Apistogramma "Black Mountain"

[Tom C]

The 2015-trip to the Peruvian Amazon brought us to the Río Sumón , a tributary to the Río Yahuasyacu,
which is a tributary to the Río Ampiyacu (Pebas area).

Here lives an interesting, rare Apistogramma cf. ortegai (?) form.
(It might be exported as Apistogramma "Black Mountains" in the future, the name is a translation of the
last name of the local fisherman: Montenegro.)

Male:

in my tank:

Female:

A female in breeding dress in one of my tanks:

They show no prominent double caudal spot. The female shows two (and a half ) lateral spots in breeding
dress, in my tank.
This form could probably be labeled Apistogramma sp. aff. ortegai (Río Sumón).
It MIGHT be identical to the A 92...
and it also shows similarities to the fish formerly labelled Apistogramma cf. eunotus "Spaltenfleck /Split-Spot" (which actually is not an A. cf. eunotus form)...

 

[Tom C]

.....This form could probably be labeled Apistogramma sp. aff. ortegai (Río Sumón).
It MIGHT be identical to the A 92....

As another enthusiast just pointed out for me, it could also very well be a form of A. sp. "Putumayo"! I cannot see any males with a double tipped caudal fin
( which A. sp. "Putumayo" has) though... but this might come as the fishes grow older.

 

[Mike Wise]

The more I compare photos of A. sp. Papagei (no caudal patch, A 92), A. sp. Putumayo (Ampiyacu/Algodon II, A86) and A. sp. Montenegro/Black Mountain, the more I see differences. Do males of Montenegro ever show a stripe in the upper part of the dorsal fin? Both A 86 & A 92 show one. In this respect A 86 & A 92 seem more similar than Montenegro.