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Apistogramma Viejita

jonleda

New Member
Messages
7
Hi Guys,

I wonder if you can help please. Below are images of ? Couple of A Viejita. Can you please confirm if the first is indeed a female of this group. She is definitely ruling the roost at the moment. I have had to put 2 Apistogramma Red Point in with them due to a tank emergency and it won’t get solved for a couple of days. They will be separated, saying that though, the male here is not bothered by the others and they all live in the caves or plants together with no issues except for madam here who wants it all.

Thanks again

JL
 

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Apistoguy52

Active Member
Messages
275
I see pictures of an alacrina adjacent female, and a macmasteri adjacent male. Did you post a picture of a wrong fish on accident?
 

Bowluvr

Member
Messages
46
Location
North Carolina
I see pictures of an alacrina adjacent female, and a macmasteri adjacent male. Did you post a picture of a wrong fish on accident?
I'm guessing that the op is using the names that the fish were sold to them as. Stores get this wrong way more often than not, and many hobbyists do not know better until they find out that the fish they bought were not as labeled.
 

Bowluvr

Member
Messages
46
Location
North Carolina
I found this photo of an actual Apistogramma viejita on Simply Fish, and it is what my fish look like (or did when they were younger)... only it's a much better image than I have ever taken. I'm a terrible photographer. Please take note of the reddish top edge of the dorsal fin and the marking on the caudal peduncle. This is how you know that it is the real thing. For comparison, the fish in my profile photo is a macmasteri. There are other differences, but these two are the easiest to spot. True Apistogramma viejita will almost never be found from a shop. Even most importers do not get the correct fish. It is not easy to obtain. I wish it was. I find myself needing females. I should have held onto more of my juveniles.
1666892696859.png
 

anewbie

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,365
Is it common to lack females; or (as it sounds) to end up with mostly (all?) male off springs ?
 

Bowluvr

Member
Messages
46
Location
North Carolina
I found this photo of an actual Apistogramma viejita on Simply Fish, and it is what my fish look like (or did when they were younger)... only it's a much better image than I have ever taken. I'm a terrible photographer. Please take note of the reddish top edge of the dorsal fin and the marking on the caudal peduncle. This is how you know that it is the real thing. True Apistogramma viejita will almost never be found from a shop. Even most importers do not get the correct fish. It is not easy to obtain. I wish it was. I find myself needing females. I should have held onto more of my juveniles. View attachment 12053
 

Bowluvr

Member
Messages
46
Location
North Carolina
It can be common to end up with all or mostly all one sex. It depends upon temperature and pH. Since I heat my fish room, and the room is also influenced by the seasonal outdoor temps (I can only plug in so many electric heaters in winter), there are some months of the year where it's better for male development and some where I get a lot more females. Some species give me issue with sex skew year-round. Even when the water is cooler, I tend to always get more males in my cacatuoides spawns.
 

Apistoguy52

Active Member
Messages
275
It can be common to end up with all or mostly all one sex. It depends upon temperature and pH. Since I heat my fish room, and the room is also influenced by the seasonal outdoor temps (I can only plug in so many electric heaters in winter), there are some months of the year where it's better for male development and some where I get a lot more females. Some species give me issue with sex skew year-round. Even when the water is cooler, I tend to always get more males in my cacatuoides spawns.
Not to pile on with the thread hijacking, but this was also my experience with A viejita (puerto gaintan?). Even with temps in the 72-76* range, extremely male heavy batches
 

Apistoguy52

Active Member
Messages
275
I find that juvenile males seem to out-compete females for food and living space. I imagine that a greater percentage of females are lost before maturity.
I don’t find that an unreasonable thought….but I’m not sure I’m sold on that. My experience probably spans 35ish species of Apistogramma, and the wildly skewed (male) sex ratios at cold temps has really only been within macmasteri complex species (hongsloi and viejita).

Is it possible that sexual determination in the llanos species of Apistogramma is more dependent on pH? If the Clearwater streams of Colombia are anything like Clearwater streams here, I could imagine a diurnal pH swing of 2 being a realistic possibility. Constant pH of 6.5 does not have the same effect of a daily pH fluctuation of 5.5(night) and 7.5(day)?
 

Mike Wise

Moderator
Staff member
5 Year Member
Messages
11,201
Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
Römer & Beißenherz's studies included species from all major river systems of South America, including the Orinoco Llanos. The only exception to 'skewness' (is that a word?) and temperature were in A. caetei where temperature skewed sex opposite to other species. They were very precise in taking samples. They counted eggs in a spawn, counted the fry that became freeswimming and counted numbers of each sex when they matured. If any of these dropped below 10% loss, then the sample (fish) were not included in the study. I know I don't count eggs/freeswimming fry/adult sex ratios - and I doubt any breeder does.
 

jonleda

New Member
Messages
7
Well, It makes no difference as they both died last week. I have no idea why the water parameters were all ok. I have spoken to the importer who will provide me with a new pair....hopefully Viejta's
 

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