Juvenile Apistogramma Cacatuoides

I had a pair of cockatoo cichlids spawn on 4 April, a couple of weeks before their tank started to leak. I had already moved the male to my 125 litre as he was an egg and fry eater, leaving me with the mother and fry in the 60 litre. When the tank started leaking I moved the female into the 125 with the male, and as many fry as I could catch into the QT. I didn't dare put mum in with them in case she got so stressed by the move she ate them. I managed to catch 15 fry. Given they were only about 2mm, that was quite an acheivment!

Fast forward, and there are now 5 juveniles, 2 definite males and 3 unknown. There is a problem with these cichlids - sleeper males are subdominant males that take on female appearance to avoid being picked on by the dominant male. The 3 unknowns could be females or sleeper males. They are all still quite small as cockatoo cichlids reach maturity around 9 months and these are not quite 6 months old.

Since April, there have been a few changes. I gave away the father of these fry as it was a bit dicey having both him and the gold male in the same tank - it was OK till I had to move the female in there too, and I wanted to breed her with the gold male next. Then the gold male died, leaving me with just the female and the fry.
I now have the adult female and one male juvenile in the new 50 litre; this isn't ideal as there is a male betta in there too, and I'm worried what will happen when the male matures enough to want to breed. So this male is up for adoption. The other male and three unknowns are in the 125 litre, living together quite happily at the moment.

Here they are:






As you can see I had to tempt them with a food pellet to get them to pose for the camera  The male's fin extensions have recently started to grow, they will get a lot bigger as he matures. And the 3 unknowns go yellow when they are excited ie feeding time. Only time will tell if they really are all females.


Edit - How do you use the attachments thing at the bottom of the box? I managed to attach one pic, no idea how, but it was tiny. So I gave up and used Photobucket! I had to resize the photos. They're not right but at least after several edits, they do now fit on the page!!!!

Apistos are south American dwarf cichlids. They like soft acidic water and do well in planted tanks. They don't eat them or even dig them up like other, larger cichlcids. There are several species of Apisto, cacatuoides (cockatoo) and agassizi being the most common, and the ones with various colour morphs of yellow/orange/red. A borelli is reasonably common, that's a pale blue one. I should say, those are the colours of the males. Females are always greyish with a bit of colour on the tail, or yellow when settled and bright bright yellow when spawning. There are other drwaf S. American cichlids too, all do well in planted tanks and like soft acid water (though I have an alkaline pH, cactuoides manage fine, as you can see they even spawn!)

Test post to try attaching pics 



It worked! Thanks Chucklett 




Though I'm not sure this way to add pics is useful for multiple photos, like the ones Murf has done for his tank project.

I wonder if Murf used photobucket?

Absolutely agree with you on multiple photos. I like being able to scroll down the page and see the photos in full, especially if Im comparing pics (eg. Murfs tank set up). I was in a hurry when I uploaded my loach photos, so I dont know if theres a way of getting them to appear bigger. Its possible I resized the loach pics a bit too small to begin with?

I will have a play around with it when I get time and let you know if I figure a way of doing it. I dont use the likes of photobucket.......

Glad to have helped you out for a change! 

Yeah I did Chucklett .... not fussed on the thumbnails thingy at all

Awsome looking apistos sue. I do love good cacatuoides. Just rehomed some A.noberti fry, 2 males and a female i think. They might be breeding again, did you say you might like some on the old forum, if you so let me no. Will have to try photobucket, i too like scroll down and see all the pics in full too.

Oh no thats not good with the growth on platak, but at least hes still eating and fiesty. That sounds like a lot of shuffling round. Although that 50 ltr sounds ideal for a pair they will love it. As soon as i see fry again i will let you no. I never see them till there quite big the female guards them and keeps them well hidden. The male seems to be guarding something at the mo so fingers crossed.

The sounds like typical female apisto . My male seems to help which is a bit wierd. The female guards the immediate area around the fry and he guards the rest.

