what is one of the fish in the logo

[moth_baller]

hi - i'm just really getting into the dwarf cichlids. the apistogramma.com logo at the top has 3 fish. what is the one on the far right that's mostly blue and are they an obtainable species.

 

[aquaticclarity]

That's an exceptional A. baenschi male. They are in the US market pretty often (I have young tank raised pairs for sale right now) but you will have to put some time into growing most them up into large adults to come close to looking like the fish in the header. Don't get me wrong, almost all A. baenschi males look good when they are mature. But the picture is of that 1 in 100 fish.

 

[moth_baller]

cool thanks. when I saw that I was like "wow!" that's awesome. I figured that was an exceptional specimen. pretty fish though. i'm still thinking I may just go with some bolivian rams for my tank I am redoing but I may spoil myself with something a little bit cooler and those would definitely fit the bill. for whatever reason I never really knew that apistos were cichlids. I usually go off of just common names for the most part. and I've only kept the larger new world types.

 

[UnicornsvstheWorld]

Common names are largely deceiving in international communities and the scientific community the proper Latin names are used because they are universal. It also helps identify the background of the species and a clue to what it is like. Using common names can confuse people like crayfish or star fish which have the name fish but are really just invertebrates. Common names also change depending on where you are.
Cichlid's tend to have a general stocky shape to them (I can't really describe it) and then their fins are a good indicator.
Learning the scientific name can be really helpful in the future

Also good luck finding the Apistogramma Baenschi

 

[Mike Wise]

FYI, the photo of A. baenschi on the top of the site originally appeared on the German wholesaler Mimbon Aquarium web site. It was taken of one of the first 'Inka' imported into Germany by the late, great aquarist/collector Frank Warzel. The hobby lost a special person when he died much too young.

 

[moth_baller]

mike- interesting bit of info. always sad when someone is taken young. especially when they contribute a lot to something. i have heard that name before.

unicorn - I've started to make myself learn the latin names now as i have come to notice just that. goes back to when i was younger and not as into every aspect as i am now. been back into fish keeping for a year (3 tanks) after about an 8 year break from it after losing both my big oscars.

 

[MickeM]

Hi all..

I have been breeding Ap. baenschi for many years now..

My experience is that the ones I often find in my LFS (wild/bred) are quite large in size ( 3-5 cm / 1-2 inch ) and "less" colourful than the ones I get .
My baenschi juveniles looks like the one in the logo (colours+ extended dorsal) when they are approx. 3-4 months old ... at least the most dominant individuals...

It might be an issue of "boosted" food/ large daily changes of water (growing faster than in "normal" enviroment), when breeding commercial animals.. + the large amount of animals in relatively "small" tanks... resulting in no/ or less dominant Apistos. ( no reason to show colours when you can`t keep a territory "of your own" ??? + constant fighting ?? )

When it comes to wild specimen, they also look "pale" I think ...
But they, of course, have been on the "trip of their lives" so to speak.. !!!

(Luckily.. most of them comes to a free food + no enemies situation!!)


One other option.. is that the "Ap.baenschi" we buy today originates from another Apisto/baenschi -"strain"/ geograghic position, than the first Ap.baenschi (terra typica??- fish caught at the local of the first described specimen) .. imported some years ago ??


/MickeM

 

[Mike Wise]

I doubt that Warzel's fish is a species different than Römer's type specimens or your fish. Warzel's fish probably were collected at a different location than what we get commercially or Römer's specimens, too. One option for less colorful specimens is that most wild apistos are collected during the dry season when their environments aren't entirely optimal and they are less inclined to be breeding. Usually these fish will 'color up' if given the same food and water conditions like you give your fish.

 

[MickeM]

Yes Mike, you are most probably right..

After a couple of weeks with decreasing amount of food, space and maybe more predators lurking for a meal in the shallow waters... it`s not a priority for any fish to flash their colours ...
I never meant that they never ever could be as beautiful as the logo-example.
Apistos often looks a little pale when they have recently arrived to a Pet Shop...


This could be one of these situations when a code/GPS -data for each collecting moment might be an easy help to sort out
our Apistos origin I think !!! (maybe a good idea until we might be able to analyze DNA in a simple way??, if it`s needed?)

One problem though....., might be when people starts to collect wild species in one river/place and then moving and keeping them in another nearby river/natural pool... While waiting to export them abroad...
It is known to have happened .. in Africa, I have heard !

 

[Mike Wise]

The problem with getting collection data for commercially collected fish is that the collector and exporter don't really care where it was collected. Now, the fish I personally collected have recorded GPS coordinates, but 90% of the apistos (and other fish) do not. Killifish are an exception, but most killis are collected by hobbyists, not commercial collectors.

I know in Peru that there is increasing transplantation of species for distant localities to pools nearer Iquitos. In this way fish from far away (and more expensive to collect) are now more readily available. One example of this is A. alpahuayo. The type material was all collected south of Iquitos in the Río Itaya system. Julio Melgar collected in the type locality 15 years ago - and the species did not exist there! It was only found much farther north, in the middle/upper the Río Nanay. It seems like someone was using the Itaya locations as breeding pools for this (then) hard to get-to species.