RE: Cockatoo dwarves

["Beaudry, Kyle : SEN" <KBEAUDRY@SEN.PARL.GC.CA>]

> Susan,
> 
> I too have Cockatoos and have recently acheived success with one female
> who has produced her first brood of fry. I won't profess to be an expert,
> or even knowledgeable for that matter, however, I can share with you what
> has worked for me.
> 
> I started with six juveniles who were actually pretty tough to sex without
> using the "catch, check with magnifying glass, release program". Anyway,
> turned out to be four males and two females. I promptly returned three of
> the males and kept the remaining harem of one male two females. After
> three weeks alone in their heavily planted, community 55 gallon, the
> females chose territories and started guarding their favorite caves. There
> are plenty of caves. As for other occupants of the community, there are
> Nannostomus trifasciatus (6), Bunocephalus bicolor (2), Bushy nosed pl*co
> (1). Once they had established their territories, I started filtering with
> peat, this lowered the pH and softened the already very soft water, my
> goal was to acidify neutral water. 
> 
> I then had a new clutch of eggs every ten days from alternating females.
> Finally after her sixth laying, female No. 1 was observed with free
> swimming fry (17-20) after seven days of laying the eggs. With the fry in
> the 55 the male would come by the fry territory and the mother would shoo
> him away with a flick of her tail. He was not very persistent in trying to
> gain access to her area since female no. 2 was tending another newly laid
> clutch of eggs. He spent more time with the second female, the experts on
> the list here have advised in the past that A. cacatuoides male make good
> fathers but are better served with a harem environment. I have had sucess
> with this strategy and would recommend it if you have the space. My tank
> bottom has approx. 4.5 square feet of area and the females have each
> claimed about half of that for themselves. This is not to say that they
> couldn't manage with less, it is just what mine have. As for temperature
> my cockatoos have lived in water ranging from 76º to 82º without any signs
> of distress. My water is soft dKH 1º, acidic pH=6.6-6.8 filtered with peat
> (tap water =7), and I do weekly 30% water changes. Now that there are fry
> in the tank I am changing 20% of the water every day, even though my
> Nitrate tests are showing less than 5ppm. It may be overkill on the H20
> changes but the fish like it so it makes me feel good.
> 
> Good luck and let us know how it goes.
> Kyle
> 
> On Wed, 22 Mar 2000, Susan Ziegler wrote:
> 
> > I have a male and female cockatoo dwarf, and it's been months since I
> > purchased them.  They are showing no signs of breeding, only of
> increased
> > tolerance of each other.  There was a guppy in the tank for a while, but
> I
> > took it out when it started having babies O_o.  Should I purchase a
> second
> > female?  Or is there anything else I can do to get them to breed?  The
> pH
> > is slightly acidic like it should be..


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