Who is keeping Apistogrammas

I would like to know which of the members are keeping Apistos and what they have got, if you don’t mind sharing the information.

I will kick off:
1) A cacatuoides: I have 2, one is male for sure. Don’t know about the other one.
2) A viejita: I have one pair, and they have proved that they are breeders.
3) A macmisteri: One pair. The guys that have read my thread would have seen the male, and the coconut that the female is hiding in (with egg I hope).
4) A hongsloi: One pair. They have not shown any sign of breeding yet.
5) A borellii: One female, soon to be reunited with a male.

We can then have a good idea of what is around and what little ones can be expected in the future. You never know, if you lose a male like I did, someone might be sitting with a extra one that is available.

 

Good Idea dude...

I have:

A cacatuoides double red pair (breed often)
2x A cacatuoides sunburst pairs (one pair breeds often)
A trifasciata trio (1 male 2 females) (never bred before)
A agassizi tefe blue pair Hoping they will breed soon)
A agassizi red female (getting some more next week)
A pertensii female
A pandurini male (getting another pair today)
A steindachneri (6 of them I think 2 males and 4 females) (have shown breeding behavior)
A sp Inka 50 pair (still conditioning them)
A vejieta pair (breed often)

And from tonight I'll also have a pair of A macmasteri as well...

I really love apistos...

 

I have:
1 pair of A. aggassizi alenquer
1 pair of A. bitaneata
1 male A. bitaneata 'tefe' awaiting female
13 A. cacatouides +- 1 inch fry (from trip red parents)
1 female cacatouides 'trip red'
1 female aggassizi 'red'
And one huge wishlist for more apistos and tanks to keep them in:blink1:

 

Hi can I ask you guys maybe to post some pics of the tanks you keeping them and also pics of the actual fish.

Apisto's fascinate me and I might one day also try and get a pair or five

 

Another question is there anything special needed to be done to kept them.

 

Yes...

I have written a small post here: http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/showthread.php?t=2188

 

Thanks Slagter ,, ok with you if i safe it to word for reference.

 

No problem...

 

Pics

ACE007 – quite a few pics of Apistos have been posted on the forum – I would suggest that you just do a quick search for either apistogramma or apisto. You will find lost of pics.

 

Just thought it would be nice to see all in one thread.

 

Heres Mine...

1 pr Cacatuoides Sunburst. (recently bred, awiating fry)

Arriving soon....

1 pr Cacatuoides 'Super Red'
1 pr Agassizii 'Alenque'
1 pr Agassizii 'Double Red - Blue Body'
1 pr Agassizii 'White Seam'
1 pr Agassizii 'Red Gold' (probably 2 pr? Checking space)

Thats my lot for now, but we'll see if any more arrive soonish??

Cheers
Big G!

 

and heres mine
1 tank
2 x pairs agassizzi's (trying to breed them but failing miserably) with 1/2 coconut shell

and in another tank
2 x prs cacu's sunburst (recent addittion trying to condition them for breeding) with the other 1/2 of the coconut shell

that's it for now.

can i swop the pairs? (ie put 1 pair of cacu's with the pair of aggassizi's)

 

The reason you are failing to breed your agassizi is because you have 2 pairs in the same tank, with only 1 coconut... Separate the 2 pairs and they might breed for you.

Split all the pairs into their own tanks...

 

Hi Guys,

I have a number of checkerboard cichlids, all offspring from previous pairs, but I have lost the parents.

A agassizzi, red gold, one pair that have produced many young, one original male paired off with an offspring of pair one, offspring of pair one are the those that I have offered recently.

A agassizzi double red, 2 males (I lost both females that I bought with them) of which I have one paired off with a red gold female who have produced a number of offspring, and the second male has just paired off with another female of the red gold pair 1.

My opinion is that both of these strains are inbred domesticated strains that originated from much the same original wild types and crossing them will be beneficial as each strain is definitely inbred, so far the mixed offspring are growing very well.

I have a pair of white seam agassizzis on order.

