Agassizi or Cacatoides?

[Crazygar]

I purchased this Apisto at an LFS under the guise of A.cacatoides Female. Upon bringing "her" (I definately know its a Female) I realized that I might have purchased an A.agassizi female as opposed to an A.cacatoides female.

(1) My Male A.cacatoides is about 2.4" Long, this recent purchase is 2" long
(2) Face is rather "froglike" unlike A.cacatoides
(3) Male displays "flaring", "shimmying" but without serious lunges at her. He "tolerates" her presence almost
(4) Small patch of "Yellow" on her Gill Gover
(5) Eyes seem to be huge and set further up on her head

I've attached a picture to help someone ID this one properally! I sharpened the picture a little bit to help define some areas. Sorry about the overall quality!

Gary

 

[blueblue]

Hi Gary, may you please post a photo showing the
abdomenal region of the fish? It is difficult to say with the
current photo you posted...

 

[Crazygar]

Yeah, I've been trying to get "her" in the proper spot. I'll aim for a better (less fuzzy) picture which includes her side profile.

Gary

 

[Crazygar]

Here are (hopefully) some better pictures (still not that good though).

Gary

 

[Apisto ranch]

Looks more like my Bittaeniata then either Agassi or cockato

 

[a.d.wood]

Hi there,

With the abdominal stripes just visible in the first picture (2nd set of pictures) I think you can rule out the agassizii and bitaeniata possibilities, I would say it's in the cacatuoides group (as to whether it's cacatuoides, juruensis, black chin, etc though....).

Is she showing any black on the trailing ventrals yet??

Andrew

 

[Mike Wise]

I think that it is A. cacatuoides. Better photos would help confirm this, but I am fairly certain that the shop had it accurately labeled.

 

[blueblue]

yes, it is a caca; it reminds me of the caca female fish that i acquired last year which also looked like a bita to me. i also posted it here and finally realized that it's a caca ^.^

 

[Crazygar]

When I came home from work this evening, I noticed that her ventral fins are full black and she is flaring at her reflection in the glass! Also noticed that 90% of my fish and shrimp are at the other side of the tank, well away from her.

She allows my male into the area and thats it. Though I thought that A.cacatoides were Cave Brooders, this is obviously not the case in my tank where she has taken up the area which is densely planted with low growing Nomaphila stricta.

I have two large pieces of driftwood (one with at least 3 or 4 natural caves) for serving as nesting sites.

Gary

 

[a.d.wood]

Hi Gary,

In my cacatuoides stock tank, I have at least 1 pair of wild caught fish who spawn in the one of the front corners of the tank against the glass, not even close to a piece of bog wood.

Andrew

 

[Crazygar]

I finally managed a good shot! Though there has been some "interesting" recent developments;

(1) Her colour is now Yellow and Ventral fins are edged with deep black. This colour comes and goes but I take this as a good sign.
(2) Displaying from the Male continues but the "Female" shoos the Male away

And yes, finally a good photograph! Too bad all her yellow colouration does not appear, its a magnificent sight to behold!

Gary

 

[Mike Wise]

It is a female A. cacatuoides alright.

 

[blueblue]

from my experience, apistos can spawn ANYWHERE they like:
Tank's corner, wall, wood, leaf, rock, even though most of them
do prefer to spawn inside a cave...

 

[blueblue]

It is a female A. cacatuoides alright.

yup, Mike is right and I am now 200% sure that it is a female caca,
(100% from Mike, 100% from me, hehee

 

[Crazygar]

Merci! I appriciate the ID. I was really sure that this was an A.agassizi female as they look really close in appearance to the ones that I see in the LFS's from time to time.

Thanks again!
Gary