# Apistogrammoides pucallpaensis spawn



## DeeB (May 12, 2010)

I picked up 4 Apistogrammoides pucallpaensis from Fantasy Aquatics a month ago for a SA themed community tank. Two of them paired up and spawned on Thursday afternoon. The female is now in the cave guarding eggs and being very aggressive towards the male and the other two. The male is hovering nearby and chasing off the other two Apistos as well. It's interesting to note that the aggression is limited to conspecifics. One of my habrosus cories even swam into the cave and the female surprisingly didn't chase it off. 
Being a newbie at breeding, I'm just going to enjoy this and learn from this experience. I'm shocked that they spawned since I don't feed live food (or even frozen for that matter).

The dominant male:









The female:


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## DeeB (May 12, 2010)

I really can't see anything but I'm guessing that the eggs have hatched since the female has now switched position inside the cave. Plus, the female is getting increasingly nasty towards other fish (the other apistos, cories, tetras). I'm thinking of taking the cave and female out but the only spare tank I have running is quite small and experiences massive temperature changes.


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## Steve (Mar 27, 2013)

That's super cool! Those apistos are beautiful! If I were you I wouldn't move anything unless you're worried the female apisto is going to kill other tank members. If you move the cave all of the fry will die since they'd be too small to scoop into another tank. Do you have food for the fry?


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## DeeB (May 12, 2010)

Between the male and the female, all the other tank inhabitants are slightly terrified and huddled in a far corner. I have Hikari's First Bites and just brought some brine shrimp eggs for the fry.


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## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

very nice and congrats! I have 4 in my display tanks but yours look a lot better than mine..


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## DeeB (May 12, 2010)

Thanks. I'm sure that mine isn't that much different than yours. The blue sheen on the body of the male is really only seen at certain angles or with sunlight, so the photo up there is a compact fluorescent light with sunlight.


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## DeeB (May 12, 2010)

Started seeing some free swimming fry yesterday and tried to get some pictures today.

Feeling full (hopefully) from the baby brine shrimp. 









Big head shot.









Looking for next meal.


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## DeeB (May 12, 2010)

Unfortunately, there was a massive die-off between this week and the last. From last week's count of 17 down to 4 after losing another this morning. The only thing that I did differently last week was that I rinsed out the breeder net.

The second female also spawned today. I don't think I'm going to move her into a breeder net/box and see how she does.


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## DeeB (May 12, 2010)

Something weird and unexpected happened. My dominant female, who spawned a month ago, spawned again--even though she is separated from the main tank in a net breeder. She still has two fries from the first spawn with her. It's quite a small spawn with about 10 eggs. I don't know if they are fertile or not. I've searched online and apparently the sperm from a male has a range of about 4 inches. So I guess we'll see. 

The second female has been moving her brood around. During the day, she has them hidden in a very densely planted area and during the night, she moves them back to her spawning cave.


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## DeeB (May 12, 2010)

Some pictures taken today.

Camouflaged fry


















3 week old fry









The unexpected spawn


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## peppy2013 (Feb 19, 2013)

So jealous  beautiful fish


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## rhennessey (Jul 25, 2014)

do you still have spawning going on with these? I would like to get some females for my lonely male...


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## DeeB (May 12, 2010)

rhennessey said:


> do you still have spawning going on with these? I would like to get some females for my lonely male...


Spawning still going on like clockwork. I've been growing out some from December's spawn but will probably be at least a while before they're ready.


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## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

what is the water parameter in your tank?? PH TDS??


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## rhennessey (Jul 25, 2014)

ive got a single male and would like to get some females for him. Please let me know when you are ready and I will but some.
Cheers and good work breeding them!!
R


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## DeeB (May 12, 2010)

jhj0112 said:


> what is the water parameter in your tank?? PH TDS??


My pH is around 6.5, GH is 2dGH, and KH is 2dKH. I add in a small amount of Equilibrium to the water that I change. I feed a 50/50 mixture of NLS Grow and Hikari Micro Wafers. About once a week I feed NLS Thera A. Nothing remarkable about my tank except for the fact that I have an excess of silicates as evidenced by diatoms growing everywhere in my tank even though it's been running for 4 years already.



rhennessey said:


> ive got a single male and would like to get some females for him. Please let me know when you are ready and I will but some.
> Cheers and good work breeding them!!
> R


Thanks. I'll PM when they're ready.


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## rhennessey (Jul 25, 2014)

Cool i can't wait my male needs some friends!!


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## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

your water parameter is pretty much same as mine but somehow my paduros won't have fry.. how's raising fry?? to me that's the toughest part.. I hope you will be successful raising them.


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