Rio Ampiacu Apistogramma (purple) Care Info

[Szawack]

Hey Guys I have a couple questions, I have a fluval flex 32.5 gallon. I recently had the chance to buy rio ampiacu apistos. I bought 2 confirmed beautiful males and 4 females three confirmed female, one may possibly be a sleeper male but is looking more female than male and even if that’s the case I would have essentially three pairs Worst case. I also have in the tank 11 neon tetra and for the corys I have C125 aspiradora, which I have 11 and got auction. The tank is beautiful and lots rock work and nooks and crannies and I also additional have two apistogramma caves in addition their too. So there are lots of hiding spots. Also the tank is heavily planted too. With Val, crypts, and tiger lily. now I have kept apistos in the past but, I would like to know the care requirements for these guys. The rio ampiacu. Because I cannot find anything online about them so any info on them like full mature color maily and possibly collection point for them Also I want to know the main question are they a natural strain of apistogramma, being rio ampiacu purple and not manipulated in a lab it appears so but want to ask. And anything else here are pictures of the tank where I bought them from also I will have pictures of my tank too.

thanks stephen

 

[MacZ]

have a fluval flex 32.5 gallon

Looking at the dimensions the tank would be ok for maybe a trio at best. And if the tank is supposed to be a display a single male would have been the best choice. So you got too many Apistos, one way or another.

I also have in the tank 11 neon tetra and for the corys I have C125 aspiradora, which I have 11 and got auction.

If you want to breed the tetras are a bad choice, they are fry predators. And whether you want to breed or not, IF a female starts brooding the Aspidoras will get the short end of the stick. Just like everybody else, because a brooding Apistogramma-female is able to push the stock of a 120cm-tank into one corner.

The tank is beautiful and lots rock work and nooks and crannies and I also additional have two apistogramma caves in addition their too. So there are lots of hiding spots.

Apistogramma prefer sand, topped with leaf litter and wood. Rocks take away access to the substrate, which the fish chew to extract food particles and small invertebrates from it. Caves are only used for breeding, otherwise a dark cave is considered dangerous. Predators might lurk in there, so the fish avoid them unless they have no other chance.
Additionally: You have some rocks in there that rais GH and KH and thus pH. Not what you want for softwater fish.

Here's a schematic drawing of how to structure a tank for Apistogramma. You have to make sure there are sight blocks completly blocking out the sight in the 10-15cm right above the sand. Between these sight blocks the fish have to have access to the substrate for sand chewing.

I'd replace the rocks with wood. Make sure no fish can look through under it.

Also the tank is heavily planted too. With Val, crypts, and tiger lily.

Erm... no offense, right now the tank is actually sparsely planted and considering the little available substrate space they will not have much space to expand. While the habitats the fish come from are often devoid of aquatic plants, the tank neither offers cover (yet), nor do they support the filtration by removing considerable amounts of nitrogen compounds.

For water parameters from the region:

Water values South America (Map pH) - Southamerica fans

To explain the markings on the map The color scale is based on the droplet tests for pH: red: appr. 4 to 5,5 yellow: appr. 6,0 three green: 6,5 7,0 and 7,5 blue appr. 8 to 9,5. Gray points stand for measurements without pH. For measurements where the exact location is known, the GPS data was

www.suedamerikafans.de

The closest spots in the map show:
EC seasonally between 10 and 200µS/cm
pH 5 - 6.5
Temperature always over 25°C
Due to the tank size and the fact we're dealing with a fish tank I recommend keeping the water soft (EC max 50µS/cm). pH is dependend on what you add, so with lots of leaf litter, wood, botanicals between 5.5 and 6 is possible.

The habitats there have soft, very fine sand, covered with leaf litter, occasional fallen wood, little true aquatic plants, mostly riparian plants and overflooded terrestrial plants. If you just google the river name you get enough pictures from there, you might add the keyword "habitat".

Also I want to know the main question are they a natural strain of apistogramma, being rio ampiacu purple and not manipulated in a lab it appears so but want to ask.

