How long does it take for Apistogramma cacatuoides eggs to hatch?

[FishSoup]

Hey there guys, my female caca has suddenly become very fierce, chasing the male around the tank and nipping his tail whenever i'm not around She's a very greedy fish (which is good ), always begging for food and behaving like an angel when i come close to the tank, so i only realised that the male was getting a beating when i realised that the outer edges of the poor guy's caudal and anal fins had been torn to ribbons.

So anyway, she has also begun yellowing up; i suspect she has laid eggs somewhere in the tank, though i can't find them. Also, besides the aggression and yellowing, she behaves as per normal.. no hiding away in the cave fanning her eggs and suchlike behavior.

How long do the eggs take to hatch, if i have them at all? Just so i know how long i have to wait before i know for sure whether there are eggs or not

[Cacatuoides]

it takes 3 days for the eggs to hatch into wrigglers and about 4 days for the fries to start swimming....

[FishSoup]

Aight.. ok then.. thanks

If there are no babies after 3 to 4 days i'll reintorduce the male into the tank again.

The only reason for the female to be this aggressive is the presence of eggs right? Because she isnt secretive or anything at all, just swimming around and begging for food as normal.. and yet she is so fierce to the male..

[Cacatuoides]

If she's very yellow and aggressive, most likely she is protecting her eggs or fries.
It'll be better for you to wait 1 week or so, to really confirm if there are fries before introducing the male back into the tank. Sometimes the fries may hide themselves for more than a week, and you can't spot them.

[FishSoup]

Ok.. it'll be a week then
She isn't extremely yellow, but definitely much yellower than the male

thanks loads!

[Zenislev]

Yup, its very interesting to see the female digging a tiny pit to house it's wrigglers if it happens to spawn in the open. Good luck!

[trident]

Fishsoup,
Congrats, looks like you are in for a very interesting time.
Time to get ready BBS hatching equipment

[FishSoup]

Okay, my fish has really got me puzzled

i had taken the male out after the female started to go crazily aggressive on him, chasing him relentlessly around the tank and chewing his fins to ribbons; i thought she must have eggs somewhere in the tank.

After a week, though, no eggs or fry were in sight, and so i put the male back in. The female continued to show extreme aggression towards the male, and fearing for his safety i put the female into a breeder box.

Closer inspection started to worry me.. the female seems to be developing a lyrate caudal fin! Also, the anal and dorsal fins were getting longer and sharper. The pelvic fins, while still edged in black at the front, are now more blue than black.

Her body shape is still relatively compact and small compared to the male though, and the first few dorsal rays are nowhere as developed as the usual caca males.

Is sex change possible in cacas?! Think probably not right.. then what on earth is going on with my docile-girl-turned-murderous-tranny?!

Here are some blur pics i managed to take... pardon the algae on the breeder box walls...

[leeruisheng]

Sounds like you've got a sneaker male. Meaning it's a male but dons a female dress. The photo looks male to me though.

[illumnae]

it looks like a male A. cacatuoides "Orange flash" to me as well.

just a little more information on sneaker males. what happens is that in a group of apistos, the dominant male (known as the alpha male) tends to grow larger and show colours earlier than the other males. in such a case, to prevent being killed by the alpha male, some other males in the group might take on female colouration instead and such males are known as sneaker males. it's a defence mechanism to stay alive

[FishSoup]

That's what i suspected.. when i first put her/him into the tank, my male caca was trying so hard to woo him/her... The poor guy.. got cheated...