Congo Killies - PageSuite

Successfully
outwitted: a
brooding female
with fry in the
rearing box.
After three days the larvae hatched and wriggled at
the far end of the clay pipe, which was set at a slight angle
in the substrate and open at one end. After another four
days the little ones swam free and followed the female
around the tank. There were only around 20 of them, and
their numbers decreased each day until they had all disappeared
after about a week.
For a long time, I have refrained from taking eggs or fry away from species
that practice brood care in order to guarantee safe rearing with the maximum
number of young. But in the case of such a rare species as the Playayacu
Dwarf Cichlid, I wanted to be able to share the juveniles with a number of
enthusiasts as soon as I could, so I reached into my box of tricks.
Outwitted
With good feeding, the adults spawned again several weeks later. The evening
before, I had observed the male swimming around in front of the breeding
cave with the female and tentatively performing quivering movements. The
devoted togetherness was over by the next morning and the female was chasing
the male all around the tank, a sure sign that there were eggs attached to
the ceiling of the cave once again.
This time, too, the female tended the clutch very reliably and was soon
guarding a little heap of wriggling larvae with red yolk sacs. I carefully siphoned
them all out with an airline and placed them in a glass rearing box
suspended in the parents’ tank. There were more than 120 larvae, a surprisingly
large number of fry for a female of her size. Before long the mother,
robbed of her brood, came closer and eyed the little ones with interest.
After two days the yolk sacs were used up and the larvae swam free. The
female stayed next to the glass box and guarded the brood. The young reacted
to every twitch of their mother and did all the things that they would have
done if she were leading them around the aquarium. The fry were still able to
follow their instincts, but the protective glass box ensured that I wouldn’t lose
any of the brood.
REFERENCES
Kästner, N. 2005. Ein neuer “Zwerg” aus Kolumbien: Apistogramma spec. „Caquetá”. AKZ-News,
1/2005: 45–47.
Römer, U., J. Beninde, and I. Hahn. 2011. Apistogramma playayacu sp. n.: Description of a new cichlid
species (Teleostei: Perciformes: Geophaginae) from the Rio Napo system, Ecuador. Vertebrate Zoology
63 (3): 321–33.
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