A Nijsseni or A Panduro

[gwarnant]

A friend gave me an unhappy male Apisto. He had overstocked a 200l dwarf Cichlid community tank with the inevitable result when breeding commenced.

Amongst the fish he had in there where a pair each of Nijsseni and Panduro of which only one cowering male survived but he did not know whether it was the male Nijsseni or Panduro.

Whatever it is now recovering nicely in my quarantine tank. I think it's a Nijsseni - on the basis that from 'Sudamerikanische Zwergcichliden' I'd expect a Panduro to have a more pointed tail. But he's way off the colours of my Nijsseni - hardly surprising as he's happy and got a mate.

Could anyone confirm the identification?

Here's three pictures - apologies for the quality.


Jeff

 

[a.d.wood]

Hi Jeff,

Ignore the pointed tail and concentrate on the dorsal fin.

With A. nijsseni, the dorsal shoud be a uniform height with no serrations (top should be flat).

With A. panduro, the dorsal will have a serrated top edge towards the front of the fish.

Apistogramma panduro (male), note serrations along top edge of dorsal fin:

Andrew

 

[gwarnant]

Thanks

Thanks Andrew

I think I may have to wait a couple of weeks to do that.

He was pretty shell-shocked and very nervous when I got him. He has only just started emerging when I'm near over the past few days when he's clearly begun to associate me and food. I've not yet seen his dorsal fin extended.

Jeff

 

[Greg PL]

I'd go for A. panduro. the caudal spot, though poorly visible on the photos, seems wedge-shaped, not round as in nijsseni. and it's got quite a lot of blue shimmer on the flanks of the body.
there were quite a few threads here explaining the differences, like this one:
http://forum.apistogramma.com/showthread.php?t=2159&highlight=nijsseni+panduro+difference

 

[langosh]

Have a look here
Roman

 

[gwarnant]

Thanks

Thanks for your help.

From Andrew the dorsal fin is not serrated (Nijsseni)

And from Petfrd on the tail the colouring is yellow with small/indistinct black dot (Nijsseni again).

I'll get a Nijsseni female and see how things develop.

Thanks

Jeff

 

[Lolojil]

I think that is a male A. nijsseni.

The tail should be blue if it has A.panduro and it is yellow.