Apistogramma Agassizii "Fire red"

[nellyfish22]

I have got a trio of A.Agassizii "fire red" in a 2ft tank and both of the females have fry. One of the females brought out her free-swimmers yesterday and the other will be bringing her's out either tomorrow or the next day. There has been quite a bit of aggression between the females and i am wondering wether this will result in one of the broods being lost to the other female?To prevent this happening should i remove one of the females?but then what would happen with her brood?
this is one of the females with her brood just after they emerged
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPfNHFs3jkA

 

[Big G]

As far as I understand it, and I am no expert, it is quite common for females to steal each others brood!

So I don't think that the fry will suffer, unless caught in the way of the fighting females, but if your females are too close to each other, and their 'territory' overlaps, it may well be worth removing a female (preferably the smaller female if there is a size difference??)

To be honest though, I would just keep a good eye on them both, and leave them well enough alone unless it is evident that one of the females would suffer?? The Fry are just a distraction, and the females believe they are all theirs, hence the fighting!!

Hope that makes sense?? Very early in the morning here!!

Cheers
Big G!

 

[Mike Wise]

Have you thought of buying a tank divider? I sometimes use them for this or to separate the male for the brooding female.

 

[nellyfish22]

I will try that. I think that the female who is still in the cave with her fry is reluctant to bring them out. She has been in there for quite a long time and when i had a quick look the fry were hopping around. I will divide the tank and split the two females and their brood,thanks for the help.:biggrin:

 

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[Amazon lover]

I have a litter of regular A. agassizii that are only a few days old. Among a brood of about 30 fry there are about a 7 or 8 fy that look very light colored. To the point of making me think of albino. And even in the few days that they've been out and looking for food (about 4 days) out of their cave those light colored fish are much smaller than the regular ones. It really shows that these are fish showing recessive genes. How can I know wheter they are just "fire reds" or albino? I have the light orange flash variety on A. cacatuoides but these look much lighter in general and those little eyes don't look completely black.

 

[Mike Wise]

The Fire Red agassizii is a domestic enhanced strain developed from the Rotrücken/Red-back agassizii from near Santarem, probably mixed with other red-finned forms. I doubt that your light colored fry are Fire Reds. We often find that the light-colored forms tend to be weaker and out-competed for food by their normal colored siblings. If you are truly interested to see what they turn out to be, it would be best if they were separated from the other fry.

 

[Apistomaster]

I'm afraid Mike is correct and do not think any albinos or Fire Reds just popped up among a brood of any of the well established tank raised strains nor wild caught Apistogramma agassizi. Those few are probably going be among your losses.

 

[Amazon lover]

I agree with both of you guys. And since I am interested in saving at least a couple of those to see how they turn out. The regular ones are almost double the size of the lighter ones by now. Mike, if those fish you think are not "fire reds" (on which I agree since the phenotype of the whole group that I got which includes the parents is of regular and not a hint of fire red) what are they?

 

[Mike Wise]

They are 'sports', little genetic oddities of a highly polychromatic species. In the wild they are more visible (and ususally weaker) and get removed from the gene pool by predation. In the aquarium, they are sometimes used to develop unusual color strains.

 

[Amazon lover]

A little update on these light colored A. agassizi. I never transferred those to another tank because of lack of available tank. However since they are in a 20 long they seem to be making it and growing, of course at a slower pace than the regular ones. Now, I see red eyes in those little guys and not dark eyes. Interestingly they do not follow the mother like their darker siblings do. They rather stay near the bottom and hunt for food from there.

 

[Apistomaster]

Hope they survive so you can see what they really are.
Not that we need albino Apistogramma agassizi but any fish bred in quantities combined with much inbreeding is almost inevitably going to produce an albino eventually.
I would be surprised if these odd balls actually are albinos. The eyes in xanthanistic fish at the larval stage of development may appear pink but I will be very surprised if they really are. I would not expect them to behave differently or become segregated from the rest of the brood. That is very odd behavior.
It is unusual for the first albinos to appear in multiples at the same time. More typically you would see only one albino in the initial incident. Like I said, I hope they survive so you and we will know exactly what you have.