[aliW]

Hi all,

Having a slow day at work so I thought I'd tell anyone who's interested about my progress keeping Apistos and ask a bit of advice re A. Viejita.

For background.. I posted a while back asking about the wisdom of keeping Apistos in a 10 gallon and (largely following advice from Microman set up a tank with 6 x Beckfords pencils and 3 x Aspidoras (not sure what species). I've got sand/bogwood and heavy planting with java ferns. My first foray into Apistos was with a male cacatuoides who did well for about 6 months and then inexplicably stopped eating and died (just when I had finally sourced a female!). So after a suitable period of mourning I went to the shop and bought a pair of Viejita (I think although from what I've read they could apparently be macmasterii or a hybrid right?). They are getting on OK but have become slightly locked into a cycle of aggression that I suspect is roughly normal but has me a bit worried.

Basically the male was pretty aggressive to begin with, then the female spawned and they seemed happy enough together guarding the fry when she brought them out. I am limited to just this tank so I didn't feed or separate the fry and after about a week free swimming the brood of 30ish was down to about 5. At this point she stopped harassing the pencils and apistos and became very aggressive to the male. He tried to hide from her for a day or two and then apparently decided he'd had enough. On the third day he was parading round the tank while she had lost her yellow colour and was skulking in the plants with a badly split causal fin (all fry gone). Anyway it's now a month later - her tail has healed fine and she's just gone yellow again and starting defending her cave . The male is now getting quite a rough treatment (earlier than last time since no fry have emerged yet) and has a bit of caudal damage which I think she probably caused.

So anyway, I guess my question is whether this cycle of alternating dominance and abuse is par for the course or should I worry. I suppose my main concern is that one will actually kill the other or cause an injury that gets infected and no having much cichlid experience I'm not too sure just how aggressive they get. Shoudl I stop worrying, or is there some way to reduce the aggresison (e.g. by making the female less likely to spawn) or should I just let them get one with things. The problem I have is no way to separate the fish - except by taking one back to the shop or giving one away (but most of my fish keeping friends are less experienced than I am so.. to be blunt that could be a death sentence).

Sorry - just realised that's quite a long post... I'll shut up now.

[stumac]

pls dont shut up this is the thing people want to read, progress updates etc. As they are cichlids they are general pushy characters if the female starts to look bad then it means he is too aggresive at that time, most aggressive behaviour will be posturing and pushing/casing etc without damage.

I would keep a close eye on it and if she is getting a hard time then u may try a different target or an extra female

[aliW]

OK - I won't shut up then ... By different target do you mean something instead of the pencils? If so any suggestions?

To be honest its more the male I worry about than her. When he's being aggresive he'll dart towards her but then stops as she flees. His aggression also seems quite linked to feeding time. On the other hand when she's in a bad mood she'll chase him right into a corner or up to the surface. So although she's the only one that seems to have sustained a physical injury so far I worry that he's getting quite stressed which obviously is not a good thing. I guess i was expecting her to take out her breeding aggression on the pencils but a lot of it is directed at the male. Still - its pretty cool watching their "personalities" change so quickly!

pls dont shut up this is the thing people want to read, progress updates etc. As they are cichlids they are general pushy characters if the female starts to look bad then it means he is too aggresive at that time, most aggressive behaviour will be posturing and pushing/casing etc without damage.

I would keep a close eye on it and if she is getting a hard time then u may try a different target or an extra female

[genes]

I get constant split fins when my apistos fight as well, sometimes its the male, other times the female. So i think the aggression is normal among dwarf cichlids. But take note only when the damage is extensive or that either party hides and turned dark grey. Thats where you should split them up.

[aliW]

OK - good to know someone else is getting split fins too! I will keep a close eye on both of them.

[aliW]

Just thought I'd post an update....
I turned the light off for a few days which gave the male a chance to recover a bit from the beating he was taking (the female was only harrassing him when she could see him). That seemed to calm things down a lot and then yesterday the female brought the fry out for the first time and things have got better again. She is sticking pretty close to the fry and not really paying him too much attention. He's keeping a healthy distance but he's not hiding or looking stressed any more.

[superdart]

Good news on the fry and hope you manage to rear them successfuly.........

[stumac]

explains a fair bit of the agro, best watch them close over the next week to see if he is allowed neer them, failing that she will drive him away or kill him if the tanks too small