Apistogramma cacatuoides

[Oneiroid]

I have a pair of cacatuoides which have spawned, and mom now has a cadre of fry following her around the tank. I've left dad in the whole time - he wasn't allowed near the eggs at all and now mom is watching him like a hawk that he doesn't get too close to the fry. She has never been vicious towards him, just mostly chasing, tail swishing, and posturing. They are in their own 10g tank with slate and caves (their own little Love Shack) with no other fish.

My questions:

a) Should I remove the male or not (for risk of losing fry, not so much dad)? Or, can I leave them all in there for the next month at which point I remove the fry to their own grow-out tank so that the male won't attack the fry out of competition for the female?

In the future, should I simply remove the male after spawning automatically?

Thanks in advance!

[jvision]

I used to breed Apistos quite a bit about 6 or 7 years ago. Not once did I take the male out. Tho, a 10 gal was the smalles tank I ever used.

Your plan sounds good. If you want to be extra careful next time, use a 15 gal. I had a trio of Triple Red Cacatuoides in there for a while - a few fry even made it past me 'til they reached around 1"!

Add a few plants, and it's just like home (ie. the wild) for them.

[Oneiroid]

Thanks Jason. I left the male in the tank, and there are still many fry this morning. Mom seems to be doing her job! I think I will look into a larger tank once it is safe to move the fry. No worries about plants in the tank - I like to keep my breeding tanks with bare bottoms for easy cleaning, but there is lots of java fern & moss, anubias, frog-bit, and riccia in there.

Cheers.