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A. cacatuoides, and nearly all apistos, do not 'bond'. Also, females initiate breeding, not males. Without knowing more about your aquarium it's hard to say if it's worthwhile to remove the other male.
Your elevation has no effect on fish. The difference in water pressure between sea level and 8000'/2400m is negligible compared to atmospheric pressure. About the only difference in keeping an aquarium at high elevation and sea level is that you'll need a larger air pump at elevation.
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Size? Looks like a regani-complex species and a female to me. There are several regani-complex species that occur with A. cacatuoides in Peru. As Frank wrote, it's hard to say which with out a collecting location.
There is a photo of a male on line. It looks different from fire red, similar to the differences between red and orange flash cacatuoides. It's just another domestic color strain to my jaded, opinionated, opinion. Some will love it, some will hate it. I'll just ignore it.:)
The problem with domestic red strains of A. cacatuoides is that the females develop many masculine traits (color, fins) that wild females do not. With that caveat, from what I see you probably have 1 of each sex.
I have never had problems with 'volunteer' snails (MBS, pond, and ramshorn) causing problems eating eggs. Then, I never kept 'exotic' snails in a breeding tank.
It's not you that is the problem, it's your phone's camera. Cell 'phones' now are a "Jack of all trades, but a master of none". On a small screen they may look sharp, but on a larger computer screen they are not clear enough to see features that I need to identify an apisto.
If it's guarding eggs/fry then it's a female. Stupid I know but true and couldn't help myself. In all honesty if you can't sex them then there is no easy way to sex them. One option is to put all the fish in 1 tank and remove males to another tank as they become obvious. The problem with this is...
A. borellii fry are slow growers, but after 2 weeks they should be >2mm. Perhaps the bbs isn't reaching the fry?? I keep my fry until the female shows a lack of interest in them. As for age at breeding, I doubt they will be breed-able for 7 - 8 months of age. In-breeding is less important with...
Possibly, but my A. erythrura, collected west of the Rio Itonomas, never show lateral spots on Bars 2 & 4, but only Bar 3. Has anyone see this 3-spot pattern on A. erythrua? I would also expect to see the lateral band become noticeably wider toward the posterior. Many females are hard to ID.
I think everyone is over-thinking pH here, if planning to breed most populations of A. bitaeniata. Most actually occur in mixed clear/blackwater streams with softer water values. A pH value of 5.5 was not needed by me for any of the forms that I've kept over the decades. Usually around pH 6 was...
You have a beautiful community/display tank but I have to agree with Mac that it is not suitable if you add a breeding pair. For most apistos and male and female of the same species is a breeing pair. The tank size is OK for some smaller, less polygamous apisto pairs, but realize that the...
There are actually 2 different agassizii-complex species that occur in the Rio Tefe. This is why there were so many problems with breeding/hybrids when A. sp. Tefe was first introduced.
As for A. allpahuayo, the same space requirements exist for it as the Fire-red aggies. There is little...
20High or 20Long? A 15/20H is the bare minimum for larger apistos, especially more polygamous species, even for experienced apisto breeders. It can work for species that form breeding pairs (different from mated pair) like A. nijsseni/panduro, but only after a pair bond forms for breeding. If...