How to breed Apistogramma cacatuoides

Introduction
When I originally started breeding fish for profit, I originally started with discus. Wanting fish that shared similar water conditions, I branded out to angelfish, rams, and Apistogramma. Since then, Apistogramma have become one of my all time favorite fish. If you’d like the ultimate guide to breeding these wonderful fish, continue reading on.

Tank set up
Apistogramma require hotter temperatures, and these no other answer to that question.  They need a constant temperature of 85 Fahrenheit to feel comfortable, and breed like they should. Straight off the bat, to perfectly breed apistogramma, they’ll require 8 tanks. To breed them with the highest quality, and as fast as possible, 9 tanks are a need. 6 10 gallon tanks, two 15 or 20 long tanks, and one necessary 20 gallon long. 15 gallon tanks are perfect for a more focused breeding, as if the plan was to bring out one specific trait in the appisogramma, while 20 longs are generally the best for breeding them in higher quantity, and for storage. This will require 6 sponge filters, two air stones, and ick medication methylene blue, as well as a heater to keep the tanks at the proper temperature for each tank. Next, you’ll want to go out to a local park, and find an oak tree. Gather the leaves of the oak tree, as those will serve as the top layer of the substrate. I’d also recommend having a tank with loaches in them already set up, as to remove pest snails off of plants that will be added into the aquarium. Oak leaves hold infrosia, which serves as a wonderful first fry food. It’s important to gather them from a park, as to make sure no pesticides were used in the leaves. This will cause irreparable damage to your fish. Pest snails also need to be removed, to make sure they do not take away food from the fry. After adding a layer of cheap substrate into the tank, and putting in easy low light plants into the breeding tank, put a layer of oak leaves into into all eight tanks. Next, you’re going to want 6-14 breeding caves. These caves can be build using methods addressed in the [Tips|http://aminoapps.com/p/e4t13s] from previous articles. If you’re running 15 gallons as the breeder tanks, you’ll want 3 breeder caves  each, and 7 breeding caves for 20 longs. When the aquarium is 3/5s planted, covered in oak leaves, set to 85 Fahrenheit, fully cycled, and set in the desired location, everything is fully set up.

The parents
Apistogramma are harem breeders, and do not form pairs. This means each tank should have multiple females, and a single male. For a 15 gallon tank, you’ll have three females. For a 20 long, you’ll have 7 females. It’s always important to have two breeding tanks, because that make could pretty much die at any time, and it’s important to have another male, to breed up another batch to be used to gain a new male for breeding. Once every fish is added to the aquarium, you’ll want to run water changes ever two days. The temperature of the tank should be dropped to 82 Fahrenheit, which will encourage the cichlids to start breeding more. Once the babies have been born, they much be left in the tank until they become free swimming. It is important to leave them with the parents for a good bit of time, so the mothers learn to defend their babies, so other females or the male won’t eat them. After about a day of leaving them in the tank, maneuver the female into the breeding cave, where the fry will follow. Once they’re in the cave, remove it from the water in a fine net, and quickly move the cave into the ten gallon with the airstone. Then proceed to remove the female, and put her back into the breeding tank. Continue to do this for every female. Once all the fry are in their first grow out tank, it is time to begin fry care.

Fry care
The fry should be raised off a good fry food, such as repashy, until they are no longer in the fry stage. I typically make my own fish food, but I will never give away those recipes, for my own personal discretion. The fry should be fed off of this food until they have moved out of the fry stage. Once they’re out of this stage, they should be moved to a tank with a proper filter, and given healthy foods, preferably live blackworms, or microworms. Around this time, a new batch will have been born, and should then be added to the tank with the airstone. The first batch of fry will be kept in the 10 until they are the size to be sold. Once they are proper size, the nicest should be selected, and moved into the additional 20 long, and the others should all be sold. Once the first batch is moved out, a batch of aging fry will take their place.

Conclusion
Now you know the ins and outs of the best way to breed apistogramma. This works super well, and I’ve had entire rooms taken up with this set up specifically for apistogramma. One of the most rewarding monetarily and entertaining fish to breed. With this amount of effort put into this fish, they could be sold to a store for 5 dollars per fish, and sold at retail, could be 15 to 20 dollars per fish. If you need some general breeding tips, feel free to reread this [Breeding fish guide|http://aminoapps.com/p/wn68rq].