# Laetacara Araguaiae spawned! Any chance in a community?



## magpie (Nov 12, 2011)

I posted a few months back. I wanted to see if I could get Laetacara and an Apisto living together in a community tank. I was told to try and get a couple male Laetacara and a male Apisto or two . Well, I tried to get two male Laetacara, but they are tough to sex at smaller sizes. Apparently I have a male and female.

I knew something was up - the larger of the two (male) used to chase the other at feeding time constantly. And at times when not feeding. There was no true aggression, but lots of chasing. Within the past week he became more tolerant of her near him. Then I did a water change yesterday, and then last night he started doing little fluttery dances at her, and they were swimming around a lot together. Tonight I came home to eggs on a sword leaf! They have been taking turns guarding them while the other goes out to look for food I'm guessing. (They are pigs.) They have chased the Apisto some, but again just chasing and not harassment or any true aggression at this point. They've chosen the back right corner, where the apisto's spot is a driftwood cave area in the front left corner, so that may be part of it. They also don't seem to be bothered by other fish near them right at the moment.

Obviously my goal was not to spawn these fish. But now that they have, is there any chance I'd be able to successfully raise some fry? Any resources or links for me? Do I pull the eggs, and when? Even if it doesn't work this time, maybe at least I can be prepared for the next time it might happen?

At the very least, it makes me extremely happy that they're that comfortable as they're wild-caught.

I'll come back with a couple photos later.


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## magpie (Nov 12, 2011)

Here are some photos.

The female









Food, please.









The male, showing off.









I wish I had videoed his little shimmy dance to her.









I dance for you, you dance for me.









Underexposed shot, but I like how their blue iridescence shows up.









Female guarding the eggs. Not a great shot - hard to get good ones through any depth of water. Not sure there is a way to make that any better, either. My best shots are usually those right near the glass where the water distortion is minimal.


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## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

That looks like an awesome tank. I would love a couple of full tanks shots.

And congratulations on the spawn, I am dead jealous.

As for the fry surviving. I have found that laetacara in general are good parents, so it depends what the other tank mates are besides the apistos, how complex the tank is and ho large as to the likely hood of survival.

In such a tank, there is likely to be enough micro fauna for very young fry to eat, but you could try making a home made brine shrimp hatchery out of a soda bottle. Just google brine shrimp hatchery and you should find plenty of videos and instructions on how to make one.

The fun will start around the 2 week mark, when the female finds it increasingly difficult to keep the more adventurous fry all together. If you have a spare smaller tank, I would get an air pump and spunge filter set up right away and throw the spunge filter in your main tank asap.

That way you could siphon some fry out and grow them out in a smaller tank and the sponge filter should be significantly seeded. You could also look to use water from the main tank for water changes on the fry tank for the first 4 weeks or so, and slowly dilute it with normal water more and more over the 4 weeks.

It would be a good idea to leave some fry with the parents if you do siphon off some fry to try and grow out. If the fry do survive in the community tank, I will be interested in your observations on the parental care. Especially if the male looses interest after about 2 weeks and leaves the female with sole care of the fry.


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## magpie (Nov 12, 2011)

The eggs hatched and the fry are so tiny I can barely see them. Both parents still very attentive and chasing everyone else away from their corner, so far no full-on aggression, just chasing. Continuing to cross my fingers that they won't kill anyone and that maybe a some fry will survive...

I will try to get some live BBS if I can... or at least first bites in case they live long enough. I'm hoping they have enough scrounging off the live plants etc. Right now I'm not sure how I could be sure that food could get to them unless I removed them from the tank.

Other tank mates are kuhli loaches and two gobies, I think they're probably the biggest threat. There was a recent bout of either gill flukes or some toxin from a branch I added in... I had a large number of deaths. I've been waiting awhile to add anyone new and was going to start a quarantine tank setup - may now need to be a fry tank!

So I also have 3 gertrudae rainbows, 1 poor lonely purple pencilfish, and 4 hatchets which shouldn't be any threat. I'm thinking when I add more it will likely be a larger group of pencilfish and then a larger group of hatchets and skip the rainbows, as pretty and unique looking as they are.


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## magpie (Nov 12, 2011)

Thanks for the tank compliment - here's my full-tank shot, though there are a few more plants filling in on each far side, and the right-side driftwood was pulled when I started having some deaths.










