A. agassizi

[Matthew Clark]

Does Apistogramma agassizi form harems to breed or do they breed in a pair bond. I have what I believe to be 3 females and 1 male ready to be introduced into my tank. Does this sound okay? Any tips on sexing agassizi?

Matthew Clark

 

[Neil]

Matthew,
Both! Agassizii are accepting of both reproductive schemes. I have had 3 aggie females lay eggs almost simultaneously in a small tank, but this can make for some fireworks. If you have a larger tank, and aggie male will "service" a number of females and then roam from territory to territory to help with the defense, but the females do most of the work. Sometimes he will even attack a weaker female(with his offspring) if they wonder to close to another females space.
Depending on the form (the type) of agassizii, usually it takes awhile for males to develop characteristics that differentiate them from females, and even then you can have sub-dominant males (that look like females) and dominant females (that sometimes have certain male characteristic). But the standard is that a male will start developing a lance-like tail, will have more color in the body and the fins, will develop longer ventral fins, and will get a triangular-band of distinguishing color in the caudal fin. Hope that helps.

 

[jowens]

What can you guys tell me about water conditions needed for breeding Agassizii? I know it needs to be extra soft and acidic. I just bought an RO unit to address this issue, as my tap water is very hard. It's in the mail.

My only concern is that I'm using CO2 injection on the tank right now, so while a low pH is easy to achieve, I have to be careful about letting the water get too soft. Would it be possible to induce spawning in Agassizzi in water that was adequately acidic (around 6.2 to 6.4) but somewhat hard (say...3 kH)?

Thanks,
Jason

 

[Neil]

Jason,
For agassizii, 6.2 to 6.4 pH and 3KH is fine. They sometimes are a little stubborn, so be patient. A fairly large water change will often bring the conductivity in the tank down enough to trigger them and most other apistos to spawn. Good luck!

 

[jowens]

Thanks Neal -

Quick follow-up question: my Agassizzi pair are exibiting spawning behavior right now in my hard alkaline water (the RO arrives this week). Does this mean they could actually spawn, despite the water conditions, or is it more likely just a bit of "flirting" that will only be consumated when better conditions arrive?

The male is doing a lot of shaking and preening for his lady friend, and the female (who's also doing a bit of posing) is the only fish in the tank he's not chasing all over right now...

 

[Neil]

Jason,
Judging by the water parameters you listed above, I wouldn't consider your water hard and alkaline at all. However if it truely is on the hard, alkaline side then it is still totally reasonable to assume that your aggies will (at least) lay eggs. Once the do their courtship routine, it typically means that they are feeling pretty good and are interested in breeding. How successful that effort will be is another matter. It would not be unheard of for them to lay viable eggs in less than perfect water, depending on a number of other factors (temp, water changes, tank-raised vs. wild fish, diet, etc).
I have found that no matter how much I think I know about these guys, I don't know very much. They break the rules way too much to be sure that anything will or will not always work. That is why being involved in discussions about the fish that we are interested in, like this forum, is so valuable to me and, hopefully, everyone else.
That said, it is safe to assume that the water that you will produce with your RO unit will be more likely to get you a viable spawn from your agassizii. If you don't have great water coming out of your tap, which most of us don't, then you can't have much of a better aid for working with Apistogramma than an RO. But keep your eyes open 8O ; it wouldn't suprise me if they spawn. Neil

 

[Charlotte]

Until your RO arrives...

Jason,

I live in Davis and the water here is also terrible (GH 350+ ppm, pH 8.6+). Until your RO comes and with your fish so close to spawning, you may want to consider filling bottles with the self serve water station in your grocery store. Maybe have a sample of it tested first, but the three stores I have looked at here in town (Safeway, Rays, H2O-to-Go) all checked out great, with nearly no hardness and pH 6.0-6.5. They usually also use a carbon pre-filter and reverse osmosis, but also ultaviolet sterilization. I suggest this because it made a HUGE difference in my tanks. Sometimes I also put peat in the bottles overnight (or for a few days) before using the water in the tanks, which brought the pH down to 5.5 for some happy rams.

Good Luck!

 

[Csababá]

Is it a female agassizii?

Sorry for bringing this thread (or topic?) back but I didn't want to start a new one.
I'd like you to help me sex my fish.
Is this aga a female?

