Steelblue Females????

[eicello]

I have seen many pics of steelblue males posted on this forum. Nobody posts pics of the females. I bought six of these fish a while ago, all under an inch long. All grew up to be males. Does anyone have females? Do they exsist?

 

[farm41]

there is a lot of discussion of the steelblue on this forum, please use the search feature near the top of the page.

 

[Nain]

Steelbluec Females

Several months ago and again this past weekend was at the Aquarius fish store in Montreal (best plants in the city). Each time they had a tank full of "steelblue" Apistos. I believe these to be only a colour variant of A. borellii. Every single one was male. The store manager said he has brought them in from Singapore (?) at least 5 times in the past 4 years and every one has been male. Either the spawning temperature/pH effect is at play here or hormones are. Isn't it about time for the commercial breeders to adopt some basic responsibility and ship at least an evenly weighted allotment of males/females?

I recall in early 1992 when I was quite new to fishkeeping when I spent some time with Oliver Lucanus who was then working at a local Montreal fish store. I was interested in getting a true pair of cichlids, but the entire tank (30 + fish) were all juveniles. My options were to purchase the entire tank or to have them sexed by someone who knew what they were doing. Oliver netted out several, then he produced a large magnifying glass and examined the genital pores of each. He sold me 4, they were 2 pairs. Enough said about quality of service.

 

[Randall]

Apistogramma. sp. "Steel Blue"

Dear Nain,

Yes, of course, if there are pairs to be had, then all that is necessary is someone with the knowledge to sex the subject fish. Apistogramma sp. "Steel Blue," however, may be another story all together.

This form is believed to a an Apistogramma reticulosa-complex (regani-group) hybrid that was developed in Singapore and that does not exist in nature. I understand that only males are exported to prevent them from being breed elsewhere. A. borellii, on the other hand, is placed by Koslowski in an entirely different group.

All the best,

Randall Kohn

 

[mervin]

Hello Nain,
Coming from Singapore and I have seen these fishes in the market for several years now......i have to say that even I, have not seen a female.

cheers
Mervin

 

[fishgeek]

could it just be that hybridasation has caused a sterile fish?
happens with ass/mules whatever they maybe called in your parts ie horsexdonkey mix

andrew

 

[mervin]

could it just be that hybridasation has caused a sterile fish?
happens with ass/mules whatever they maybe called in your parts ie horsexdonkey mix

andrew

eh.....i don't think so because there never seem to be any lack of these fishes.
and they are exported in BULK to the US and Europe and what ever countries that will have them.

 

[Mike Wise]

This is just an opinion. I tend to agree with the Japanese apisto experts that the Blue-head/Steel-blue Apisto is a cross between 2 different species - 1 a resticulosa-like form & the other a caetei-like form. Czech commercial breeders apparently produce their Blue-heads by using caetei-like females with SE Asian males & get fertile spawns - at least the males of the spawns are viable. I don't know, maybe the females of this hybrid have some fatal genetic defect and they all die.

Anyone who would like to try breeding this form might try doing the same as the Czech - buy some Blue-head males & cross them with females of either a caetei- or resticulosa-complex fish. It would be interesting to see what happens.

Mike Wise

 

[António Vitor]

I have the third generation of some steelblue (I think they are steelblue)

I have them in a tank full of plants, discus and some other fish, and they breed like rats!


http://plantasmolhadas.no.sapo.pt/images/intermediate.jpg

They like heteranthera zosterifolia for breeding place!


I have some videos, you need Xvid codec installed!
http://www.apistogrammas.com/multimedia/steel.zip

here is a photo of a female and a yongster...see the arrows.
http://plantasmolhadas.no.sapo.pt/temp/steel2.jpg

I think some of them get eated, but some survived!


I also have 2 wild agassizi in there (a female and a male), nothing yet..


Regards from Portugal!
António Vitor

 

[António Vitor]

In the last photo I think there is only one male

 

[P.W.]

Hello Antonio

Are there females on the photo? To me it looks like a Male and three subdominant males. Strange that the females also have that metallic blue spots on the head??

By the way, you have a great tank!

Best regards/ Per

 

[VUE]

steel bllue females?

hello i just purchased a pair of steel blues from my LFs, it was suprising that I found females. THis is the first time I have ever seen more than one female in the tank. My female is about 1.5 inches and the coloring is totally yellow andit pectoral fins are black, the male is similar but his coloring is kind of a metallic blue and he has a little bit of yellow on his back fin.. They were showing signs of breeding so I picked up one pair, well hopefully i will be able to have them spawn soon..

 

[António Vitor]

thanks P.W.

My steelblue females have a little blue on them...
Before I reproduce them, I thought there were no females...


Regards!
António Vitor

 

[BVL]

Steelblue pics... and more.

Some pics of my Steelblue, male and female:
http://community.webshots.com/user/negas
http://community.webshots.com/photo/71075880/103741866PdnhNG

 

[Neil]

BVL,

WELCOME TO THE FORUM

I placed a link onto the URL that you had in your post to make it easier for people to access it. I also took the liberty of putting a direct link to the female on the page, because I think that is what people are most interested in seeing for this thread.

Thanks,
Neil

 

[Neil]

António Vitor,

WELCOME TO THE FORUM

I have replaced your nice pictures with linked URLs. Please refer to the rules regarding images on the forum. Any pictures that are larger than 400x300 should be placed as a link. Don't stop posting them, just make them a little smaller or use a link, please.

Thank you,

Neil