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Apistogramma allpahuayo biotope

Tom C

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
582
Location
Norway
Nice tank and fish!

In 2010 we collected the actual species in the Rio Pintoyacu drainage (which is a tributary of the Rio Nanay):

The habitat:

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The fish:

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and back home a male looked like this in my tank:

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Other fishes in this biotop included the ubiquitous Crenuchus spilurus, The Sailfin tetra:

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and a very beautiful Tyttocharax sp.:

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Keep up the good work, M.ramirezi!
 

M.ramirezi

Member
Messages
86
Location
The Netherlands
Those Tyttocharax are beautiful! Never heard of them before. If they wouldn't be so hard to get, it'd be a nice combination (Tyttocharax, Crenuchus and allpahuayo) in a larger tank.
 

M.ramirezi

Member
Messages
86
Location
The Netherlands
New setup:
3fa8a209-336b-4b66-80c0-e25d705bb768_zps0d305a1c.jpg

Unfortunately, my male allpahuayo died a couple of weeks ago. I gave both females away, and bought a harem of Apistogramma caetei. They're still a bit shy, so it's very hard to take any pictures of them.
 

skoram

Active Member
Messages
135
Your tank is really inspiring. In my dreams I hope to make a tank like this one day.

I'm curious about the pH and hardness of the water in this tank. The long flowing Vallisneria in the background look stunning but I've consistently read that they do not do well in soft, acidic water. Mongabay, however, lists this plant as a recommendation for South American blackwater biotope. There is so much conflicting information about Vals out there. Perhaps I should just purchase some and give it a try myself.
 

dw1305

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
2,755
Location
Wiltshire UK
Hi all,
Your tank is really inspiring. In my dreams I hope to make a tank like this one day.

I'm curious about the pH and hardness of the water in this tank. The long flowing Vallisneria in the background look stunning but I've consistently read that they do not do well in soft, acidic water. Mongabay, however, lists this plant as a recommendation for South American blackwater biotope. There is so much conflicting information about Vals out there. Perhaps I should just purchase some and give it a try myself.
I can't grow Vallisneria in the tanks at ~4dKH & 100 microS. In our tap water (about 18dKH and 650 microS.) it grows without any problem. Both set ups are nutrient poor.

cheers Darrel
 

Ap.Wu

New Member
Messages
4
Hi,Tom
Could I using ur collection location pic in my fan page?
only for discuss with my fan not for business
 

Bart Hazes

Active Member
Messages
228
I haven't gotten vallisneria because it isn't found in South America (although I'm not 100% strict on plants for biotopes). But I just learned that there is a Helanthium species, H. bolivianum 'Angustifolius', that resembles vallisneria with up to 50cm long thin leaves growing on runners like H. tenellum (aka Echinodorus tenellus). It is apparently in the hobby in Europe but not really available in North America. I'm trying to get my local contact to bring it in from Dennerle as it would be a good addition as an easy low-light plant for the background.
 

Drayden Farci

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
207
Those Tyttocharax are beautiful! Never heard of them before. If they wouldn't be so hard to get, it'd be a nice combination (Tyttocharax, Crenuchus and allpahuayo) in a larger tank.

Tyttocharax are harder to find, and when they are found, they are often expensive for their size. The Wet Spot had a species back in the fall that were very, very cool. White bodied with a light blue shine, plus a royal blue dot on the gill plates. They bounced around the tanks and I would have bought a large school, but they are half an inch and $10 each!
 

Bart Hazes

Active Member
Messages
228
Those Tyttocharax are beautiful! Never heard of them before. If they wouldn't be so hard to get, it'd be a nice combination (Tyttocharax, Crenuchus and allpahuayo) in a larger tank.

CrenuchusAllpahuayo.jpeg


That must be the latest fashion. Just last weekend I put Crenuchus and allpahuayo in a tank which also houses A. sp. Abacaxis and Axelrodi riesei as dithers. Tyttocharax 'Sky Blue Tahuayo River' should arrive at my importer in Calgary in August. Price to be announced but I expect it will cost well under Cnd$10. They were not on my radar but I'll take a look when they come in.
 

Drayden Farci

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
207
Turns out they were $6 each, I mis-remembered the price. Regardless, tough to find in my experience.
 

Mike Wise

Moderator
Staff member
5 Year Member
Messages
11,202
Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
Tyttocharax are expensive because they don't handle shipping well at all. I tried bring some back from Peru in 2008 along with apistos and other tetras. Everything survived the trip except the Tyttocharax. Still it could be worse. TomC & I collected some spectacular yellow tetras once that didn't even survive long after being netted. They didn't even survive the trip back to the boat (>1 mile / 1.5 Km).

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The tetra is the one in the right half of the photo. This is a photo Tom took of specimens from a collection from the middle Río Napo in 2012. The apisto was a newly discovered specimen that has not been in the hobby - there seem to be many of them.
 

cjerrom

New Member
Messages
12
Anyone want to travel to Iquitos in September with me! My exporter will allow us to travel with his guys but I have a few customers that will need to go fishing for peacock bass and other sport fish for a bit to justify everything! Bart, you always present such great pictures and you always impress me with your knowledge/dedication!
 

Bart Hazes

Active Member
Messages
228
I would kill (not literally) to go but am teaching two University courses this Fall both starting in September. For me such trips would have to be late April to late August or perhaps around the Xmas break. Unfortunately a big chunk of that is rainy season in Peru.
 

cjerrom

New Member
Messages
12
Yes indeed - September works for me as I drop all the kids off into school then and I am open to travel until December.
 

Shane Puthuparambil

Active Member
Messages
126
Anyone want to travel to Iquitos in September with me! My exporter will allow us to travel with his guys but I have a few customers that will need to go fishing for peacock bass and other sport fish for a bit to justify everything! Bart, you always present such great pictures and you always impress me with your knowledge/dedication!
Interested. Tell me more.
 

Bart Hazes

Active Member
Messages
228
My A. allpahuayo setup is doing well and the pair now has its first spawn that is about a week old. The female is doing a bang-up job defending her 25-30 fry against 6 A. sp. Abacaxis, 6 Crenuchus spilurus and 15 Axelrodia riesei. In contrast an Abacaxis female didn't manage to defend her small spawn in the same tank and next month they'll get their own space. The Crenuchus have not shown any spawning behaviour yet.

FemaleAllpahuayoWithFry2.jpeg


The Tyttocharax I was supposed to get didn't arrive because the exporter shipped a Peruvian variant of Hemigrammus rubrostriatus instead. It has extra yellow spots in the caudal fin base that true H. rubrostriatus from Colombia/Venezuela doesn't have, so perhaps it should be called H. cf. rubrostriatus or H. rubrostriatus 'Peru'. I expect Curtis, my Canadian supplier, can still get the Tyttocharax later this year and for now I'm pretty excited with the H. cf. rubrostriatus. It is also interesting that female Crenuchus spilurus look quite similar to the rubrostriatus and wonder if that is a coincidence. They share general colour pattern including peduncle spot but the Crenuchus has a more elongated body and upturned larger mouth and larger dorsal fin.

HcfRubrostriatus.jpeg
 

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