acts like this once she'll probably do it again, so just be ready to make a regular routine of sending the male into 'protective custody ' in another tank.

[Paul]

I found that visual barriers tend to keep the aggression between the love birds at a much lower level. With that being said if your male insists on visiting Mommy Dearest no amount of visual barriers are going to keep the fins from flying.

Edited October 16, 2020 by Paul

[tolstoy21]

@PaulThanks for the response. The female is now touring the tank with the fry and she encroaches on the male's territory who tries to eat the fry and summarily gets a beat down. So, the male is now acclimating to my community tank so the female can raise the fry. I have them in a 29 gallon but the female seems to want the entire thing. Next time I'll have a tank ready to move the male to..

Edited October 19, 2020 by tolstoy21