The Duchess - Female Aggassiz's Dwarf Cichlid Guarding Her Eggs

Lovely video, it shows the behaviour very nicely. She is chasing away some tiger barbs that are much bigger than she is.

Thank you for the kind words.

I hope The Duchess manages to fight off the attackers for the next few days, I reckon she's lost almost half of her eggs so far. 

Yeah, even accounting for her eating some, I think she's got a hard battle ahead.

She's a lot more aggressive today even, and sticking right to the side of the coconut shell shielding the eggs with her flanks.

I'm so impressed by her tenacity and courage! I really hope she's rewarded with a few surviving offspring.

I've started with the Liquifry drops today so we're all remaining positive.

Thanks Anne. 

Oh dear, I just checked the nest and there are only four eggs left.

I gave my cockatoos a selection of 'caves' and found that they usually chose the one with the smallest entrance, though one female did go for a hollow at the top of a tall piece of wood. So making the entrance smaller fits in with that.

The only safe way to see them breed and watch the parental behaviour though is a separate tank. When I did that I knew from previous experience that the male in question was an incorrigible egg eater so I had to remove him once he'd done his bit leaving the female alone with her eggs.

I had to do some fish shuffling to give the 60 litre to the apistos  Then it was all for nothing when the tank started to leak. I suppose it could have been worse, the 60 litre could have been full of fish instead of just the female apisto and fry. The female had to go back in the 125 litre and the fry into the QT. Once I replaced the tank I never tried breeding them again.

I've had both Apistogramma cacatuoides and A borelli spawn several times in my community tank over the years. Apart from that one occasion when I set up the 60 litre for them, the eggs or fry have always been eaten.

There are perhaps 15 or 20 eggs left this morning, and I'm certain she ate them this time.

Oh well. She's only young, plenty of time to get it right one day.

Hopefully in a couple of weeks she'll go for third time lucky.

I appreciate that it's unlikely the eggs will survive, but it is fascinating watching the behaviour surrounding the spawning and nesting process.

Each time has been slightly different from the last. Some of the new behaviour may well be related to the different tactics I'm employing to try and enable The Duchess to maintain a viable clutch. I'm determined to give her the best chance seeing as she's putting in the maximum amount of effort.

This time I put a largish pebble in the entrance to her nest. This is designed to block access for any Tiger Barbs, whilst still allowing good water flow and visibility.

I came back from work today and had to laugh. The Duchess had managed to place a small pile of fine gravel on top of the pebble. I would love to have seen her spitting pieces of gravel onto her pebble, even more so I'd love to know why she did it.

My wife is convinced she was decorating.
I'm wondering if she was hollowing out the nest to give it some more depth.

Anyway, whatever the reason, whatever the outcome, it's such fun to observe.

I highly recommend a pair of Dwarf Cichlids in a community tank if you have the space.