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Apistogramma Elizabethae Behavior/Gender?

Freshwav.fish

New Member
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3
I've recently gotten into Apistos and jumped into the deep end with an Elizabethae trio. They were all young when I got them and after a month one is definitely a male the tiniest one is showing all the signs of being a female, but I think it still needs a few weeks/month to show out fully. The middle one I think is a female but I'm no expert on these fish and doesn't behave quite like either. So I'm wondering if it's a late-blooming male. The dorsal and caudal are telling me female from everything I've read but the behavior and color change back and forth depending on who they are interacting with has me unsure. The one in question will go from a dark grey to a lighter almost yellow hue to the body with the typical dark stripe. Here is a 3 min video I was able to grab. The definite male is outside one of the caves and at one point gets in the cave. Towards the end, the one in question comes out and there is some tail/face slapping from both and you get a good look at the caudal and dorsal fins.


 

C.Elizabethae

New Member
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4
Lol I was here three weeks ago with the same question. I quite literally know nothing, but they looked about the same and behaved about the same. And i have no doubt now that i have a female. I feel like I read a lot of other posts speculating ways that it could be male and then within a few days were just like “oh look she’s yellow and there’s fry”

I didn’t get any fry but went from this

To this in three weeks

First started coloring up like this when I would feed frozen baby brine and then I started lowering the ph and she’s been consistently holding that color since. Yesterday I moved that bridge and added that sand to the tank and she appears to like it. She only comes out to slap the male and try’s to bait him under the bridge. The flashing on the leaf is new too. and he is guarding the area as well.

I did not know they could change color freely and instantly. So incredible!
D9BDECD5-ADAB-481B-BF97-29DAA20483F1.jpeg

Here is a photo where they were both turned white. They did this the first like three weeks I had them and she started showing the yellow
 

Freshwav.fish

New Member
Messages
3
Perfect. I read so much about them before picking them out from the store. They were of the age were I could only stare at the patterns on their tails to try and get the right ones. The male had already started changing tail shapes so I was confident about that one and the little girl I was pretty confident about. It was this middle one that would change colors back and forth and slap the male with her tail. I was just uncertain on that one. Yay!

Next is trying to find a couple of Agassizii Tefe females. I found one lonely male at a LFS mislabeled and he was so handsome I couldn’t leave him there.
 

Memeboi

Member
Messages
94
Next is trying to find a couple of Agassizii Tefe females. I found one lonely male at a LFS mislabeled and he was so handsome I couldn’t leave him there.
What was he labeled as, I acquired a A. Iniridae that turned out to be A cf. Agassizii that seemed to be a tefe aligned hybrid , I re-homed him in a week actually, A lot of local fish keepers wanted a Mutt Agassizii apparently.
 

Freshwav.fish

New Member
Messages
3
They had him listed as Elizabethae which played in my favor since I’ve spent so much time staring at the ones I have.
 

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