A. cacatuoides - Do I have eggs?

[nightowl1350]

I just got 3 this past weekend, but they are tiny. (it was an auction not a store) I still can't tell if I have all females or not. Hope there is 1 male and 2 females. One does look a bit different, but not much and the fins on all are short right now.

At some point I would like to breed them! They are so cute!

Good luck with yours and the spawn if it is still there!

 

[MaxOverKill]

Just a thought in regards to the breeding thing. Maybe this isn't the right place to be posting it but it sounds like some of you are getting Apistos from the same batch. Doesn't it seem weird to be inbreeding them? Doesn't that start to weaken the strain of fish as far as health?

 

[pnyklr3]

My male was mature (given in exchange to my breeder) and the three females are from different batches, but the same father. As for inbreeding: At a certain point (the beginning of a breed, or in this case, color scheme) everything is inbred. That's the only way to keep getting the desirable traits. It has happened with the different breeds of dogs. I am going to do my best to keep my fry from inbreeding; I'll probably be getting another male along the line and keeping some of my female fry.

Nightowl (and anyone else who needs to know): the best way to determine if a young cacatuoides is male or female is not by color or size. All three of my females have some orange and black speckles on their tails; one of which is very colorful for female standards. When the females turn yellow to spawn, the orange gets more intense. The best way to tell a juvenile male form female is by the pectoral fins. They almost look like the fish's feet (I know I'm wierd). A female's pectoral fins always have a strip of black on the fronts of them. When they are ready to spawn, they become even more intense. The males do not have this. If anyone knows this to not be the case, let me know. But this has been foolproof so far.

 

[Griz]

Just a thought in regards to the breeding thing. Maybe this isn't the right place to be posting it but it sounds like some of you are getting Apistos from the same batch. Doesn't it seem weird to be inbreeding them? Doesn't that start to weaken the strain of fish as far as health?

You bring up a great question and it is something that I have recently been thinking about. I would be interested to hear what others have to say on the subject. In my case, any fry would either be kept by myself or given away. I have no intention of selling them to a lfs. I'm really just interested in enjoying the behaviour of the fish. Should I decide to get into breeding I think it would be best (generally) to use unrelated pairs but that's just an assumption on my part. I know that breeders of many different animals sometimes inbreed intentionally in order to reproduce certain traits. With dogs & cats for instance this must be done very carefully however to avoid problems. I'm not sure about dwarf cichlids.