New pickup.. A191. A.sp 'Jurua'

[ste12000]

Got these yesterday.. Still early so the colours arent great, settling in well and looking nice. Only 9 pairs imported into the UK so feeling pretty lucky to have these.

 

[Tom C]

Nice catch, Ste!

This is a species of the A.-cacatuoides-group from the neighborhood of the Brazilian town Cruzeiro do Sul.
Warzel (1998) introduced it as Apistogramma sp. “Juruá”, but since this name could lead to it being confused with A. juruensis
(which lives in the same area), Koslowski recomends that the species is named A. sp. "Cruzeiro".
It has an exciting mix of features: The males have, in contrast to the other members of the A.-cacatuoides-group, highly iridescent body scales and shiny markings on the head. The females' brood dress show a light yellow tint that resemble that of the females of A. norberti, the males show abdominal stripes that resemble those of A. luelingi and A. cf. staecki, and it has a reduction of the separate anguloarticular canal openings, in the genus only known on A. trifasciata and A. borellii!

This species lives in blackwater habitats, and their care and breeding are reported to be relatively problematic.
Fingers crossed, Ste........

 

[ste12000]

Thanks Tom, when you mentioned in your email A.sp 'cruzeiro' i didnt know which species you were talking about, it was only after i looked into it that i realised that what i know as A.sp'Jurua' is the same fish.. Anyway i went straight over to see Neil and picked a nice pair, they are kept seperated for a week or so whilst they put on a bit of condition. The male will then be introduced to the females tank and fingers crossed for breeding success..

Im pleased to have this nice fish in the fishroom!!

Do you want a pair?? i can pick a pair up for you if you like? when are you over next?

 

[ste12000]

they are kept seperated for a week or so whilst they put on a bit of condition. The male will then be introduced to the females tank and fingers crossed for breeding success..

Ok so patience isnt a virtue i possess!!!

Both fish were looking good apart from the fact that they were in seperate tanks. Ive never ever seperated any pair of Apistogramma and maybe i was being a bit ultra cautious(Due to the investment cost of these fish!) anyway both fish had filled out and were looking great. I dropped the male into the females tank about a hour before lights out in the fishroom. They treated me to a wonderful display, i think they like each other

I think this is my favourite, eggs are clearly visable through the females abdominam

 

[Tom C]

.... Do you want a pair?? i can pick a pair up for you if you like? when are you over next?

Thanks for the offer, Ste, but Ray's got a pair too, and he has offered me a few of his presumed juveniles!
I see an exciting competition here; who's going to be the first one in the UK to breed this species :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

Ok so patience isnt a virtue i possess!!!.....

I think I can imagine how you felt: You just COULDN'T wait, could you! :biggrin:
Great pictures, Ste. Thanks for sharing!

 

[ste12000]

I think I can imagine how you felt: You just COULDN'T wait, could you! :biggrin:

:biggrin:

Thanks for the offer, Ste, but Ray's got a pair too, and he has offered me a few of his presumed juveniles!
I see an exciting competition here; who's going to be the first one in the UK to breed this species :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

I know better to enter any kind of breeding competition with our friend Raymondo... He was breeding fish when i was a child and he is my mentor and one of my closest friends in the hobby. As long as one of us manages to breed these fish then that will be fine..

And then my competative side screams...BRING IT ON BIG FELLA :biggrin: :biggrin:

 

[Hudson Ensz]

Was actually looking forward to see a pickup but this is better! great fish

 

[raymond82]

Beautiful fish!

I'm really wondering though, how is it possible that a pair spawns almost immediately?

 

[ste12000]

Beautiful fish!

I'm really wondering though, how is it possible that a pair spawns almost immediately?

?? You must have misunderstood, the pair have not spawned yet, infact the males very aggressive to the female..

 

[raymond82]

I see!

Of course what I meant was courtship, I always confuse the term with spawning.

Either way, I should also work a little on my abilities to tell aggression from courtship, could be helpful judging the behavior of my own fish too... :biggrin:

 

[ste12000]

I see!

