Apistogramma viejita II

Hey everyone. So a little background information about this fish. I originally bought 2 from Rachel aka Msjinkzd. They both did good sadly though I accidently sucked the female out during a WC and didn't realize it till it was to late. Well I hit up Rachel and being such a great pal she sent me two females. One female sadly was DOA and the other lasted a week then died. Refused to eat. So she once again sent more. 2 Females and 1 Male. They arrived in good shape and were eating good. Everything was looking up. Then I find my new male a couple days later dead with some small injuries all over. Then one female died from the same injuries a day later. The last female looked fine. He left her alone. Then I guess he got tired of her and beat her up a bit so I removed her but she refused to eat and died. So I have only a single male in a 20 gallon high aquarium.

He shares the tank with Black Bar Endlers which have been breeding more and more. I got 3 platty's which don't seem to wanna breed (1m2f). I also have 2 ummmm marble hatchets. Not sure how the others died. For awhile It was hard to see all the fish at once due to the floating plants and leaf litter which I now have down to a minimum. The other inhabitants are 3 Cajun Crayfish and I believe its like 4 or 5 Cherry Shrimp oh also a full grown Blue Eyed BN Pleco and two baby Pterygoplichthys weberi pleco's. So yeah a completely stocked tank. Over stocked actually luckily there not messy fish since the pleco's aren't big yet.

Well the male was tiny when I got it. Not sure how Rachel knew it was a male at such a small size. She must have eyes like a hawk. Hawk Eye Rachel lol. Anyways here are some pictures I got of it when I first aquired them and of pics earlier this month along with a few from today.

Hope you guys enjoy the pictures.

Female 3-1-2011


Male 3-1-2011


Female 3-2-2011


Male 3-2-2011






Male 6-8-2011










Male 6-27-2011

Yes he is. When he want's to be lol. He is being very photo friendly today. I think he is trying to just make me feed him. I ran out of fish food so got to buy some more today at work.

Thanks for the compliment Razzle. Oh and yes I am ready for a Zombie Attack lol.

msjinkzd said:

He came out gorgeous! Its tricky to tell at that size what their gender is for sure, you have NO idea how long it took me staring at little 1/2" apistos to figure it out.

Its sad the gals didn't do as well. I have had issues myself with finding the right female for some of my males (one wild dude in particular). I think they are more choosey than what many may think.

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Yea very choosey. Nice fish but for being so small and supposidly docile they are pretty fiesty with there own. Im still debating whether to track some more down to try and get a pair or to just leave him solo.

Pittbull said:

Dam dude bad luck well i too suck at keeping Apistos all of mine died except a lone female which is now a resident in a 800gal pond probably a goner as well.. Our water here is too hard for them so i knew going in with Apistos was going to be tough.. And i suck at altering the chemistry of water well i am lazy at it is what i mean.. Sorry bro..

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Wow that bites. Maybe it has survived in the pond. If you happen to see it catch it and Ill take it off your hands. I can make space for another apisto.

abarilot said:

Sorry to hear about your females.... that is frustrating! BUT your male is GORGEOUS! Btw I really like the time line of photos

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Thanks for the kind words. Also I like doing the timelines. I do it for 2 reasons. Firstly so you all can see how it looked when I first aquired them and how they look now. Second reason cause then I could use this as my personal picture journal. Only problem I face is sometimes I get so many compliments I tend to feel Im falling behind on the pictures. No biggy though.

amazonadam said:

Nice fish! About how big are they?

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It's the solo male and he is ummmm guesstimate of 3". Pretty amazing considering it was a half incher as Rachel stated above when I purchased him. Grew pretty fast.




Thanks again everyone for your compliments. Was frustrating with the losses which have been many this year but still not giving up. This year has been my worst year when it has come to losses for multiple reasons from violence, parasites (Ich), to jumping for freedom and for unknown reasons. Still learning as I go.

I know Mike. You do that pond every year like clock work.