Apisto ID and surprise babies!

[Kelbrina]

Hello again everyone! I "accidentally" got two apistos from my LFS. I just happened to be there as a shipment arrived and all of the apistos in the bag were near-death or dead, so the employee gave two to me for free. I was in the process of setting up a 70g tank with nice, soft, fine sand (it's awesome to watch them take mouthfalls and watch it sprinkle out). The only inhabitants were 3 male guppies. It was cycled, just devoid of any decoration save for one or two plants. I popped a cave into the tank and a spare piece of driftwood to give them some hiding places and about two weeks later one of them started viciously guarding the cave.
Then a few days later babies! it is now exactly 30 days since they left their cave and I think there's easily over 30 of them. Mom is doing great! Dad has been hiding on one side of the tank behind his driftwood to avoid her wrath. I'd move him but I don't have any tanks to move him too right now. I've been hatching brine shrimps and feeding them once a day, two times a day if I am lucky. Can you lovely people help me identify them?

Images of the parents and fry here: http://imgur.com/a/ReEmg

And a gif of the babies yesterday. My camera didn't pick up the color well but they had just eaten a big batch of brine shrimp and they had reddish-orange bloated bellies.

https://gfycat.com/ScholarlyLameEasternglasslizard

 

[Mike Wise]

Hard to say for certain from these photos, but if I had to guess I'd say they are A. macmasteri.

 

[Kelbrina]

Thank you for your input! So the male is very lackluster, and the google images of A. macmasteri are much more handsome. Could my male be relatively immature and still be breeding?

How long will the fry take to mature? Probably more quickly if I fed 2x a day more consistently?

 

[Mike Wise]

IF your fish are macs, then no they are not 'lackluster'. There are several color morphs / populations of A. macmasteri in the wild. Some are more colorful than others. Additionally, there are domestic color strains commonly seen on the web that have been color enhanced by selective breeding. Apistos typically take 4 to 6 months to mature sexually and an additional 2 months develop to fully. Feeding 2X (or more) times each day will help them grow larger, but does less to cause them to become sexually mature. Only time does this.

 

[UnicornsvstheWorld]

I think macmasteri, I own two variations as their my favorite Apistogramma species. The gold is the picture I have here but the double red looks a lot more like this male. https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=f9ff43ee93b951fc2eeeede67632932b&oe=57DF41D5 But in the hobby i've seen maybe another 3 colour varieties.
Although I swear they change colour rapidly on mood particularly the females. I find they change over the years too as my gold is about 2 years old now and looks very different to last year. Good quality food helps

 

[Kelbrina]

Bad news! I saw the babies Sunday and I didn't peak at them on Monday due to plans and all of them are gone. Dad is now out and courting mom again instead of hiding from her. Did she eat them? They were about a month and a half old. Bummed out Hope they try again!

The male is now getting some red color on the bottom edge of his caudal fin and some general redness on his pelvic fin. He's looking more like a macmasteri but also like a viejita. Any way to tell them apart?

 

[Mike Wise]

At 1½ old, the juveniles normally have left the care of their mother and spread out in the tank. At this age and in a relatively large tank (70 gallon?) they should be able to avoid attacks by their parents. What other fish are in the tank?

As for the difference between macs and viejita, it's been discussed here so many times that a search on the site should give you the information that you need.

 

[Kelbrina]

They were definitely spread out and all putzing around doing their own thing. Only fish in tank were mom, dad, 4 small male guppies, 10 c. habrosus that were refugees from another tank (a new tank is cycling for them) and 4 amano shrimp. They all disappeared at once, for the most part. There were at least 20+ when I saw them last and now none. I was ~5 days late on my weekly water change but I figured I was okay since it was such a lightly stocked 70g. :\

 

[MickeM]

Often..( if the tank is heavily planted/decorated).. some fry might have escaped into any "safe" place when the pair start/prepair to spawn again..
So you may have some left that you are not aware of at this moment..(??)
If they get new fry, the female will try to chase the older fry away from her new babies..