There are no proven lab-made Apistogramma. Actually only glofish come from a lab. Domestic strains are the result of linebreeding and inbreeding, so they are the result of traditional selective breeding. Only one strain (A. sp. "Steel Blue") is probably a hybrid, but that's it.

What might help you: The river is spelled Rio Ampiyacu. There are several species that come from there, e.g. Forms of A. ortegai and A. bitaeniata. I can't ID the fish in the pictures. Although I spot a female in your tank that looks a lot like A. (cf.) ortegai. And I have the suspicion you have more than one species there.

Hope this helps.

 

[Frank Hättich]

Although I spot a female in your tank that looks a lot like A. (cf.) ortegai. And I have the suspicion you have more than one species there.

Hope this helps.

I agree with Mac, this female can be a form of A. (cf.) ortegai, given the name "purple" likely A. cf. ortegai (Morado):

Looking at the pictures of the fish shop's tank, the other species you got is a form of A. cf. cacatuoides.

 

[Mike Wise]

Mac and Frank are correct. As Frank wrote, you do have more than 1 apisto species. IMG_0038 is a form of A. cacatuoides that has Black-spot syndrome commonly seen wild apistos from Peru.

 

[Szawack]

Ok gotcha let me clarify, the pictures with the blue tank are the apistos from the store. Not my home tank. so you still think in my home tank I have a coupe different species also would that cause issues? Also is Ortegi a natural strain?

 

[Frank Hättich]

Ok gotcha let me clarify, the pictures with the blue tank are the apistos from the store. Not my home tank. so you still think in my home tank I have a coupe different species also would that cause issues? Also is Ortegi a natural strain?

This isn't an ortegai-form and given the photos from the store, it's A. cf. cacatuoides:

In a small tank like yours, I would keep one pair of Apistos not more let alone different species. The A. (cf.) ortegai forms are natural species.

 

[Szawack]

Ok sounds good and are cacatoides a natural strain found in the wild? reason I ask this, is I only like wild strains.

 

[MacZ]

Also is Ortegi a natural strain?

Species, not strain.

and are cacatoides a natural strain found in the wild? reason I ask this, is I only like wild strains.

If they are wild caught, yes. And sorry, but the question wouldn't occur to me when I bought fish labeled wild caught with a origin location.

so you still think in my home tank I have a coupe different species also would that cause issues?

In a tank smaller than 150cm length this is definitely a problem. One species will assert itself as dominant and as there is little real estate for them, the others will fade away or worst case be killed.

 

[Szawack]

Ok sounds good I will try and correct the issue so also what your saying mac is on the store tank since they gave a location that means they were wild caught sorry I’m confused.

 

[Mike Wise]

A. cacatuoides is a natural species in which breeders have developed many domestic color strains. The cac in the photo is a wild caught specimen. The Black-spot syndrome that I mentioned in my previous post only occurs in fish in the wild - unless you have fish-eating birds around your tank.

 

[Szawack]

Ok gotcha that makes sense thank you !

 

[MacZ]

Yes, usually if the label gives you a location and no hint of "tangbred", you will get a wild caught fish of a natural species.
Strain usually denotes something manmade. Species means natural.

 

[Szawack]

Gotcha!

 

[anewbie]

fyi: I have found wc cockatoo to be extremely aggressive towards other species. I have a pair peru caught in a 40B with (don't laugh) some guppies and a pair of [not to be named]. The tank is well divided via huge java fern mass in half and the two species ahve agreed to stay on their half but every few mornings i find a dead guppy (this started happening a week after i added the cockatoo). Now while i don't particularly want to stress my fishes the guppies are genetically in horrible shape and i'm not terribly sad about their death (i've had them for 5+ years with constant inbreeding so there is a lot of deformities). I can't really give them away in this shape so i just let them do whatever in the 40B - none the less the point is that the putting those cockatoo with another species (esp another aggressive species) is not going to end well.