Sunbird73 Posted August 9, 2011 Report Share Posted August 9, 2011 My cockatoos have been doing the wild thing and she kindly laid her eggs in the cave right next to the glass. The babies are still in the cave but the egg sac looks to be gone... when do I feed them? photo log for those that are interested Eggs - she laid them on the bottom of the pot so I had to rotate it for her so they were on the roof wigglers a few hours after hatching, were clearly wiggling Day 4 after hatching Today - Day 5 after hatching (8 days from eggs laid) So do I feed them today? I can't see an egg sac, she is keeping them in the cave but they can swim/ hop short distances... Or shall I wait until tomorrow? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunbird73 Posted August 9, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 9, 2011 Also FYI - trigger for spawning was to put the female in time-out ... I introduced a new female (to give a 1M:2F ratio as recommended everywhere :roll: ) but the original female beat the crap out of her, so put her in a breeder trap for a day while I sorted out moving the new female. She had not shown any interest in the male beforehand at all, but literally as soon as I let her out of the breeder trap she checked out all the caves and invited the male in for some special time. Eggs later that night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted August 9, 2011 Report Share Posted August 9, 2011 Congrats on the fry, they look good, what type are they? Typical story there with a trio, although most of these apistos are harem spawners it does need a fairly big tank with lots of cover to work, otherwise the male and first female to spawn beat the snot out of the 3rd wheel.. Seperation and feeding the fish up does seem to work well to condition them though. I wait until the fry are actually swimming not hopping off the ground.. A little tiny bit of food wont hurt just to observe what they are doing - you should be able to tell if they are eating.. But if your tank is established with some plants in it etc then the fry will have plenty to graze on so wont starve. Is the male still in the tank? And are you planning on leaving the fry with the female or seperating them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunbird73 Posted August 9, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 9, 2011 They are the redtails that came in recently. The female is quite nice, has a bit of colour on her tail & dorsal fin as well so hopefully if I can grow the babies they will have good colour too. I am planning on leaving them with the female (half the fun is watching her with them ), the male got kicked out as soon as I saw the eggs. She has moved them out of the cave this afternoon, I put the tiniest drop of diluted liquifry amongst them with a syringe & airline tubing, some appear to be picking around but not a huge amount of activity yet so I will not feed them anymore until I see them swimming & actually picking at things - hopefully tomorrow afternoon? Yes, interesting about the harem. So many places say that a 60/30/30 would be ok for a small harem - and also say that a single female will get beaten up by the male in a smaller tank like this, so two females are preferable. But as soon as I had trouble and searched aggressive female caca, there were many ppl that say pair breeding is the only thing that works for them, and they have lost females to a dominant female in a harem. :facepalm: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted August 9, 2011 Report Share Posted August 9, 2011 very cute Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Posted August 11, 2011 Report Share Posted August 11, 2011 Wow that is very cool! Well done and the fry are gorgeous! That female is stunning! And the pic quality is excellent! Could you take some pics of the male please? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunbird73 Posted August 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 11, 2011 I can try, he has been banished to the tank downstairs. My camera is not great, she was just very cooperative and had her babies literally right next to the glass. Taking pics of fish normally is an absolute nightmare with my camera, tried for ages yesterday to get a pic of DD's new dragon fighter but he just would not stay still long enough for my crappy camera! gah :an!gry She is lovely, for a while I thought she might have been a he because she has colour in her dorsal fin and her tail fin was a bit ragged when she came into the shop, so I couldn't see if it had points or not. So was vy pleased when she proved herself a woman Babies are out and about, tried to feed them a tiny bit of soaked decap BS but their mouths looked too small! There is lots of moss there so hopefully they get enough from that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the-obstacle Posted August 11, 2011 Report Share Posted August 11, 2011 Congratulations! I find they always seem to find more than enough food in my planted tank with bits of flake that get missed by the bigger fish. They also seem to like to snack on the algae that's growing on bits of rock or wood. I seem to lose mine at about week 4 so if you're keen to keep them I'd remove the mum and all other fish in the tank after a week of showing the fry what and where to eat. How did I know Joe would want a picture of the male? