Bitaeniata Shishita coloring

[MonteSS]

I have a pair in a 10g. Male has great finnage but lacks color. Think its poor stock, inmaturatly, or just the sand color?

 

[Avid Outdoorsman]

I have a pair in a 120 gallon. I have a lot of leaf litter and wood so the water is stained quit dark. My male has a much darker bronze color then that but has never shown more then a hint of the brilliant blues and yellow that were shown in the photos used to sell him.

 

[Mike Wise]

Err ... where's the bitaeniata?? I see a male A. trifasciata. Note the pale diagonal stripe from the pectoral fin to the anus. BTW lighting has a lot to do with the colors we see.

 

[Avid Outdoorsman]

Your very right Mike. Lighting does make a big difference. Actually I read my comment over and wanted to clarify. I do not in any way feel that the gentleman that sold me the pair misrepresented them. I think my comment may have given the wrong impression. He had them is a very well lit fish room where as I have mine in a blackwater tank with a lot of frogbit on the surface.

 

[MonteSS]

Well thats what they were sold to me as

Duped again

Thanks all.

 

[MonteSS]

Found this pic of a Bitaeniata Shishita WC I had years ago. Big difference. Still learning

 

[Mike Wise]

TomC & I collected A. bitaeniata in the Río Shishita, but was the Curutu color form. The Río Curutu is a tributary of the Río Pavayacu, which enters the Shishita below the the location where we collected our bitaeniata. Distribution of color forms aren't always dependable.

 

[Tom C]

TomC & I collected A. bitaeniata in the Río Shishita, but was the Curutu color form. ...

I don't know where you were the next day (flirting with the local ladies?), but I collected the A. bitaeniata "Shishita" with our fishermen not far from the house:

I have published this towards the end of this report:

Collecting in Pebas, Río Orosa and Río Shishita 2008

.

 

[Mike Wise]

That was the day I was physically incapacitated by a really bad sun burn, remember?

 

[Tom C]

Ops, how could I forget that, Mike!

Anyway, people should be aware that A. bitaeniata sold with names like "Shushupe", "Curutu", "Shishita", "Ampiyacu" etc., do not necessarily represent the actual populations the name indicates. Some times they do, but often the males are just picked out and given the "name" for the appearance. The females, which are often mixed from multiple collecting sites, are randomly put together with males.
Apistogramma-females prefer males from the same population as herself, and many sold pairs of A. bitaeniata will consist of fish from so different populations that breeding will rarely occur.

Ongoing research will soon publish results based on DNA analysis and mate-choise experiments, which will split the Apistogramma-bitaeniata-complex into MANY new species (?) / Populations / Forms.
Let us hope that a stronger demand for "pure" populations will influence fishermen and exporters to avoid mixing fish from different populations in the future!