A. Huascar vs. atahualpa

[mixmixi]

Hi everyone

Could anyone explain how to differentiate the female huascar and atahualpa from each other please? Thank you in advance!

 

[Mike Wise]

It's not easy. They're very closely related. To be honest, I'd have a hard time separating females of the 2 species if mixed together in a tank and not in brood dress. A. huascar females show a slightly larger, more square caudal spot and in brood dress a squarish lateral spot of moderate size. A. atahualpa females show a slightly smaller, more rounded caudal spot and in brood dress a very small rounded lateral spot.

 

[mixmixi]

Thanks Mike for the reply. Talking about mixing, have you ever seen a female atahualpa spawning with a male huascar?

 

[Mike Wise]

I wouldn't do it. They are too closely related.

 

[mixmixi]

To be perfectly honest with you, I've had a single male huascar for sometime now and have tried anyone I knew to find a female for him. This has gone so far with no success. The only thing I know is the came to hubby once in 2009 and that's it! I'm now thinking of getting a female atahualpa for this male. I know this is wrong to mix them but even if I do, I would never let the offspring enter the hobby, it will for the sake of keeping myself happy.... Unless I could find a female......

 

[Mike Wise]

Your huascar doesn't need or want a female atahualpa in his tank. He isn't lonely. Think about it. What if you were the only human in an alien zoo. Would you want a chimpanzee (97% genetic similarity to humans) as a roommate?

 

[mixmixi]

Haha, fair enough! No I won't! I will keep searching for a female. I know Tom C entered cf. huascar in the hobby before. If ever I could get my hands on one female of cf. huascar, do you think it is as bad as keeping an atahualpa with the male? Or the cf. huascar would be fine? Consider, I'm not going to do it as well but I'm curious to know only.

 

[Mike Wise]

My guess is that A. cf. huascar will never appear in the hobby unless some hobbyist, like Tom, goes out and collects it again. I believe it most likely is only a geographic population of A. huascar just like A. cf. huascar (Aleman).

 

[mixmixi]

I know a hobbyist who is a friend of mine and is keeping A. Cf. huascar. He got them from Tom, so what you say is it's fine to mix them? Worth mentioning cf. huascar has some marking difference on the body with the actual huascar based on what Tom mentioned on his website.

 

[Mike Wise]

Go ahead. I see no problem. The differences are more likely only population variation. That being said, we don't know where A. cf. huascar was collected and what variation in this population looks like. If it's widely separated from other huascar populations and all specimens show identical (or nearly so) marikings, then it could be a separate species.

 

[mixmixi]

So what you advise is to give it a try if I ever could get a female cf. huascar?

 

[Mike Wise]

First, apistos don't really need another of the opposite sex to be happy and healthy. Personally, for breeding, if I have doubts about mixing species I tend to not do it. If I were in your situation, since you like the species, I would pick up a pair/trio of A. cf. huascar and move the commercially bought specimen to another tank or to someone else, but that's just me. Most of my apistos are from known collecting localities or have no species at all similar. You can do whatever you fell best.

 

[mixmixi]

Really if I wanted to do whatever I wanted to, I would never asked for advise. I will take your advise, as I said I am not planning on mixing anything and have been looking for a female. I also understand keeping an opposite sex wont keep my fish happier as he has been with me for a few months and he is happy by himself. I am keen on breeding him but as far as you are advising it is not good to mix them up, then I would not.