Breeding My Cockatoos

[CamaroGurl]

I've got 4 double red cockatoos, 1 male and 3 females in a 30 gal tank. The temp stays at about 75F and ph at about 6.5. They are kept with 5 adult guppies, baby guppies, and 2 dwarf corries. All is fine with the fish, they don't fight. I've got caves too. Today I was cleaning the tank and planting some plants that had been floating at the top to give the baby guppies some cover (too many at top) and was planning to move a cave. When I flipped the cave over I saw a lot of tiny red eggs. Now I've read that they are prone to fungus growth and can't survive fungus treatment, but what else can I do to help my babies make it? I've looked for 5 years before I finally found some Cockatoos just the way I wanted them, figured if I was spending about $30 each I was going to get the perfect group, and I feel I did. My boyfriend has 1 male and 3 females in his 125 gal tank (got at the same time from the same place) and he still has no eggs. We're planning to put all my fish in a 50 gal by the end of summer, but now I'm thinking maybe I should leave them in the 30 gal. Also, if I move all my fish to a 50 gal could I get other types of Apistogrammas to go in the same tank or do you think they would fight?

Thank you so much for your help,
Laura

 

[LosC519]

Keep the water clean by doing frequent water changes, double condition the new water. Different Apistos should be fine in a 50g as long as they all share the same preferred temps.

 

[CamaroGurl]

Thank you for your help. Thankfully we get our water from a well so we don't have any chemicals added to our water and no need to treat it unless the hp is out of wack, which for the past 2 yrs (how long we've owned the house) has been neutral.

 

[LosC519]

No problem. Please keep us posted

 

[duncs]

Congratulations, Laura

Bear in mind that as [I presume?] they're first time parents, they might not get everything right straight away. If this batch doesn't succeed, I'm confident your fish will try again

Keep them on a good diet - frozen and live foods are excellent - and as LosC519 points out, do regular water changes. Other than that there's not much you can do until the eggs hatch.

Good luck

 

[CamaroGurl]

They are first time parents. So far they are very protective of the eggs. She will hardly even come out of the cave to eat, and at night she won't leave at all and he stays right outside the mouth of the cave. He has the most beautiful orange colors. This is my first time having fish that are not for novice. And the only reason I feel so comfortable about them is that I've done a lot of research and my boyfriend has had hard to keep fish for about 10 years of his adult life and as a child took part in the care of his parents fish. He's had great luck breeding leporinous (sp?) and bettas. What's really funny is that I wasn't really trying to get them to breed at all, just make them happy. His fish cockatoos don't even spend much time together, only thing I can think of is that his tank is too big for them (125 gal).

Laura

Congratulations, Laura

Bear in mind that as [I presume?] they're first time parents, they might not get everything right straight away. If this batch doesn't succeed, I'm confident your fish will try again

Keep them on a good diet - frozen and live foods are excellent - and as LosC519 points out, do regular water changes. Other than that there's not much you can do until the eggs hatch.

Good luck

 

[duncs]

So many variables when it comes to breeding fish Could be various water parameters - pH, hardness, temperature.. or could just be pure luck

 

[CamaroGurl]

Well, it appears that the mother ate the eggs, as I can find only 1 egg and no babies. But, she and one other female are trying to attract the male again. So who knows maybe I'll have 2 batches going at the same time. I've have mixed ideas about moving them from their 30 gal into a 55 gal. Some people say go for it and others say why mess with them when they are happy where they are now. What do ya'll think? If I don't move them I'm thinking of goin with some small Africans, if I do move them then I have no idea what I'm going to put in with them and what I'll get for the 30 gal. Any ideas?

Congratulations, Laura

Bear in mind that as [I presume?] they're first time parents, they might not get everything right straight away. If this batch doesn't succeed, I'm confident your fish will try again

Keep them on a good diet - frozen and live foods are excellent - and as LosC519 points out, do regular water changes. Other than that there's not much you can do until the eggs hatch.

Good luck

 

[duncs]

That's a question only you can answer

For one harem of cacatuoides I would suggest that 55 USG is probably a bit excessive. The problem becomes that of.. what do I put with the Apistos? Usually Cichlids tend to be centre-piece fish, and when you have three tiny Apistogrammas in a huge tank, they don't make much of a centre-piece.. and you can't put bigger centre-piece fish in there because of the aggression issues. One option on this front is a recently seen technique used for keeping Apistogrammas whereby the 55gal would be home to large numbers of Apistogrammas, trying to imitate their natural habitat. You might get 10 males and 20 females. This would make a hell of a setup, especially if researched and designed correctly.. but can obviously be problematic

Personally I would keep them in the 30gal and have a look around for the other tank. You could look at a pair of Blue Acara or some of the smaller African cichlids - there are many gorgeous Lake Victoria cichlids which don't grow much above 6 inches.

 

[CamaroGurl]

I also was thinking the 55 gal might be too big for just them as they are my center piece. From what I've read it's best to have 1 male to 2-3 females. We've got 1 male and 3 females in my tank right now and 1 male and 3 females in my boyfriend's 125 gal tank. In his tank they're not the center piece, his gouromies (sp?) are. The poor cockatoos are just swallowed up by his plants at the bottom. If he went for it, would it be ok to put all 8 cockatoos together? I know he'd like to have some more kribs. His last pair died when we moved them into the 30 gal. They got moved because they started spawning and we were afraid they would kill the cockatoos. At the time mine were in a 10 gal (they were just babies).

What about Angles? I keep reading about people having health problems with theirs though. I'd like a hardy little fish too. Thank you.

That's a question only you can answer

For one harem of cacatuoides I would suggest that 55 USG is probably a bit excessive. The problem becomes that of.. what do I put with the Apistos? Usually Cichlids tend to be centre-piece fish, and when you have three tiny Apistogrammas in a huge tank, they don't make much of a centre-piece.. and you can't put bigger centre-piece fish in there because of the aggression issues. One option on this front is a recently seen technique used for keeping Apistogrammas whereby the 55gal would be home to large numbers of Apistogrammas, trying to imitate their natural habitat. You might get 10 males and 20 females. This would make a hell of a setup, especially if researched and designed correctly.. but can obviously be problematic

Personally I would keep them in the 30gal and have a look around for the other tank. You could look at a pair of Blue Acara or some of the smaller African cichlids - there are many gorgeous Lake Victoria cichlids which don't grow much above 6 inches.

 

[duncs]

If you want to go down the mass-Apisto route, you need to really crowd them in the same manner Rift Lake cichlids are kept. In a 55USG I'd imagine at least 5 or 6 males and yeah 2 or 3 times that number of females. I've never tried it myself but have read up on it in a couple of books and it appears to work quite well.

Angels are excellent fish but, as you note, not the hardiest of species. As with all fish though, if they're kept well they shouldn't be any problem - keep the water quality high, the pH low and the hardness soft and fingers crossed you shouldn't have too many issues