Apistogramma Nadelstreifen Male/Female

[baldyman]

I hope someone may be able to help me here. I have five Apistogramma Nadelstreifen 6 months old and about 3 1/2 cm in length. they are kept in a three foot tank with bogwood and caves. The interesting thing about these fish is the way they rapidly change colour . There appears to be two dominant fish which have claimed each end of the tank. and three which occupy the middle. the two dominant fich are nearly always a very pale yellow colour with few markings, but this can change if another fish encroaches on their territory to a striped lateral line or a fully barred dress. The other three are nearly always dressed with full barring . They all seem to exibit some irridesent blue on the cheeks. Can anyone suggest the sex of these fish. I have upped some photos which are the best i can get showing most of the different patterns. I must say these are some of the most interesting Apistogramma that i have kept . They have real attetude. Thanks in advance. Dave

 

[Mike Wise]

Who identified these fish as Nadelstreifen for you? I collected Nadelstreifen in Colombia and the fish that you have certainly are not Nadelstreifen. They are a bit small for a positive identification, but my guesses are:

photo 1: female A. cf. eunotus Orangeschwanz
photo 2: male (left) A. cf. eunotus Orangeschwanz? photo out of focus
photo 3: female A. cf. eunotus Orangeschwanz
photo 4: female (?) A. cf. eunotus Orangeschwanz
photo 5: male (?) left; female (?) right A. cf. eunotus Orangeschwanz

 

[Microman]

Why do you say they are not Nadelstreifen Mike?
The fish in question are F1s from the wild A.sp.Nadelstreifen that you actually collected on your trip.... Tom kindly gave me the parents upon his return from your trip.
Mark...

 

[Mike Wise]

Wow! They sure don't look like my Nadelstreifen in the photos! I guess this is the problem of IDing some of the rarer fish from only a few photos. This is my dominant male Nadelstreifen. Note how only every other vertical bar on the flanks is distinct. I don't see this on any of fish in the photos. If these are from Tom's Colombian fish then they are from the same locations as mine. Maybe they're just small.

 

[Microman]

Yes Mike i agree that its very difficult, if not near impossible at times, to ID correctly from just a few pics of smallish sub-adult fish. It makes it even more difficult when looking at fish like those from the eunotus complex where diagnostic features between some species are very slight.
For instance,if i did not know better,and had not kept wild adult male Nadelstreifen i would swear that the fish in your picture was the "Spaltenfleck" form of eunotus.
Mark....