Apistogramma agassizii 'Barra Mansa' WC

[Ekona]

Wild pair of an Alenquer/Netz form.

Male

Female

 

[Josh]

Gorgeous fish! How long have you had them?

 

[Ekona]

Gorgeous fish! How long have you had them?

Thanks, Josh. I've had them for two days. Got them from Jeff Rapps at Tangled Up In Cichlids. He's got some very nice species in stock right now.
Also see my thread on the Mendezi I got - really stunning fish.

 

[Ekona]

Another photo of the male, settled in a bit. This is not the most colorful aggie, but it is a very nice form that has a nice, subtle overall blue color that is unique in my experience.

The male is displaying to the female and I have a feeling it won't be long before they spawn. I'm slowly lowering water parameters (softer, acidic) with frequent partial water changes, and adding "leaf litter tea" to add tannins and help lower pH. I'll update here with progress reports.

 

[Ekona]

Male displaying to female.

 

[Ekona]

 

[Mike Wise]

Wait until it fully matures. The Netz form males develop very long caudal and dorsal extensions.

 

[Ekona]

Thanks, Mike, looks like the fish in this thread http://www.apistogramma.com/forum/threads/my-a-tefe.13527/ the 7th photo down, is very similar to the Barra Mansa I have? And wow! very nice caudal and dorsal fin extensions indeed. Letting this male grow out will be very interesting to watch.

 

[Mike Wise]

I wonder where the name 'Barra Mansa' comes from? From what I could find it is a town near Rio de Janeiro, a location with no apistos at all.

 

[Ekona]

I don't know, but I can check with the importer to see if he has any info. Thanks for checking into the location and I'll see what I can find out.

I did see a forum post from 2006 about discus from "Alenquer, 'Barra Mansa'" being imported.

And this post http://www.arofanatics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=362715 shows Agassizii "Barra Mansa" with a photo of a form very close to the ones I got.

So apparently "Alenquer, Barra Mansa" has been a location attached to imported fishes for several years.

On second thought, perhaps the apistos were vacationing in near Rio de Janeiro for the holidays when collected?

 

[Ekona]

The female looks like she is beginning to ripen up. Much more yellow coloration, and defending one end of the 20L by a clump of Magnolia leaves - looks promising.

 

[Ekona]

Well, the female is vigorously guarding her end of the tank around the magnolia leaves, and her color has changed to a lighter yellowish-white. Add to that her hollow belly and I'm guessing they spawned this afternoon sometime. Here's a couple of photos of the transformed female.

 

[Ekona]

Below is a video of the pair's behavior from what I am guessing is post-spawning. Guessing because I have not actually seen egges deposited anywhere, and I'm not going to go looking for them. Just have to wait and see if fry appear. Apologies for all the text around the video, I cannot seem to make it go away and still have the video embedded.

<iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/97996114" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href="

">Apistogramma agassizii "Barra Mansa, Alenquer"</a>

 

[Ekona]

Jeff Rapps contacted his supplier in Brazil about the Barra Mansa collection location and got the following reply back:

"I asked my contact. Quote below.

' "Barra Mansa" is just one community near Alenquer.
Near Rio de Janeiro-it is completely another place.
Ap.agasizii is near belem to peru, Amazon river system only, they do not exist other water system."

So, apparently there is another Barra Mansa locale near Alenquer from which discus and apistos are collected/exported. This location is not to be confused with Barra Mansa near Rio de Janeiro (no apistos there). Apparently the one near Alenquer does not show up on maps, Google Earth, etc.

 

[Mike Wise]

Thanks for digging up the information. I'm not surprised. Brazil is a big country.

 

[Ekona]

Well, all the activity indicated a spawning had taken place. I added two 'apisto huts' and the female immediately took residence in one and displayed the classic behavior of going in and out frequently and chasing the male all the way over the the very end of his side of the tank. I removed the male to allow the female to tend the possible clutch of eggs and feed. After two weeks no fry appeared so the first spawning was not successful. I reintroduced the male and immediately the two began to display and seek to establish territories on their respective sides of the tank. The male has filled out nicely and it was really interesting to watch all the dancing and displaying between the two.

Fully colored male in display mode.

The pair in the midst of establishing territories and getting reaquainted. Hoepfully a second spawning witll take place soon.

 

[Ekona]

Not the best photo, but we have a successful mama aggie Barra Mansa. Sweet. Now I gotta keep the newly free swimming fry fed. Right now with banana worms, bbs on the way.

 

[Ekona]

It's been 30 days since the this female's first brood has been free-swimming. She has been an excellent mother raising her fry and there is at least 20 (probably more) still around. The fry have been taking live BBS, micro worms, grindal worms (small ones) and live and frozen rotifers. Have not tried any dry foods, but may give it a try a bit later on.

Here are a few pics showing progressive growth, and me testing the limits of my macro-photography with my not-too-expensive camera. The temp has been fairly steady at ~77F as I'd like to get more males this time to see what variations appear among them. The pH, however has tended to be a bit high ranging from 7 to 7.5 so it will be interesting to see what the actual ratio turns out to be.

 

[Ekona]

Apisto. agassizii 'Alenquer-Barra Mansa' fry growing out nicely. At 9 weeks post free swimming they seem to be growing well and surviving! Not the best video quality - posted for information purposes only.

They are feeding on BBS, grindal worms, and finely chopped good quality frozen foods. 20% water changes once per week keeps nitrates down below 5ppm. It will be interesting to see what ratios of M/F emerge.

It has been a while since actually successfully breeding apistos so this is kind of cool for me.

 

[Richgrenfell]

Says video is private. I had fish that looked just like this back in the mid 90's. At that time, they were being called A. aggassizi sp. belem. Great fish, my female was a hellion though.