Double Red breeding behavior?

[jiffy]

I have a pair of double red cacs in a 10 gallon tank with 6 cardinal tetras and 3 skunk cories. I just got the apistos last week. I have noticed the male showing off in front of the female the past few days and now the female is turning yellowish and becomming more aggressive and territorial over a cave I have in the tank.

Is this breeding behavior? Also, if I wanted to raise the fry, what should I do? I'm not sure if the other fish, or even the apistos themselves, will eat the eggs and or any fry.

Any info is appreciated.

 

[FishGeek]

The 3rd Paragraph here might help.
http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/breeding/Zilliox_Apistogramma_cacatuoides.html

Here's another:
http://www.characin.com/carey/species/cichlid/apistos/a_cacatuoides.html

 

[wayne]

That is indeed breeding behaviour, and the female going yellow is a very, very good sign. Nex thing you know she'll disappear,and then you have a spawn. I don't know what you're using for caves, but mine liked very ,small tight caves, first in a piece of lava rock, then under a piece of wood.
Despite double reds being somewhat inbred I don't think they'll eat the fry, even though this is likely her first spawn

 

[wayne]

The tetras will certainly eat any fry they can, expect the cories to spend the next month at the far end of the tank.

What are you going to try to fed the fry. Is the tank clean or relatively dirty?

 

[jiffy]

The female seems to still be trying to lure the male into the cave, which is also a tight cave. I noticed last night though that she moved some gravel from inside the tank to cover part of the entrance to the cave, making it a much smaller entrance. She has also hardly been leaving the front of the cave, guarding it closely and "flirting" with the male whenever he comes by. However the male seems to lose interest after a couple seconds.

I haven't been able to see any eggs or fry as of yet though, or even the male enter the cave, but then again I don't sit there and watch all day.

The tank is very clean, I do 30 - 40 % water changes and gravel vac weekly. I read that finely ground flake food is ok for apisto fry, but I will also head over the the LFS and pickup some sort of fry food.

 

[kagal]

after they lay the eggs. i would get some of the fish out of the tank. there will be a war for awhile and the female will be the dominant aggressor. I have had my female kill her male. so just becareful and i would definatly get the cories out because of their location in the tank. they will be constantly harrassed.

 

[wayne]

As I am quite lazy I always kept my breeders quite grubby so very young fry could browse on the microfauna on the plants, gravel, filter sponge..... it works