At least you caught it early if it is that, still a shame but at least he is going to live out his life happy and well cared for.

Just an update 

I have a piece of wood in my tank, the shop said it was mangrove root. It is tall and thin; it has a flat bottom and goes up to a point. Along the length it has hollows, some going quite deep. The snails and shrimps love this piece of wood, the snails especially graze on it and the sand around it's base is regularly covered in wood that has been through the snails' digestive system.
Because of the shape of the wood, it falls over quite easily so I have to put it in a bucket while I do a water change or it would get in the way falling all over the place. I did a water change just before lunch on Thursday last week, and put the wood back in after lunch. It was out of the tank for a couple of hours.
On Friday morning, I discovered the apistos had spawned. They must have done it after I put the wood back or the eggs would have dried out. So the eggs were laid Thursday afternoon/evening or first thing Friday morning.
As I said above, the female chose a hollow that went upwards into the wood, there was no base to her 'cave'. I wondered what would happen when the eggs hatched. These fish attach the eggs of the roof of he cave. The eggs hatch in aroung 48 hours but the fry are not free swimming. They are called wrigglers and wriggle around on the floor of the cave for several days before becoming free swimming.
On Sunday morning, I noticed the female had moved. She's now defending another hollow that goes downwards into the wood. And she has wrigglers. Yesterday when she came out to feed, a couple of the fry followed her up to the entrance.

Remember I said the snails like this wood? She's just had a frantic 5 minutes trying to evict a zebra nerite from her cave. I couldn't get my fingers into the hollow to get hold of the snail so I watched to see what happened. The female was pecking at the edge of the snail but it ignored her and kept going. Eventually it couldn't get any further and turned round wih the female still pecking at the edge of the shell. The snail is now on the other side of the wood, but it must really have upset the female as she is chasing any fish that comes within 6 inches. There is a ledge just visible through the entrance; there are 3 fry sitting on it. Their development looks very close to leaving the cave.


My previous apistos always chose a plant pot cave or a plastic log ornament to spawn in. There, the eggs were vulnerable to the loaches. This newish piece of wood seems to be a much better place. The loaches don't go in caves that high up; the neons and endlers don't go in caves at all; and the gouramis are too big to fit.

But the fry will become free swimming in a day or so. Unfortunately, I don't give them much chance of survival then. But I don't have anywhere to raise more apisto fry   

I've just in looked in my 125 litre and had a big surprise.


If you look back through this thread, you'll see that back in September 2012 I had 5 juvenile cockatoo apistos, 2 males and three unknowns. I gave away 1 male and 1 unknown (which looked very like a female) leaving me with 1 male, 2 unknowns. In November, the male spawned with 1 unknown, and has spawned regularly with her since then. The two unknowns looked very similar, the only way I could tell them apart was that the female that was spawning has more orange on her tail than the other. But I was convinced the second unknown was a female as it regularly went yellow and the female that was spawning chased it across the tank when she had eggs.
I've noticed recently that the second unknown has been looking much greyer, I thought it was a stressed female - after all it was getting chased quite a lot considering the way the other two have been spawning.

Today I realised that unknown number two is a male. It has grown dorsal fin extensions and it's tail is colouring up like the other male's. I know that this species has things called sleeper males; subdominant males that take on female appearance to avoid being attacked by the dominant male. But I didn't know they went to the extent of going yellow, I though they just had short fins and non-breeding female colours  it just shows how wrong you can be.

What to I do with him? He'll have to go in the 50 litre for now, but he'll eat all the endler fry.

Anyone want a male Apistogramma cacatuoides?!?!


The pics are:
The one I've always known is male
The definite female, the one that has regularly been laying eggs (I don't think sleeper males go quite that far)
The sleeper male, a bit blurry but he wouldn't keep still.





And please ignore the scratch on the glass. That's what happens when you get sand caught in your algae scraper 

Just wait till Multiple Tank Syndrome sets in, you can get lots of bigger tanks and have any fish you want