Breeding Platinum Triple Red Apisto

[Simon25]

Hello so I have been trying to breed a pair of apistos given to me by a friend that told me had been paired off for sometime. The female had found a teracotta pot she seemed to favor and looked like she was coaxing the male, I think. Anyway, I have never breed apistos successfully, yet, and this morning I came in to the male now in the cave and the female is just kind of floating alive at the top of the tank. She looks in rough shape with very tattered fins and not moving much. Any ideas or advice would be much appreciated!

[Zenzo]

Oh no. It looks like the male beat her up pretty badly. Do you have a quarantine/hospital tank that you can move her to se that she can recover? If not, I would suggest a breeder box with a hiding place so that she has a place to heal. 

[anewbie]

I'm lousy at identifying the species but if it is agazill they do not 'pair off'; they are harem breeder and when the female is not in breeding mood the male will beat her up and the tank needs a place where she can safely hide. I can't remember if mac pair off but they are a i think a bit gentler. I might recognize the species if you show the male.

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You need to get her out of there and let her heal up; the tank should be at least a 20 long and must provide dense coverage where she can hide. ideally the substrate will be soft sand with a bit of leaf litter or at least 3 or 4 caves with driftwood strategically placed to break line of sight. With pair bonding species it is not nec. to create these extra hiding places because m/f will not fight when not breeding but with harem breeders the fighting can be quite brutal.

[Simon25]

Im going to pull the female. I do believe they are cacatoides. I have added a picture of the male just to verify. Should I try reintroducing the female later one?

[Tihshho]

Definitely a Cacutoides male. The female looks like a Cacutoides as well, but it's hard to say 100%. If you got them from a reputable source, I would say based on the male you have a Cacutoides pair. 

@anewbie hit it on the head with QT'ing the female as well as letting her heal up. A long tank would be ideal for these two, and possibly the addition of dithers for distraction for the male. Caves and broken lines of site are key. 

[Simon25]

Just an update. The female got moved to her own tank to recover. I thought about dither fish but didnt seem to be an issue until very recently and I may have mistook the male being aggressive for mating behavior. Any suggestions on good dithers? 

[Tihshho]

Something fast swimming that prefers the same parameters would be ideal. Tetras make a great dither and actually mimic the environment Apisto's are found in. For hardiness, I would probably recommend Rummynose. 

[anewbie]

Just to make it clear - Cacutoides are harem breeders - they do not pair off. When the female is not able to breed the male will try to drive her out of his territory; when the female has frys she will usually push the male away - though in a few cases the male will actually help. With a large enough tank you can have multiple females.

[Tihshho]

On 5/16/2022 at 4:41 PM, anewbie said:

Just to make it clear - Cacutoides are harem breeders - they do not pair off. When the female is not able to breed the male will try to drive her out of his territory; when the female has frys she will usually push the male away - though in a few cases the male will actually help. With a large enough tank you can have multiple females.

Let me clarify, by 'pair' I meant more so 1:1 male to female. Not so much a pair that will get along together outside of spawning.