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myfishybuisness Posted August 11, 2011 Report Share Posted August 11, 2011 Wow that is very cool! Well done and the fry are gorgeous! That female is stunning! And the pic quality is excellent! Could you take some pics of the male please? pics+1 please Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted August 11, 2011 Report Share Posted August 11, 2011 I can try, he has been banished to the tank downstairs. My camera is not great, she was just very cooperative and had her babies literally right next to the glass. Taking pics of fish normally is an absolute nightmare with my camera, tried for ages yesterday to get a pic of DD's new dragon fighter but he just would not stay still long enough for my crappy camera! gah :an!gry She is lovely, for a while I thought she might have been a he because she has colour in her dorsal fin and her tail fin was a bit ragged when she came into the shop, so I couldn't see if it had points or not. So was vy pleased when she proved herself a woman Babies are out and about, tried to feed them a tiny bit of soaked decap BS but their mouths looked too small! There is lots of moss there so hopefully they get enough from that. Hmm sounds like you might need to make it along to the next fish club meeting We are having a photographer and fish keeper along to give us some tips on taking pics They should eat decap, but will go for foods that are moving like microworms and hatched brineshrimp better.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunbird73 Posted August 23, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2011 Well, fry numbers dropped to 10 visible from 50 then to 1, day before yesterday. Haven't seen any yesterday or today when I fed some microworms so have the male about to go back into the tank. He is currently floating in a bag and the female is bright yellow again when near him and reacting fairly aggressively towards him through the bag. So ... too soon? Shall I keep them separated a while longer (it was an opportunistic catch - he wandered into my trap when I was trying to catch cory's :roll: ) I thought about taking her out but dunno about feeding an apparently empty tank :dunno: edited *scratch that* Have just put him back. Will keep her on her own for another week and feed her up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the-obstacle Posted September 1, 2011 Report Share Posted September 1, 2011 Check your cannister (if you have one) - I often find some in there. I give them a month or 2 before cleaning out the filter then catch them in a net as I rinse out the mulm in the bottom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunbird73 Posted September 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 1, 2011 No sadly, this tank is in the kitchen so I can watch it and has an eheim pickup filter in it. I checked it anyway (clutching at straws!), nothing. When I was watching her with her very last fry, she gave him an almost agressive look/body positioning when they were eating. So I think she got to him the next day. Shame cos he was looking very active and healthy, I should have taken him out! I have put the male back in now, but they are both still quite aggressive to each other. It is a different male and he may just be too aggressive for her? He is in the dogbox/breeder trap at the moment, will let him out again tomorrow to see if he will behave. Otherwise may have to try the original male - who is nice, but not *quite* as good colour in his tail as the one in atm, but he had better manners towards the female. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the-obstacle Posted September 1, 2011 Report Share Posted September 1, 2011 I just went and checked mine and cleaned out the cannister but there's nothing but clean water in there after 3+ months. I also noticed that my male is dying He's about to apisto on me and none of the babies have grown up to replace him. Oh well, I might look at replacing him once I've moved house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunbird73 Posted September 26, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 26, 2011 bummer. I have one worse.... my first redtail male apisto'd a couple weeks back but still had my most beautiful red tail left strong and healthy, just waiting for them to start breeding again. Today I did a water change with just a hose siphon, had fingers on the end and everything but I looked away for a fraction of a second at another fish and he blardy went up the siphon! No saving him, massive injuries. So gutted cos he was big and healthy and beautiful. :an!gry :facepalm: :tears: :tears: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Posted September 27, 2011 Report Share Posted September 27, 2011 :tears: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the-obstacle Posted September 27, 2011 Report Share Posted September 27, 2011 stink. I lost my male and female in the end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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