It is around 3-4 cm without "tailfin". Tha other surely male doesn't seem to like her. When the male comes the fish bends in "S" but flairs to borellis. Once I saw the male bite into its fin.
Thanks.

 

[Mike Wise]

Matthew,

Neil has given you some very good information on most commercially available A. agassizii. There are some populations (species?) that require softer and more acidic conditions to successfully breed. For example, I keep a population (A. cf. agassizii BBCS Rio Madeira) that only is successful in blackwater - pH < 5.5, dKH < 2º, dGH < 3º.

 

[Mike Wise]

Csababá,

The bottom 2 photos seem to be of a domestic female A. agassizii, but the top 2 look like a young/subdominant male. Are all of the photos really of the same fish??

 

[Csababá]

all the 4 on the same

Thank you Mike.
I have only 2 agassiziis in the tank. You can see the surely male in the top photo "rightly" above the fish questioned.
All the 4 photos were shot on the same fish.
I ordered a pair of agassizii but the LFS was wrong with sexing the borellis I also ordered altough telling me that both are easy to differentiate.

 

[Csababá]

some more pictures

Sorry for the poor quality. All these pictures were taken on the questioned fish.
What do you (all) think?
The pelvic (and anal) fins are yellow without black if I have seen is it well but it changes even by my cacas.
The face has the colour and patter of the real male only a bit less powerful.

 

[Mike Wise]

Most likely a female. It is very similar to my domestic "blue-line" agassizii. Highly colored domestic strains are sometimes hard to sex. I have a "female" that is 1½ year old that I still have questions of its sex.

 

[Csababá]

thx, some more questions

Thank you very much. Wow, 1,5 years and no sexual action.
Are fish better at sexing than us? I mean can we predict sex according to theit interaction to each-other. Ok, not spawning, but do a male handle an unwilling male different from another male? Can sneaker males really joke on the boss.
I hope you understand me.

 

[Mike Wise]

Apistos can recognize their own sex from a closely related species. They will always choose their own species when given an choice.

I think that males can recognize other males - even sneaker males - if they take the time to look at them closely. Sneaker males are mostly ignored only because the dominant male is busy breeding and defending his territory from other territorial males.

 

[Csababá]

The tank where the fish swam contained cory, guppy and platy juveniles, a male agassizi and two male borellis (all of them young apistos). The aga male owned the small tank (b54l). The questioned aga mostly hid under the sponge filter but sometimes went for a walk that was rapidly stopped by the male. When they met the male flaired and the yellow one bent its body in 'S' with fins on the body. Then the male usually tried to bite or even chase him/her. The borellis didn't like each-other at all and both were controlled by the male aga.
I want to take the cories to the LFS so moved the guppies, platies to their brethren and I decided to move the apistos to a 96l planted tank with other cories, platies, otos. I changed some water in the 96 and put the apistos there (after some water mixing in the bucket). (We bought a house and are renovating it so don't have much free time. I usually feed my fish in the evening, do the pertially water change in 1-2 weeks and that's all.)
The nex day evening (yesterday) I found this agassizii lying on the ground almost dead. Then I found a dead apisto under the filter. I moved the top of the tank and found a juvi platty dead with parts missing of(from?) the body.
I moved the yellow aga back to the previous tank and started to wonder what was wrong. The male aga and the other borelli were a bit pale but ok. The otos were ok and the trumpet snails as well. The platties swam with open fins like the cories.
The yellow aga behavied like a poisoned fish. Mostly 'waggled' on the ground and sometimes tarted to swim real fast without coordination or twisted and bent on both sides quickly.
This morning(s)he lived no more.
On one hand I think the water in the 96 could be wrong but on the other hand I saw the male aga lightly attack guppy and platy juvis as well.
What do you think?
I hope the others make it.

 

[Mike Wise]

I am sorry to read about your problems. My guess is that something occurred in the tank water or filtration. A. agassizii are not super-aggressive fish usually - especially toward other fish species.

 

[Csababá]

he still lives

The male still lives in a br 96L planted tank with platies, otos and cories. He's a bit darker then earlier, spends some time in the jungle but in the open water as well. Once I saw him hunting for platy babies. I hope I'll be able to get some females for him that stay alive by me and are on the idea of "making a family".