# Other Aquarium Forums > Freshwater Fauna > Cichlids >  Apistogramma agassizii "Río Tefe Cacadora"

## naturalmystic

Bought 3 pairs from bro SCOPE last month (Joe, out of 6, I think only one "developed" to be a female  :Grin:  )

Past few days, the female (around 3cm) has been very aggressive towards all of my other tank inhabitants, including the male (around 4cm).
2 innocent Pygmy Cories and 1 Otos had already succumbed and are now swimming happily in fishy heaven.

Checked the tank last night, saw around 20 fries out in the open.
The main danger will come from my 20 Sparkling Gouramis, who as I typed, are hovering around the area.

Tried to take some pictures but somehow my camera is stuck at 4x zoom (16x zoom max).
Figured I need at least 10x zoom to take a good picture.

Here are some crappy pictures; not sure if the fries are visible at all  :Grin: .
They are on the driftwood.
Picture of male is at 8x zoom while female is at 4x zoom.

----------


## Fingerling

Great job. Congrats on your spawn.  :Wink:

----------


## mobile2007

congrat for the spawn. 

Looking at pic #1, the male still not quite fully matured ? Not much color shown yet and the tail still not towards "spade" shape.

----------


## shrimppaste

WAH! I bought from Brother Joe at the same time. How come mine still like small fish like that. SO young can spawn already???

----------


## joopsg

If you keep them in small tank, they will grow slower.
If you want to let them grow faster, pump them up with frequent feeding plus live feed.
Live feed is a risk no doubt.

----------


## shrimppaste

My male looked like natural mystics so I guess it's still very young. I guess love can wait haha.

----------


## naturalmystic

I was surprised too to see the spawn.
The adult size should be 1cm more for both right?

----------


## exotic_idiot

No, they will spawn once the conditions are right and compaible pair..
Lucky that you brought more than a pair, that way they will pair up more easily.
Sometimes it's still very small so very hard to sex them.. 
There's no 100&#37; gurantee even if you got a confirm pair..
Luck do plays a part.
Have fun, cheers

----------


## mobile2007

Acquired one pair of aggassizi cacadola from Joe sometimes back. Have to say Joe really have a sharp eye for sexing the fish at such young age.  :Well done:  ( I got another female from him after my original one died and now the pair started to do the mating dance.  :Grin: 


Taken this pics few weeks back. Note that the tail fin not yet developed into a spade shape and color and patterns not yet matured.

----------


## marle

Nice, even at such a young age the fish produce some stunning colouration.

----------


## iwishweallcouldwin

Great potential! Looks real cute :Smile:

----------


## mobile2007

thanks, marle and clint.

Not forgetting the otto shown in the second pics. It was the longest service crew i have, almost 3 yrs.  :Laughing:

----------


## fighting fish

wow very pretty fish! have to be another one of my considerations.

----------


## mobile2007

haha, to tempt you on this species, go and take a look at the link,

熱帯魚アピストグラマ アガシジー リオ テフェ カサンドーラ産【レヨンベールアクア】

----------


## naturalmystic

> haha, to tempt you on this species, go and take a look at the link,
> 
> 熱帯魚アピストグラマ アガシジー リオ テフェ カサンドーラ産【レヨンベールアクア】


Yup, I fell in love with it after looking at the RVA site too.
That's why I bought 3 pairs  :Grin: 
Anyway, my alpha male is showing some colours now but still far from its true potential.
My tank is 422 and it's difficult to zoom all the way to the back  :Sad:

----------


## mobile2007

Well, your aggassizi looks good. To take a closer pics, you can place a mirror close to the front side of tank. That way, it flares and also easier to take.

Japanese standard, not sure how they do it. Let's hope the fishes will developed into something that vibrant.

----------


## exotic_idiot

> haha, to tempt you on this species, go and take a look at the link,
> 
> 熱帯魚アピストグラマ アガシジー リオ テフェ カサンドーラ産【レヨンベールアクア】


Bro mobile, don't poison me please.. Very evil of you.. :Grin:  But again really very good buy, you've got a pair which could easily hit hundreds plus plus in the past.. I still remember how much i paid last year for a pair of Aga"manicore".. Wow.. Sweet..




