Apistogramma bitaeniata female or a young male?

[Gertbl]

Hi Everybody,

Someone in the Netherlands is keeping a pair of Apistogramma bitaeniata in his tank, and their are some question marks if this would be a female. What do you guys think?

Here are some pictures:

 

[Mike Wise]

Female A. bitaeniata show no dark pigment in the caudal fin. Does fish show dark horizontal stripes in the caudal? If so, it is a male.

 

[Gertbl]

Hi Mike, thanks for your reply. If I look at the picture, than it almost seems to have a dark stripe on the edge of the caudal fin.
Maybe this is a better picture:

 

[Mike Wise]

It's unusual to see a male specimen of A. bitaeniata wth a striped caudal fin like yours. Most show rows of spots in the central part of the fin. Unusual, but no unknown. Populations from the Río Ampiyacu and even parts of the Tigre show no spot rows. My guess is that this fish is fully mature and about 2"/5cm TL. If true, then it is a female. The body shape, low dorsal fin, and lack of many blue markings on the head all are indicative of females. The dark pattern in the caudal fin may be just part of the dark stress pattern that shows in the most recent photo.

 

[ste12000]

My first thought on seeing these pictures is a male Apistogramma mendezi ??? There are a few knocking around Europe lately.

 

[Gertbl]

That is indeed what I thought recently. I know that the shop who sold these Apistogramma, also had Apistogramma mendezi at the same time. Perhaps this could be a mistake and the he bought a male A. bitaeniata and also a male A. mendezi.
I heard that its not really going well between the two specimens. The A. bitaeniata male is chasing the other one and really opens his gills.

 

[Mike Wise]

Yes, it is very possible that it is a male A. mendezi. There are 2 abdominal stripes below the lateral band. Some A. bitaeniata show a pale second stripe, too. Better photos are needed to be sure.

 

[Gertbl]

I will ask him, if he can make better pictures of the specimen.

 

[Gertbl]

Here are some new pictures that he made a few minutes ago. Hopefully better to see.

 

[Mike Wise]

Isn't it amazing how different a fish can appear from photo to photo? The fish appears to be a female, base on the round dorsal/anal fin tips and more robust body shape. The dark stripes in the tail are gone! This fish looks like a female A. bitaeniata, to me.

 

[Gertbl]

It's indeed amazing and weird how a fish can look different on each photo. So in this case, it's probable a female A. bitaeniata.
If I'm looking at the first two photo then I would say it is a A. mendezi. But is it not the fact that female A. bitaeniata are half the size of a male? In his case it's is almost the same size as the male he got. He is keeping them in a 1m tank. Would it be better/wise to add another female in the tank?

 

[Gertbl]

Here are some new pictures he made of the two specimens.
How big is the difference between a female and the male A. bitaeniata in size?

 

[Mike Wise]

Females of the same age as the males are typically 2/3 the size of the males.