Anyone know of some high quality videos of apistos sifting through sand?

[fyrefish]

I see my apisto sifting sand through its gills a lot and it is really cool behavior to see. I often will crush up pellet food and scatter it across the sand a bit to the fish can sift through to find it. It's always a bit hard to see though, and I haven't been able to get a good video myself, so I was wondering if anyone knew of some videos of it, because i thought it would be cool to see closer.

 

[Bob Dixon]

Mine never "sifted" sand. they simply moved it out of the way. There's a difference.

 

[MacZ]

Mine never "sifted" sand. they simply moved it out of the way. There's a difference.

The tendency to really sift through sand varies from species to species. I would say it is a given that the usual mode of feeding always includes some kind of picking, chewing or sifting things from the ground.
The idea of scattering food particles all over the bottom of a tank is optimal in my opinion as it gives the fish the option to follow that foraging behaviour so they have to work for their food. Perfect example of enrichment for animals in captivity.

 

[martin_c]

I can't find the source right now, i read it in a magazine, that they discovered a
special sticky organ in the mouths/gills of Apistogramma (maybe in other geophagines too) where
microbic food and fats stick to when sifting sand. Maybe someone here knows more.

 

[Mike Wise]

Apistos have an additional gill lobe compared to the typical cichlid. It is one of the features that is used to recognize members of the genus. It is used to sift particles of food from the substrate.