Apistogramma id

[Erik82]

Hi All,
I have two females and one male apistogramma sp. in a tank. My guess is two different females(Megaptera and piaroa) and I thought a male piaroa. I never seen a Megaptera male with a yellow cheek like this one, and I thought I saw all extended spines of the dorsalfin. Last week one of the female's got some eggs. My guess was the others female is a megaptera. But tonight I saw her also with eggs.
To bad I do not have a clear picture of the dorsal fin. What is your opinion about these fishes?

Do I have different females or not? If so.. I want to remove the "bad" one that's not fitted for my male. I do not want to cross them..

regards,
Erik

 

[kenji75]

So many eggs! My pair of Megaptera spawned once but there were only 10+ babies I think...

 

[Fikret Celik]

Congratulations . I wish you to see the puppies ...

 

[Mike Wise]

Why do you think the females are different species?? Since the male bred with both females - and if both females produce viable fry - then its more likely that they are all the same species. Color isn't a major species-diagnostic feature in most apistos, so I tend to ignore it.

 

[Erik82]

Hi Mike,
The females are in my opinion different from because their body is different; first one is more and long ghen high. The other one is more highly boddied and shorter. Also the breeding pattern is different. The tall one got a black stripe on the flank, the small one or two black spots. The long one is getting big, much bigger then the highly boddied one.

 

[Mike Wise]

Fair observation. Checking the original descriptions, Lasso et al. admit that A. piaroa and A. megaptera are hard to separate. One feature they used to separate the 2 species was that sexual dimorphism. It is a bit greater in A. megaptera than in A. piaroa. Also, the cheek stripe on A. piaroa is slightly wider at the base and extends farther downward. I don't know if this helps.

 

[Erik82]

I might think I know which female does not belong there. The first female swimms around with her fry. Well the fry try to... Almost all of the fry (at least 100+) bumping in the tank. It looks like they can not swimm. Something like that could be the result of the tankwater it's quality, but that is not likely(?).

I'll wait to see the other female with her fry. If they swims around normaly I will remove the the first female and her fry.