I'm really happy about the Laetacara as I haven't had them very long. And like I said, I wasn't prepared for spawning, so even if it doesn't work out this time, I'll be ready for next time!


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## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

Freshly hatched baby brine shrimp is best. The little herky jerky movement of bbs attracts baby fish. Easiest way to feed bbs is to siphon some up in a small syringe with a length of air hose attached on the end, that way you can squirt the bbs directly to the fry.

You probably wouldn't need to feed bbs untill fry are about 3 days old and have used up their egg sacs. Hopefully they would have found some micro fauna in the tank to snack on and would be large enough to feed on fresh bbs.


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## magpie (Nov 12, 2011)

They keep moving their fry - the first time it happened I saw the female in their spot, picking at the ground, with a kuhli loach snuffling around right there and no fry, and thought **** YOU, (you cute little lovable) KUHLIS!  But then later I saw that the male was still breeding-dark and still chasing the apisto, so I looked closer and saw that they dug a little pit and moved the fry to the other side of the tank. Then today, same thing - can't find one of them, searched through the plants, finally found the male guarding another different pit with the fry in it.

Is this typical for Laeatacara or are they doing this because they feel threatened by the others?


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## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

I've had three different species of Laetacara (and some apistos) do this. They move the fry around while the fry are still wrigglers and are not yet free swimming. It's a survival instinct to move fry to different spots so that it reduces the risk of predators finding fry that a kept in the same spot.


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## magpie (Nov 12, 2011)

This is all so fascinating. And that makes perfect sense, thanks.


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## benck8 (Aug 5, 2011)

I have 2 of these fish in my 75 gallon planted tank (I think they're both males but im waiting to see), and I am in love with their behavior and great colors. They love to chase each other around the tank and are little pigs when it comes to feeding time.  I'm really jealous of your spawn! I hope all goes well


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## a7oneal (Dec 30, 2004)

I love, love, love Laetacara. Your fish are beautiful and I really dig the tank. Congrats on the spawn!


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## little_b10 (Jan 29, 2008)

Great looking fish and awesome tank. Wish my plants would grow faster to fill out my tanks.


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## magpie (Nov 12, 2011)

Thanks all... little_b10 - you could get some more fast-growing plants for now, you can pull/trim them later when things grow out more. There are things like java fern that doesn't have to be planted in the substrate, so you could anchor it to something as a "filler." The brazilian pennywort is a great floating plant that you could throw in, too - it grows pretty quickly and adds a nice element that the fish really love. Or water sprite, frogbit, etc. Just an idea.


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## magpie (Nov 12, 2011)

The fry are definitely dwindling now that they're swimming more freely. I'm sure most of them will fall victim to the kuhlis and Apisto... Next time there will be a 10-gallon fry tank and live BBS ready for them!

But I thought you still might enjoy some photos. It's amazing how much these fish change their colors on a minute to minute basis. The breeding colors are gorgeous and I wish they'd keep them all the time.










Female (i call her be-bop  )









Male in front, (I call him Buck - couldn't help myself with the sp. "Bucklekopf"... I know, I know...)









This one was underexposed, so their colors are a little dark. Buck lower, Be-bop higher.









Be-bop









Get back over here! 









Be-bop, in another variation of the colors, stirring things up looking for food.


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## Chubbs the Jellybean (Jun 16, 2009)

Absolutely gorgeous tank and fish, congratulations on the spawn! I love the Laetacara species, they're on my wish list


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## magpie (Nov 12, 2011)

Thanks, and I think they're great little fish!


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## magpie (Nov 12, 2011)

OK, well none of the fry made it, though a few made it longer than I thought (found them swimming amongst the floating plants).

But the pair already spawned again! Is this going to keep happening or will there be a time where they give it a rest? How frequently do spawning pairs spawn?

If they keep going at this rate I'm going to have to rehome the Apisto as it's not fair to him to be continually chased. There are hiding spots, and they've done no damage, but when they are spawning they chase a lot more. When they're not spawning there's minimal problems, maybe a bit of food guarding but that's about it. If it was only going to be here and there, he'd be fine, but if it keeps happening like this he'll never get a break. I definitely did not anticipate this.

Looks like I have to get that fry tank going sooner than later...


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