Cockatoo cichlid breeding

[Undawada]

I bought 4 cockatoos (A. cacatuoides) from a breeder, 2 males and 2 females. I am pretty sure they are all from the same batch of fry. They are orange flash variety.

I am trying to find someone who breeds cockatoos to trade females with to prevent inbreeding. Do the females have to be orange flash as well? What would the fry look like if the females were different?

 

[pnyklr3]

No, they don't have to be orange flash. If you got a triple red, for example, the fry would be: orange flash, triple red (or double), or some combination of the two. Also remember that even through the resulting fry will look like a triple red, it could produce orangle flash offspring (due to its genetics).

One piece of advice, pick up some more females; cockatoos usually have a harem of females. The females have small territories that are encompassed within the male's larger territory. They do best in trios (1M 2F) or 1M : 3F.

 

[snowyangel]

Just had to comment, this fish is so beautiful. I plan to buy some one day when I'm not such a cheap lady, lol. Hey your only in ottawa i would totally buy fry from you Undawada...

 

[Undawada]

One piece of advice, pick up some more females; cockatoos usually have a harem of females. The females have small territories that are encompassed within the male's larger territory. They do best in trios

I know, I ordered 4 from the breeder and assumed I would get 1 male and 3 females, instead I got two pairs. Silly, I know.

Now I'm stuck deciding if I want to keep my 2 males and 4 to 6 females or one male and 2 or 3 females.

 

[Peter Lovett]

Have ready in more than one thread by more than one person on that A. cacatuoides should be kept in trios IMO is a little bit miss leading. I'm not say they can't be kept as trios but that they can equally be kept as pairs. Most breeder use pairs as under because it is easyer to raise the fry because you never have fry at diffrent ages.

One of the main reasons for keep Apistogrammas in trios is it spreads the males aggression / desire to spawn and may be considered more normal. In the wild females will only spend time in a males territory when they are ready to spawn if not the male will chase them away. In the aquarium the female can find it hard to get away from the male and the male can harass the female to its death. But one thing that should be rememebered when keeping a trio is that if one female spawns and the other female is not ready to do so the non spawning female become a target for both the male and the female.

 

[pnyklr3]

Agreed about the aggressive bit.

IME, most people on here that are getting into apistogramma are not looking to become breeders for their area and lfs. Many just enjoy watching them, and are happy if their apistos spawn and successfully raise the fry (but don't go completely out of their way to make sure it happens).

For breeders, it just makes sense to have pairs because of the differing fry ages and because of the potential loss of fry.