Hello guest! Are you an Apistogramma enthusiast? If so we invite you to join our community and see what it has to offer. Our site is specifically designed for you and it's a great place for Apisto enthusiasts to meet online. Once you join you'll be able to post messages, upload pictures of your fish and tanks and have a great time with other Apisto enthusiasts. Sign up today!
If they have been mixed in later (in Australia), they can be one of the A. cf. resticulosa forms (from Brazil) or A. sp. Steel-blue. In the latter case there should be a pattern of vertical stripes all over the male's caudal fin eventually.
It looks like a resticulosa-complex species. The only resticulosa-complex species from Peru I know is A. cf. resticulosa from the Rio Madre de Dios. However, the latter look a bit different than your fish. When you say they came with ortegai, do you mean with wild caught ortegai from Peru or...
It's one of the A. (cf.) ortegai forms, which one I can't tell for sure. Do you have pictures of females?
@Apistoguy52: ortegai-subcomplex species can also show split bars.
Good idea. However, there are so many very similar macmasteri-group species that it is often impossible to tell the exact species without knowing the exact catch location.
For completeness: I forgot another Ladislao-like species/form called A. sp. Maca. From the few photos of them that I have seen, it seems that males show pronounced red markings on the head and that their caudal pattern is rerstricted to a fan-like area in the middle of the caudal fin (similar to...
The photos are too blurry and I'm not particularly good in sexing, sorry.
Me too.
If adult males don't show any caudal pattern it's most likely A. sp. Amaya. If they show a caudal pattern but no red markings on the head, they may be A. sp. Ladislao 2 but of course it might also be less...
The fish in the second link are Ladislao 1 not 2 (unfortunatly there is a lot of confusion with the naming of the species/forms). The black dot in the middle (= lateral spot) is shown by all the Ladislao-like as well as the black ventral fin edges (see above).
In principle yes. Females show these black markings much more regularly and much more pronounced than males. The problem is that sneaker males also show them (to some exctend) and that these markings (like all other black markings) are mood dependent.
There are 4 similar forms/species: A. sp...
A. wolli is one of the species closely related to payaminonis, so it's very well possible that your fish are wolli. They are distinguished from payaminonis mostly by showing one lateral spot (instead of two), the shape of the females' caudal spot and some markings on the chin and chest area...
Even if you would tell what they are supposed to be, the best positive answer you could expect based on these photos would be "possible". There are simply too many, too similar nijsseni-group species.
So not telling us what they are supposed to be, but expecting that we tell you exactly what...
If the black blotch on the caudal peduncle is never larger than in this photo, in particular if it never extends into the upper half of the caudal peduncle, it's most likely A. piaroa (A164).
A. piaroa is A164.
A165 is A. cf. piaroa (Rio Negro). Do you know the catch location? Does he sometimes show a large black blotch on the caudal peduncle?
Note that according to most other authors/researchers/experts, A. meinkeni belongs to the pertensis-lineage, which is believed to be a lineage separate from the agassizii-lineage.
You can't access the full article on researchgate.
However, what Römer & Kipper say about the systematic position of D52 (and the according to them most similar species A. sp. "Tiquie 1" aka A. sp. "Tiquie") is this: "Which group these two species, Apistogramma sp. D52 and A. sp. "Tiquié 1"...
The main difference are the abdominal markings: lineata shows 3-4 rows of vertical streaks/oval blotches, whereas Blutkehl often shows darkend/blackend vertical bars below the lateral band (sometimes in addition zigzag stripes).
Moreover, if the caudal fin of your fish isn't completely...
Yes they are. What I tried to say is that A. sp. Morona is the name of a different species that belongs to the eunotus-subcomplex. Therefore calling your fish "A. sp. Morona" is wrong.