> Yup, I fell in love with it after looking at the RVA site too.
> That's why I bought 3 pairs 
> Anyway, my alpha male is showing some colours now but still far from its true potential.
> My tank is 422 and it's difficult to zoom all the way to the back


422? Very big and spacious for them to swim around. But breeding a lot of problems..

Tell you guys, feed live food the best way to enhance their colours.. For that size which you both had, I would say within one month feeding of live brine shrimp sure colours all pop out.. Wait see till my eyes get shockt :Shocked:

----------


## shrimppaste

:Sad:  Looking at these fishes makes me sad!! I bought a pair from Scope too. It was a very very nice male. But the female attacked it and it jumped to its death. Then I got another male. Next morning I woke up, the fin was all torn and it was dying. Didn't survive wither. Sigh. AND!!! Joe said the Whole Taiwan no more tefe cacadora!!!! AHHH! Sad!!!!

----------


## joopsg

Ask Naturalmystic to sell you one submale, pal.
But will he be willing to let go?

----------


## exotic_idiot

Yup, or either way you can sell him your female too? Seems too hot for any guys to handle... Red chilli hot hot pepper... Yummy...!

----------


## illumnae

I got myself a pair of these earlier on...they've coloured up really well.

----------


## mobile2007

Surprise, surprise...  :Grin:

----------


## genes

Congrats! Thats a very pretty looking female. Great shot of her with the fries too!

----------


## mobile2007

thanks genes.  :Smile:

----------


## marle

Congratulations, your female looks pretty young yet fertile!

----------


## mobile2007

Sorry to bro naturalmystic for using his thread.  :Embarassed: 

Some updates 

Got only 11 fries from the first batch survived as i didn't net them out from the tank. I was horrified to see the male chewing on body of one dead fries.  :Mad:

----------


## joopsg

:Surprised: 
He is so nicely developed...
A lot of effort put in..

----------


## naturalmystic

Bro mobile2007,

No worries, we're here to share our experiences.
Last week, I finally saw another female.
The first female is guarding her 4th batch now, previous 3 all became fish-food.
I guess she has more experience now, 10 fries still surviving after 1 week.
The second female had just lost her first batch last night, she'll learn  :Smile:

----------


## shrimppaste

:Sad:  Anyone wants to sell me a tefe cacadora male  :Sad: ( My male died 2 times!! I bought two times twice died twice kana attacked by the female  :Sad:

----------


## joopsg

Shrimppaste, you gotten pay more attention to your apistogrammas. 
Especially when they start spawning..
Female tend to kill the male..

----------


## mobile2007

My 2 cents opinion, this type of agassizi is moderately aggressive. If got enough tank, best to house them in 2ft tank and lots of hiding sites. The virgin father can get very excited during the first close encounter, dancing all around the tank and chasing after the target.

----------


## naturalmystic

Bro shrimppaste,

I have a smaller male that is beginning to develop its colour.
and 2 even smaller males that somehow decided not to grow  :Sad: 

Since they are housed in my 422 with lots of driftwood, I'm not promising you anything.
If I can catch any, I'll PM you.

----------


## naturalmystic

> My 2 cents opinion, this type of agassizi is moderately aggressive. If got enough tank, best to house them in 2ft tank and lots of hiding sites. The virgin father can get very excited during the first close encounter, dancing all around the tank and chasing after the target.


I agree.
After watching Aga Netz in action, this type of aggression is a welcome sight.
The other tankmates suffer though, lots of death for my sparkling Gouramis and Dwarf Corys  :Sad:

----------


## shrimppaste

Well mine was housed in a densely planted 3ft tank and yet this still happened. Sighh.

----------


## mobile2007

Bro shrimp paste, just be more attentive for the male fish. If he get bullied by the female, maybe can net him out. Usually , if no other male fishes around, they grow really fast.  :Smile:

----------


## naturalmystic

Bro mobile2007,

What's the size of your fries after a month?
My dominant female is now left with 4 fries after 2 weeks, though there may be more hiding.
After 1 week of losing her first batch, my second female is aggressively guarding her cave; should be her second batch?
I observed that once the fries are free-swimming, the dominant female is no longer aggressive towards the dominant male.
The second female is giving the dominant male hell though.
Another interesting observation, when the dominant female comes face-to-face with the second female, the latter will avoid a confrontation at any cost.
This happens often as their territory is only about 10cm apart, separated by a huge driftwood.
I could spend hours just observing their behaviours  :Smile:

----------


## mobile2007

Most of them are like 0.5cm to 1 cm, after 1 month. Quite normal growth rate i think.

