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Acara breeding Tank

4K views 13 replies 4 participants last post by  Zuni 
#1 · (Edited)
This is just a journal to track the progress of my pair of zebra acara.
They've already spawned once in my 55, but the eggs disappeared, not sure if it was the parents or the tankmates.
They've Spawned again, In their own tank. Hopefully it'll be a successful spawn.

The breeding tank.

By stupid_zuni at 2012-08-14
Female laying eggs.

By stupid_zuni at 2012-08-14
Male fertilizing.

By stupid_zuni at 2012-08-14
 
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#2 ·
Wow. Ivanacara adoketa aren't easy to spawn. I think they're one of the most unique cichlids out there. They aren't cheap, either...
 
#3 ·
They'll spawn when they're ready, just have to have patience. I just keep the ph at 6, I also feed them frozen mysis shrimp, and freeze dried blood worms.
These are actually my first cichlids, I wanted something a little more uncommon. I went on aquabid and saw these fish, they looked so different, I'd seen apistogramma's at my lfs, but these were so much more.... exotic...
I did some research and found out they weren't that hard to care for, So I just bought 'em, glad I did too, so much more personality than tetras.
 
#5 ·
All the eggs were gone this morning.
The fish were behaving... Strangely.
The female would hide in corner, whenever she came out the male would flare up, and snap at her.
Afterwards he swam away with the female following him and just floated up like he was dead, he also lost all his color when he did this.
The female then turned horizontally and started showing off her colors, which were really intense by the way.
Then they swam off together. Didn't see what happened afterward, had to go to work.
Very interesting fish.
 
#7 ·
Added some leaves to the tank a while back, this pictures old.

By stupid_zuni at 2012-09-13
Anyways, today I had to take them out because they were breaking down, when I took one of the pots out it had some eggs in it.
I'm not sure when they spawned, and I'm not sure whether to leave the eggs in there or take them out.
I'm sure I spooked them when I was cleaning the tank though, but still...

By stupid_zuni at 2012-09-13
Also, I think I might have another pair. I bought two females and put them in a 10 gallon tank. after they had settled in I introduced the male. The next day the females were fighting over him, I removed the one that spent the majority of its time in the top corners of the tank, which I'm guessing was the less dominant one.
 
#8 ·
These fish are very frustrating, They'd spawn but the female kept eating the eggs.
So, with three females, and two males, I decided to try something kind of crazy.
I put all of them in my main tank. I knew the males were going to do something to show dominance. Note: I was watching them very closely, the whole confrontation lasted about 20 minutes. Also, 1 confirmed pair was put in, this will be kind of important in a bit. I acclimated the unconfirmed pair and added them to the 55, 1 female was already in there. I then acclimated the confirmed pair and put them in.

The Males immediately began to circle each other, they locked jaws and began to swim in circles. Eventually the one with the darker vertical stripes won and chased the other off. They tolerate each other, and haven't had any confrontations in 3 days. My guess is that it was just to prove who was superior.

This was the female of the unconfirmed pair, the females also locked jaws but their confrontation only lasted about 10-15 seconds. This is now, the new dominant female.

So, My original pair broke up, and now these are the dominant adoketas in the tank. Everybody is doing well, and living peacefully.
I'm hoping they'll pair off soon, they have already showed interest in each other, maybe this female won't eat her eggs:fish1:
 
#9 ·
The female has gotten noticeably fat, this is weird, because whenever the original pair spawned I wouldn't notice the female get any fatter.


They've also settle down in a clay pot on the Right side of the tank.
The Male stays inside, and the female just lurks on the outside.
for some reason she keeps nipping at the top of the pot.
Also you can see her spawning tube (?).



This is just a shot of the whole tank.
 
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