New Cockatoos

[FoundMoney]

About a month ago I bought a pair of cockatoo cichlids. Unfortunately, they didn't do too well. The male died after about 3 days and the female developed some kind of eye trouble. This was very disappointing and I was hesitant to get more fish, especially since I was concerned with the welfare of the female. The eye seems to have suffered permanent damage and she seems to be blind in one eye.

Despite my previous reluctance, yesterday I took a trip to my favorite lfs and they had a new shipment of cockatoos in. There were two double red males and at least three or four females. I studied the fish for about 15 minutes then decided they looked healthy and bought a pair.

There were two males in the tank, both of which looked rather healthy, but one was double the size of the other and looked more colorful. I asked the guy if he knew the age of the fish and he was hard pressed to answer me. He said it is quite possible that they are both the same age but that one is just more healthy than the other. He also said that there is no guarantee that the smaller one would develop finnage as colorful as the larger one. My gut instinct was to take the smaller one but after considering it, I decided on the larger, mostly because I thought he might be a bit hardier. Incidentally, even without asking, the lfs gave me the male for free since I told them the other male had died.

Now I have all three in my tank and so far, so good. I acclimated the new fish to my tank by addng tank water to the bag, 2 oz at a time, for about an hour. I left the lights off all night. This morning all the fish look healthy, although it is still early days. The "old" female with the bad eye seems to be doing quite well and she actually seems to be the dominant fish at this point. This is good news as I thought she might get picked on due to her disability.

It's been fun watching them interact so far. The old female seems to be very interested in the male but he is not paying much attention. At the same time she seems to be bullying the new female, but in a sort of playful way. She is not nipping her or anything but puts her body against her, kind of like doing the bump or something.

Keep your fingers crossed that these fish do better than the last ones.

 

[Kameira]

They sound like they're doing well.
Why does the dominant one always have some disability or something? Maybe it makes them look tougher.

 

[black angel]

I'm pleased your new fish are doing so well, even if it is early days. Our own lfs doesnt stock cockatoos but they look like lovely cichlids. Good luck with them and keep us updated on the progress

Kameira, you do know you cant promote other forums dont you?

 

[nc_nutcase]

Please do keep us informed. It was the Double Red Cockatoo that made me decide to start a dwarf cichlid aquarium. I'm about a month away from being ready to start their tank. So let me know what I'm in for!

 

[FoundMoney]

They sound like they're doing well.
Why does the dominant one always have some disability or something? Maybe it makes them look tougher.

Good question. It could be one of two things (OK, it could be anything but anyway). Either she is compensating for her lack of sight or she's dominant because she was there first. She is also bigger than the other female.

 

[FoundMoney]

Please do keep us informed. It was the Double Red Cockatoo that made me decide to start a dwarf cichlid aquarium. I'm about a month away from being ready to start their tank. So let me know what I'm in for!

I saw your post about starting the cichlid tank. I wish I could have a bit larger tank as I'd like to have another pair of cichlids but with a 30 gallon I think one pair is all I can stock. My wife would kill me if I bought a bigger tank. She almost threw me out when I came home with the 30 gallon!

The double reds are very nice. I think they might be the most beautiful cichlids, even nicer looking than most Africans, which I have always admired. My last male was actually an orange flash, which is also a beautiful fish.

 

[lucky62]

Better luck this time , keep us informed

 

[gwlee7]

Keep going. We are rooting for you FoundMoney.

 

[FoundMoney]

So far, so good. The new female is out and about eating almost as voraciously as the old female. The male is hiding but I caught him nibbling some flakes when I fed them this afternoon. I think he's going to be alright.

 

[pnyklr3]

Wow, congrats! You are lucky that your male eats flake....mine won't touch it, but the females will. Are you planning on breeding them? The best thing about cockatoos is the way the females parade the fry around the tank! And if more than one female has fry, the fry will intermingle and be raised by the "other" female. Also, if a female happens to be an Orange flash decendant, you are in for a treat with the fry! Good Luck with this bunch. Cockatoos ar not hard to raise, as long as the nitrates stay low.

 

[FoundMoney]

The funny thing is that the older female won't touch flakes, but both of the new additions were eating them today. Once the male feels more comfortable, I'm sure he's going to demand his bloodworms.

I'm not trying to breed them, per se. I'm just going to let nature take its course. If they breed great. If not, I won't be disappointed. Actually, if I do breed I'll be scrambling to try and keep the fry alive. I've never raised fish before!

 

[FrAnK3333]

Hope it turns out alll ok, I remember reading about your cockatoos, sucks what happened.

 

[nc_nutcase]

not sure what its worth... but just a thought...

I have a breeding pair of convicts who lost their entire first brood to predators (Pacus mostly). Now they are alone in a 29 Gal and the male has a well established territory he obviously wants to mate in and the female has no interest and avoids the male. I think loosing her first brood may have scared her a bit at taking a second try. The first brood mentioned was both of their first…

If my theory is right… the point is… discourage breeding until you are ready to assist your fish properly. Keeping the temp at their lower end of proper is the simplest way to do this.

 

[FoundMoney]

Yeah, it did suck. I'm glad the female survived anyway. I've been good about keeping the water quality high. I haven't had any problems with any other fish so maybe those two were just overly stressed. I spent more time acclimating them to my tank water too so maybe that will help. I'm cautiously optomistic this time.

 

[FoundMoney]

Unfortunately, it's happening again. Over the last day, the male became more and more reclusive and is now struggling to survive. The female is also in hiding but I can't see her right now and I don't want to fool around with the tank too much. I just did a water change and turned off the lights to relieve stress.

I checked the water parameters and everything seems fine, with the exception of the pH which was around 7.2. This is the only thing I can think of that is causing problems for these fish. My tap water measures out around 6.8. When I do a water change the tank measures about 7.0 but creeps up to around 7.2-7.4 after a few days. Maybe when I get new cockatoos I have to change the water every 24 hours or so until they get acclimated.

It's also possible that there is something wrong with the stock since I got both males from the same store. However, none of my other fish have ever had any problems and they were in the tank for a few days at the lfs.

I really want to keep these fish but it's a major bummer when they die. Not only does it make me sad but it's hard to explain to my 2 year old daughter. She gets attached to the fish quickly. Maybe I need to consider some other type of fish, but now I'm going to have at least 1 and possibly 2 female cockatoos - that is of course provided there is no miracle recovery.