Interesting observations you have. That's why apisto is so much interesting right? Some people even prefer to get wild species only as they have more character.

One very interesting behaviour i witnessed, sometimes the other female fish will steal fries from another female under spawning. In the end, the fries also suffered alot of casualty.

----------


## SCOPE

> Interesting observations you have. That's why apisto is so much interesting right? Some people even prefer to get wild species only as they have more character.
> 
> One very interesting behaviour i witnessed, sometimes the other female fish will steal fries from another female under spawning. In the end, the fries also suffered alot of casualty.


That is the poison of apisto.....if you stay long enough to be poison by these...you discover even more unique characteristics and behaviors... Sometimes even some specie....different fish behave differently from each other.

----------


## naturalmystic

Update on an interesting find.

The left side of my tank is totally overgrown with Peacock moss.
Some had spread to my breeding area and totally covered the DWs and the caves.
I like it, more hiding places for the future fries.
The downside is I am not able to see anything beyond the moss  :Grin: 

Anyway, I just saw one of the females in breeding colour hovering at the top of my US Fissidens DW, height around 1.5 feet.
I observed closely and to my surprise, it made its nest smack inside the Fissidens.
She somehow made a small opening and nestled snugly right in.
It's difficult to even spot her once she's in.
I'm just wishing for the best for her fries.
Fries out in the open at that height will surely be doomed  :Crying:

----------


## naturalmystic

Been a while observing my Agassizii.
I felt pity for my beta male, seems interested to mate but never had a chance while the alpha male is around.
Set up my 1-footer as a breeding tank with a single coconut shell and placed the beta male and a beta female inside.

After 1 week, success  :Jump for joy: 
The beta male is being harrassed for a day now, time to throw him back to the 4-footer.

Oh ya, I found a perfect nursery for the fries - my Sakura tank.
They fed on the seed shrimps inside  :Grin: 
On the downside, I do not see any new shrimplets at all  :Sad:

----------


## exotic_idiot

Congrates on your new spawn...
BTW what's "beta"? :Smile:

----------


## sheng

Beta = second in command  :Smile: 



> Congrates on your new spawn...
> BTW what's "beta"?

----------


## SCOPE

Con-grates again! Nice sharing!

----------


## exotic_idiot

> Beta = second in command


Oic.. I still thought he mean Betta male and Betta female.. Haha
But why second in command?  :Laughing:

----------


## naturalmystic

No fries from the first spawn  :Sad: 
I guess the female was badly spooked while trying to remove the male (the pain of having too much hiding places).

In goes the beta male again  :Grin: 
Again success and this time I made sure that the male is delicately removed (near impossible)  :Knockout: 

This morning saw the proud mama and her fries out in the open - first-time mother, finally. Will take a picture once my wife remembered to bring the camera back from her workplace. Is there any best time to remove the mother? My first time breeding them in a 1-footer. Contemplating on placing all of them in my Sakura tank to snack on the seed shrimps.

My alpha female (aka baby-making machine) is also guarding her (15th?) brood in the 4-footer but I'm not expecting any fries to survive.

----------


## exotic_idiot

Bro, you can try to lure them out during feed time much easy to catch them surprisingly..!

----------


## naturalmystic

Managed to get a shot of the group this morning.
Hmm.. Seems like the number of fries is getting smaller, down from 40+  :Sad: 
Maybe the rest are hiding?  :Smile:

----------


## sheng

wow, the female so yellow in colour. 
Very nice

----------


## SCOPE

> Managed to get a shot of the group this morning.
> Hmm.. Seems like the number of fries is getting smaller, down from 40+ 
> Maybe the rest are hiding?


Wow...what a sight! congrates on your spawn

----------


## naturalmystic

An update on the group photo.
Hmm... Some fries grow faster than the rest.
Also my alpha female family in the 4-footer.
Working non-stop chasing the rest away.