Of course what I meant was courtship, I always confuse the term with spawning.

Either way, I should also work a little on my abilities to tell aggression from courtship, could be helpful judging the behavior of my own fish too... :biggrin:

The beauty of international fishkeeping, sorry i didnt understand what you meant, it wass pretty obvious!

The initial reaction of the male to the female was to display, within seconds of them meeting the male was displaying. Is this uncommon? no i dont think so, in the wild i should imagine there is instant attraction between the sexes that happens within seconds. Sometimes i find it difficult to tell between courtship and aggression, the best way to tell is the female, if she stays around and does not dart away then that is usually a good sign!! If she is chased all round the tank then its usually agression :frown:

 

[raymond82]

That clarifies things, i would have been amazed if they could spawn so soon (now I mean spawn... ).

In some of the pictures I see the gills all pumped up and their throat somewhat swollen (not sure how to properly describe this), would this be something that you could see during courtship or is this more typical of aggression?

That's it for off topic questions from my side, I'm looking forward to read updates on the breeding progress of these fish!

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

In some of the pictures I see the gills all pumped up........or is this more typical of aggression?

It is typically the male in threatening mode, it is exactly the same as for Firemouth cichlids (Thorichthys meeki) the male tries to look as big and imposing as possible from head on.

They also do the same when they are trying to impress the female, but usually the swim slowly in front of the female, side ways on, with their fins spread.

This is an Apistogramma eunotus video which shows this fairly well at the start (they're not mine it is just one I found on Google).
[video=youtube;0u3wCQMTuKI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u3wCQMTuKI[/video]

cheers Darrel

 

[raymond82]

Beautiful video, really nice fish too. I love seeing their courtship dance, I wish I saw a bit more of this in my aquariums...

Indeed I saw only some of the behavior with the gills "pumped up". I take it that it does depend on context, cause this was clearly courtship behavior and I've seen this pumping up gills more during male-to-male confrontations.

 

[Melanochromis]

Very lovely fish you've got.

The Jurua/Cruzeiro has been one of my favorite fish and I've bred them for 2 years now. From my experience this species is surprisingly easy to take care of, which is probably contradict to experiences of other people. Just keep them healthy and they'll become pretty and breed and show a lot of lovely personality. I think of them as pleasant to keep and rather problem-free Apistogramma.

On breeding, I usually didn't get to see much flaring or courtship from the pair. My fish tend to "do it" very quickly. Before I know it, the female is guarding eggs already.

Interestingly, my fish have orange cheeks. I've never seen an all-white Jurua like yours before. The following images are my original pair. All of their male descendents of two generations have orange cheeks too.

If you happen to come to Bangkok some time, please let me know. I'd love to meet another breeder of this species.

 

[ste12000]

I see an exciting competition here; who's going to be the first one in the UK to breed this species :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

Well Tom im happy to announce the winner of your competition was...... Ray, he beat me by 48 hours.. He sent me a lovely picture of a clutch of 30-40 eggs on tuesday evening and my fish spawned thursday morning! he beat me by 24 hours , coming second to Ray is not embarrasing at all ..

 

[Tom C]

Nice work, guys! Shouldn't be a problem to establish this species in the UK then...

.....coming second to Ray is not embarrasing at all ..

Just admit it, Ste: You HATE it....:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

 

[ste12000]

Just a quick note to update this thread!! these fish are agressive, very aggressive!! My female suffered at the hands of the male when he wanted to spawn and as soon as they did spawn roles were reversed and the female was hyper agressive.. Nothing too unusual there but these fish are one of the meanest ive kept. The male was practically lifeless in the upper corner of the tank with fins shredded and scales missing, i placed some floating pipes to give him some hiding places and rest bite. Went away for a hour and came back to find him on the floor in a bucket with no water!! luckily he is alive and slowly recovering but the females not given up.. I have some Nannostomus minimus in with them and she has killed one of these this morning!!

 

[aquaticclarity]

Good to know! I have some of these on order to come in this Monday...hopefully they fill. And now I'll be ready for the aggression.

 

[ste12000]

Today i got some freeswimmers