# question: apisto agassizi weird behavior



## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

while i was staring at my 90G tank as usual, I noticed weird behavior on my agassizii. one is staying at one spot breathing bit heavy and darkend while the other one is swimming all over the tank and almost swimming sideway around the fish( almost lying under the fish). is this breeding behaviour? It's hard for me to sex them but I thought I got 2 males.

can anyone with agassizii experience tell me what this is? I really hope that it's not the behavior when one is dying..


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## kacairns (Apr 10, 2012)

Can't speak to that fish but, did you check ammonia levels?


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## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

I just checked it and it was ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 10. the color change on fishes are almost dramatic white to yellow and its stripe on the fish that keeps swimming sideway around the other agassizii isn't the same. it's almost like someone erased the part of the stripe. this really concerns me now. I googled it but no result..


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## Steve (Mar 27, 2013)

Sounds like an ammonia or nitrite burn on the one that isn't moving. I had a couple apistos that had ammonia burn back at the LFS I bought them from and didn't show any symptoms until about maybe 2 weeks later and then starting acting oddly and eventually didn't make it. I'm not too sure about the stripe thing, but it could be a male that is hiding its stripe to pretend to be a female to reduce levels of aggression?


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## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

is there anything that I can do?? I googled the breeding behavior and it says the female swims sideway around the male to induce the breeding and they both change color. I did not get these for breeding but I hope they are breeding. the one stays one spot happens to be around the cave and driftwood. along with bolivian( which i'm hoping for breeding), these are my favorite fishes...


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## Steve (Mar 27, 2013)

Never got mine to breed so I'm not sure. Are they being aggressive? If not it's probably some sort of burn and I would just test your water daily and try to keep up with WCs to see what happens. If there's ammonia or nitrite in the tank (or even if nitrates are high) there are some chemicals you can use to temporarily reduce them but I'm not sure if it's worth the $ when you can just change the water frequently.


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## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

can anyone who has experience with agassizi breeding tell me if this is breeding behavior?? I REALLY hope that this is breeding behavior now... -.-


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## qyrus (Apr 21, 2010)

My experience with breeding agassizis usually involve the male flashing finage at the female until she either takes on the breeding dress (pure yellow with one black spot) or the male gets fed up and chases her off. If courtship is successful the female will scope out a spot and chase all other fish away including the male. The male will patrol outside of this area while the female rears the eggs.


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## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

Update: today it's completly opposite. Female( yellow with black dot) gets very aggressive to any other fishes( including male agassizi), chase them away but I don't see any eggs anywhere. I don't know if i accidently removed them while vaccumming but I did not see any eggs anywhere. She( i'm pretty sure now it's female) still guards this spot strongly. When does female lay eggs? I'm glad that they are not dying


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## qyrus (Apr 21, 2010)

Sounds like they bred. Congrats  You might not see the eggs at all, just keep a lookout for fry in the coming days.


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## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

wow! this is something that I did not expect but very exciting! I really hope I did not remove eggs during water change earlier today.

thank you qyrus! I don't know if fry will survive though. they are in community tank with rams guppies dwarf rainbow which will love to eat fry.. l


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## Steve (Mar 27, 2013)

If you have an unused small tank and you get fry you can always remove them and feed them baby brine shrimp


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## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

Now I HAVE to get the fifth tank! Lol  I'm still worried about eggs though. I vacuummed the gravel and poured water on the rock. I hope that I did not take out or blow eggs out


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## Durogity (Jun 10, 2013)

Even if it did and the eggs were lost, they'll try again...it's what they do lol


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

Just curious, where did you get the agassizi from?


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## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

I got them from pet superstore in surrey/langley


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## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

update: well there goes my short breeding experience and the fifth tank. the female no longer guards the spot, her color is back to normal, is no longer aggressive toward others.......I think I removed eggs during cleaning and water change... 

I didn't get these for breeding but I hope that they can breed again as it was cool to see it.


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

They sometimes eat their eggs too. This happens often to those that breed for the first time.


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## qyrus (Apr 21, 2010)

I wouldn't worry about losing the first few batches of eggs, once you get a breeding pair they'll crank them out every month or so. It might actually get tedious


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## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

wth?!?!? I'm very confused now. after I got pea puffers and other fishes and returned home, female's color is changed yet again and being aggressvie to especially bolivian rams and panda cories... I looked everywhere still no eggs.. she was very calm and normal color in the morning.. now bright yellow again with black dot... she beats up the male pretty good. he is darkened and hiding at the corner.. I'm just gona wait and see what will happen.. very confused..


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## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

I think I found eggs! They were in the hole of the driftwood but I'm not sure they are fertile ones.. I read that fertile ones are red but these are white eggs.. it says it will take 3-4 days to hatch but should I remove eggs if it's infertile? I don't know how they got in the hole( probably when I did the water change)..


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## Luke78 (Apr 24, 2010)

Here's a few articles online i found that might help out a bit, have a look if you want.I also have a Dwarf Cichlid Atlas Volume 1 if you wanna borrow it, lots of info there

Apistogramma, Dwarf Cichlids From South America by Alan R. de Angelo - The Cichlid Room Companion

The Apistogramma Aquarium | Details | Articles | TFH Magazine®


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