Apisto needs ID!

cdawson

cdawson

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Jan 6, 2003
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I need a positive ID on this apisto, I'm really not sure what it is. I've had it since it was REALLY small. I've got two pairs of it and I'm trying to breed them, knowing what they are would really help alot.

They were labelled as juruensis, but I later ID'd them as eunotus. I'm releatively sure that's what they are. However recently since the female has gone into hiding in a burrow the male has begun showing more vibrant colours with a light brown base. One male is darker with more blue's, although he's in a much darker tank. Here is the male in the stand alone breeding setup.

smallerapisto.jpg
 
I don't see how anyone can positively I.D. most of the apisto's. one fish can have a dozen totally different looks whether they are male or female, adult or juvenile, breeding, mad or just hanging out. the Baensch dwarf cichlid book has tons and tons of photos and info on apisto's and might be a good investment if you plan to keep any. go to www.bigalsonline.com and they sell it really cheap there. Kyle
 
Here's the female, I think she may be gravid. She's got a bulge near her belly with what looks like an egg depositor you'd see on angels. Only kind of forked. My other female has had this exact look for about 2 months, only no fry. This female is currently seperated from the other male so I can condition her. She also has taken refuge in a small pit in the sand under a piece of driftwood with an entrance front and back.

femapisto.jpg
 
I'd agree it looks similar to my eunotus, but it could be others.

I never found the Baensch atlases much kop for apistos. Aqualog produce a nice book of pictures, but a good 10% of them are misidentified. Mayland and Bork is a good book on dwarfs.
Alternatively plough through the images on thekrib.com, and if you really struggle you can send photos into the apistogramma study group (or you could)
That female looks a bit oddly shaped, but naybe that's the photo.
 
The photo is on an angle, but if you look closely there's a small bulge near her belly that wasn't there two weeks ago when I seperated the female from the male. Water quality is good and she's eating, the ph is about 6.4 right now filtered through peat.
 
It looks like its a younger fish, and untill it matures and displays adult characteristics its gonna be rather hard to ID it with any accuracy. I'd suggest though maybe getting hold of Mike Jacobs at http://www.southernapistos.com He could probably help you out in this department.
 
I know that now, yesterday my double red fem. and my wild male spawned. I wouldn't have noticed except for the all out war they had waged on their neighbour the smiling acara. The smiling acara is a full grown 3-1/2" and one tough *******, the male and female relelntlessly attack him and he still came back for more. I seperated them immediately when I saw what was going on.

I now officially disagree with allowing apistos to spawn in a community tank.

but my point was that the female is barely an inch and she produced a rather large spawn.
 
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