I have space for one more species perhaps, but then no more, one needs tank space for dwarfs....

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

A botellii male has arrived

I would just like to thank Dolphin for the A borellii male he gave me on Friday. If you are thinking about getting something special and don’t know where to find it, give him a shout.
The little guy is in the tank with the female, and seems very happy with his new digs and his tank mate. The female’s behavior has also change remarkably since the male has been put in the tank. Previously she was very shy, and hid in the plants most of the time. Now with the male in the tank, they swim around together, utilizing the entire tank, with quite a bit of displaying and tail slapping. I will post some picture of them soon.
Seems as if they are actually quite social fish, and enjoy having company of there own kind. From what I have read I would not advise putting two Apisto males together in a small tank, but what I have seen since the male has been places in the tanks, I recon they do better if they are kept in pairs.
At the moment I am a bit concerned about the A hongsloi female. The male chases her around the tank as soon as she appears from her hiding place. Fortunately the tank has loads of structure for her to hide in, and to get away from the male. Is there anyone with advice on how to stop this from happening.

 

Hey Kuhli Loach, glad to hear the male has settled in nicely!

Yes, these guys do prefer company. I keep mine as large groups which then pair off or form trios. My borellies are with super red cacaus and they are very peacefull together.

That's typical behaviour for the hongslois. My pair do the same thing all day... for them you could consider setting up a smaller tank, also heavily planted with lots of hiding space. Then remove the female to this tank and condition her in there for upto a month with high quality feed. Once she's ready and has established the tank as her territory, then introduce the male to this tank. Hopefully they'll spawn within a few days and the male will then take up parental duties and stop chasing the female

 

Hi Kuhli Loach,

You must understand that there are different groups of dwarfs and these groups have different levels of aggression.

The A macmasteri group, which include A macmasteri, A viejita and A hongsloi amongst others are the most aggressive. What this means is that males can kill other males and females as well. As Dolphin comments, you need to separate them then or else you may have the male eventually stress out the female to the extent that she dies. What is critical in this regard is feeding and you need to feed your fishes very high quality food with frozen brine shrimps as well as high quality granulates and flakes.

Other dwarfs such as A borelli are far more shy and you also have to consider that they must be fed with high quality food. You must be very careful with the A borelli female in combination with the A cacutoides that she does not get dominated and that she then dies from stress.

A borelli are really pretty so I hope that you make a success of breeding them!

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Hi Prof

At the moment I am feeding all my fish with a range of the Tetra products, as well as frozen brine shrimp and bloodworm. I try to feed the Apistos mosquito larva twice a week, if I can get my hands on some, but that is not always possible.

What flakes and granules would you suggest that I use.

I am thinking of moving the A hongsloi to the bigger tank that the A borellii are in at the moment (swapping tanks). That might help sort out some of the aggression problem that I am having with them.

The A borellii and the A cacutoides are not in the same tank, so there is nothing to worry about.

Thanks for the info prof.

 

Hi Kuhli Loach,

Your diet sounds very good and what you are planning re the moves of the A hongsloi to the larger tank also sound very sensible. I am glad to hear that the A borelli and the A cacutoides are not in the same tank. Although there seems to be the impression amongst a few persons that Dwarfs of different species can be mixed in the same tank, my experience is that this does not work and I keep mine separate and do not mix different species in the same tank.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

While i agree with the professor on most of the above points, I believe you can, as I do already, keep different species together in a big enough tank. I have a male A. pandurini and a female A. pertensis in the same tank, as well as a pair of A. cacatuoides and a male A. sp Steel Blue in the same tank. They get along just fine. They're happy.

Anyway, in my experience, A hongsloi is the most aggressive apisto I have ever kept! My females killed the males within 1 week. The A. Vejieta female I had would also kill many other fish, not just her potential mates and other female vejietas. Therefore, I would not keep any of the Macmasteri group of apistos with any other kind of apisto. Keep these ones separate.

For breeding purposes, I'd keep pairs alone, or trios (1 male - 2 females).