Apistogramma paucsiquamis female..

[ste12000]

Hi guys/Mike.. i could do with a little help. Recently a UK shop imported a small batch of A.paucsiquamis, the 17 fish came from Manaus and i was at the shop within 24 hours and as far as i know i was the second person to pick out fish. I know the owners and was allowed to select my own fish.

The vast majority were males, i could see no other species mixed in and the remaining fish were all very small and undernourished females. The one good sized female in the tank went into my bag alongside a handsome male. Most of the remaining fish have since found homes(amongst my friends) and if i have made a mistake im out of the running in breeding this species which has been close to the top of my list for many years!

The male chases the female around the tank and she does stop occassionally and show her belly in a submissive/flirty manner typical of Apistos. However im still not 100% sure i have a female A.paucsiquaimis, part of my problem is a lack of good female pictures in the reference books (I have all the dwarf cichlid reference books to hand) and the fact that being a agassizi group fish i struggle to differenciate between paucsiquamis, mendezi, agassizi, gephra females all of which could of been shipped from Manaus, either collected with paucsiquamis or mixed after collection...

I added a mirror to get the fish to the front of the tank and took some decent pics.. Anyone help?

 

[Mike Wise]

Ste, I hate to say it but this is not a female A. paucisquamis. Three features stand out: the fish is too deep-bodied/high-backed for this species, it has no abdominal stripes (very prominent on paucisquamis), and the fish shows no anal spot (easily seen on your male). My guess it is either A. agassizii or A. gephyra.

 

[ste12000]

Cheers Mike, deep down i knew that but still gutted!! the shop lost a few males and a friend who was due to receive a trio has not had them because there were not enough females! i will be phoning the shop tomorrow to see if there are any left!

Thanks for the help, it confirmed what i already suspected.