----------


## exotic_idiot

I also encounter the same problem of uneven grow rates..
Some really big and some really small which i mean small as 1 big equals to 3 small but same age..?
My guess is the bigger ones intend to bully those smaller size and fight for food as i can see the smaller ones always get peck and chase around.

----------


## joopsg

Ben，this is normal. Usually the alpha or dominant ones will grow faster. If you keep them with the parents，the male will sort of give out some sort of chemical to slow down the fries' growth

----------


## genes

Chemical to slow growth? Interesting. Any literature?

----------


## joopsg

Sort of stunt growth thingy. But will resume growth when alpha remove

----------


## naturalmystic

I have 3 males that I bought from Joe.
The alpha male grew fast, as can be seen form the first few posts.
The beta male stopped growing; but went into hiding and suddenly its size is bigger than the alpha male. However, still being chased away by the alpha male.
The third male (charlie?) stopped growing altogether. It is about the size of my sole surviving Sparkling Gourami. I treat him as a backup just in case the beta male got fed-up and wage a counter-attack  :Grin:

----------


## genes

How big are your tanks guys?

----------


## naturalmystic

1x 4-footer planted community, 1x 2-footer planted nursery, 1x 1-footer planted breeding.
Expansion on hold pending CO's approval, been 6 months now  :Grin:

----------


## leepwj

> Bought 3 pairs from bro SCOPE last month (Joe, out of 6, I think only one "developed" to be a female  )
> 
> Past few days, the female (around 3cm) has been very aggressive towards all of my other tank inhabitants, including the male (around 4cm).
> 2 innocent Pygmy Cories and 1 Otos had already succumbed and are now swimming happily in fishy heaven.
> 
> Checked the tank last night, saw around 20 fries out in the open.
> The main danger will come from my 20 Sparkling Gouramis, who as I typed, are hovering around the area.
> 
> Tried to take some pictures but somehow my camera is stuck at 4x zoom (16x zoom max).
> ...


Happy spawning nice apisto.....

----------


## naturalmystic

> Is there any best time to remove the mother?


I just saw a dead fry; scooped the mother and placed her in the 4-footer.
I guess that answered my own question  :Grin: 
Remaining fries are about 1 - 1.5cm.

----------


## naturalmystic

Decided to move the fries (14 of them) to the shrimp tank.
Hopefully, there are enough seed shrimps for them.
Picture of my shrimp tank; please excuse the GSA, scrubbing them off on the weekend  :Grin:

----------


## naturalmystic

Mug-shots of the fries in their new home:

----------


## naturalmystic

And finally, the love-nest; where it all happened.
Thanks to Bro Scope for giving me the delightful coconut.
The male would take cover behind the rocks on the right-hand side.
The rocks in front of the coconut makes it a formidable fort.
There are 3 pipes behind the rock for their courtship activities  :Grin: 
Leaving it bare for another week before introducing another pair.

----------


## apisto31

Congrats! good to see plenty of apisto lovers here...  :Grin:

----------


## apisto31

May I know how old is the Fries?

----------


## naturalmystic

Thanks bro.

Fries are about a month old.
14 survivors from this batch so far.

----------


## marle

on a side note, i really like the look of your shrimp tank.

----------


## naturalmystic

It's been a while since I last updated this thread; been busy de-commissioning my 4-footer and setting up 2-footers.

Paired-up my alpha male with the alpha female.
I must say this pair is very compatible; within 2 days, the female was chasing the male already  :Grin: 
Last Monday, the mother took the fries out for a walk in the park.
The mother, always keeping a watchful eye.

----------


## naturalmystic

Over at my shrimp tank, only 5 fries survived.
Will be moving them to my new 2-footer to make way for the new batch.

----------


## SCOPE

Con-grates on your breeding again

----------


## naturalmystic

Thanks Bro.

I replaced my 4-footer with 4 2-footers.
Will be able to respond to your apisto list now  :Grin:

----------


## sheng

How come the surviving rate in your shrimp tank is so low? 
You didnt feed the fry at all?




> Over at my shrimp tank, only 5 fries survived.
> Will be moving them to my new 2-footer to make way for the new batch.

----------

