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Cacatuoides or cf. cacatuoides?

Hellfishguy

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
127
Location
Brooklyn, New York
I purchased these fish as Apistogramma cacatuoides Rio Nanay. Are they true cacs or a closely related form?
Dig the blue lips on the male!
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dw1305

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
2,755
Location
Wiltshire UK
Hi all,
I may be wrong, but I think the blue lips make it very likely that they are A. cacatuoides. What-ever they may be they are lovely.

cheers Darrel
 

Mike Wise

Moderator
Staff member
5 Year Member
Messages
11,201
Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
A. cacatuoides is a 'superspecies' like A. agassizii and A. bitaeniata. Each of these is composed of many closely related species. They are so closely related that different forms can easily interbreed. Since we don't know where the type specimen of A. cacatuoides is from (claimed to be from Guyana, which is obviously wrong) we won't know which population/form of A. cacatuoides is the true A. cacatuoides until/unless we can get a genetic match.
 

Hellfishguy

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
127
Location
Brooklyn, New York
Thanks. I want to cross them with one of the line-bred varieties just to see the results, but I don't want to commit the sin of producing hybrids.
 

Mike Wise

Moderator
Staff member
5 Year Member
Messages
11,201
Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
I wouldn't worry about it. Most color varieties of apistos are most likely crosses for various populations/forms/species anyway. Just don't sell them as a specific population if you want to be ethical. Right now I have a wild A. cacatuoides male that killed his female. He is unusual in that he has caudal spots on both the upper and lower lobes of the tail, not just the top. He will not be crossed with any other female by me. Right now he is in a community tank as the only dwarf cichlid.
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