Female Apistogramma ID

[Stoke_Apisto]

hi,

Could someone (Mike :wink ID this female for me. Import was from Manus Brazil if that a slight help.

Cheers

 

[Mike Wise]

I would need better photos than these - especially large pictures of the head. Based on the width of the lateral band and shape of the body, I would guess that it is a species in the agassizii-lineage, probable agassizii-group. Other than that, I cannot say.

 

[Stoke_Apisto]

Hi mike, I'll try and get some better ones and post them, I've got my fingers crossed on what I think it is as I've certainly got the male of the species and this female looks like the pictures I've found on the Internet.

If it helps to eliminate some she has a broad lateral line with iridescent spots either side down the length on the line and then she has some spots in the centre of the caudal fin , the lateral line also extends into the caudal fin finishing in a point.

 

[dpien]

Hi Stoke_(Mike), fun to take a guess here! A. sp. Abacaxis (or maybe gephyra - but the longit. band seems too broad) ?
Would be great to see a pic of the male.
That was indeed an interesting shipment from Manaus. I sometimes think they mix them up deliberately to confuse and excite!
I got a perfect pair of A. cf. bitaeniata (Brazilian colour form, A215) from that batch!! There were defo A. gephyra (and of course the A. paucisquamis) in there too.
Pls keep us updated on these, thanks!
Dan

 

[Stoke_Apisto]

Hi dan, yeah a real mix in that batch I got two pairs and an extra female, one pair of A. paucisquamis, what I thought was a second pair, but the 'female' was showing to much colour so I got another very small female, however now grown on this female looks different to my other A. paucisquamis female, and the 'female' is certainly a male now. Will post pictures of him soon just don't want to put ideas into people's heads before I get an ID on this female, be interesting to see what people say.

Mike I know the pictures aren't great, trying to get some better ones now, out of interest what would be your gut feeling at the moment?

 

[Mike Wise]

Most likely an agassizii-group species, but not sure. Need more photos.

 

[blueblue]

Mike is right that no one can be sure with these given photos. But my gut feeling is (a guess) that it is
either an A. sp. Abacaxis (wilhelmi) or A. pulchra.

 

[Stoke_Apisto]

Hi,

Just thought I’d give you an update on these, not had time to lend a decent camera to get better pictures yet but I managed to get around to setting a tank up for these just to see how they interacted as I’ve kept them apart growing on to date due to them being very small and emaciated when I got them.

I'm quite certain on the ID for the male, A.sp Abacaxis, as I’m not aware of any other apisto that has a purple chin, except for a cf. pulchra 'Marimari') but as Tom says this could be just another population of Abacaxis. Anyway the male has an orange caudal fin he looks a spit of the one in the link below,

http://www.apistogramma.israquarium.co.il/FishIndex/Apistogramma_sp_abacaxis.html

Anyway back to the point of this update, as mentioned I set a tank up for them decor as detailed below, initial signs were good as the female turned yellow almost immediately and was displaying to the male. Somehow a small stray female A.luelingi had also found its way into the tank but I had to much bogwood in the tank to allow me to catch her so decided to leave her in there for the time being as I’d been told that male Abacaxis can be quite nasty towards the females so thought that would give them something else to chase rather than each other. After finally managing to catch the luelingi yesterday, I noticed that today after not seeing the female for a few days all the tell tale signs of a spawn, her belly has sunk, she's defending the back of the tank, gone even more yellow and most of the caves at the back of the tank have mounds of sand deposited outside them. She was also giving the male a hard time, no chance of catching him without disturbing them too much so I’ve added a few dithers into the tank, some marble hatchets and rocket pencils, seems to have done the trick as they've now teamed up to chase the dithers. Fingers crossed I have a spawn and if so, that’s its viable!! I’ll keep updating when I have more news or better photos.

Tank Setup.

Size - 24'' x 15'' x 12''
Substrate - fine play sand
Decor - Basically filled the tank with bogwood, caves of varying sizes and Java moss
Filtration - Centralised system
Temp - 26'C
pH - approx 4.8
ppm - 94
Feeding - BBS, live bring shrimp, daphnia, grindel worm