Tips on Apistogrammma Steel Blue:breeding, how many pairs in a tank?

[KellyandDennisfish]

Hi,
I have a pair of Apistogrammma Steel Blue.
We are looking for some personal info:

1. I have read you can have more than one pair together.
Thinking about getting a 2nd pair wanted to know if anyone
else has 2 pairs together?

2. Cave or flat breed area. If yours are breeding do they like a cave or flat area?

We have a 20 long planted with cave and flat rock for breeding.

Any personal tips would be great!!

Thanks
Kelly

 

[Mike Wise]

The first thing, with Steel-Blues, is to find females. They are exceedingly rare, apparently <1% (yes, that's right, less than 1%!) of the specimens sold are females. If you are lucky enough to find a female the breed it like A. caetei. It can be kept in pairs or harems. Provide them a cave.

 

[KellyandDennisfish]

Mike,
Thanks for your note.
We have the opportunity to buy a 2nd pair.
Do you think they would be ok together?

That would give us 2 females and 2 males in a 20 long
We could put a cave on each side.
What do you think?
Kelly

 

[fishgeek]

i find that the males can be a bit aggressive, lfs had a batch in and they wont tolerate each other
they were in 2 ft tanks
i managed to get one female and as mike has suggested they are cave spawners

so far i havent bred enough to know what may affect sex ratio in these fish

andrew

 

[KellyandDennisfish]

Thank you so much for your post.
We read in a book that you can keep a few
pairs together. We wanted to get some first
hand info.

Kelly

 

[Mike Wise]

The number of pairs/trios of apistos that a tank can handle depends on several factors besides its size. How it is decorated has a lot to do with it. It needs to be broken up visually so that none of the fish can see across the entire tank. There should also be visible land marks that the fish can use as territorial boundaries. The tank should have 1½ - 3 hiding places (caves) per fish. Then, each fish within a species has its own personality. Some are more aggressive than others. All of this has to be taken into consideration.

I am surprised that you can find females so easily. I wonder if you truly have females or just juvenile/subdominant males. I would be very skeptical unless the person picking out the fish is a specialist on dwarf cichlids. The unfortunate truth is that many store consider 2 fish as being a pair.

 

[KellyandDennisfish]

Thanks for the info.
Our tank is planted with drift wood in the middle.
A cave at one end.

The female was very yellow the male was a nice color blue
at the shop.

Kelly

 

[Mike Wise]

The female was very yellow the male was a nice color blue
at the shop.

Wow! It looks like you do have a female! Plenty of good food & regular water changes are all that you'll need to get these fish breeding.