• Hello guest! Are you an Apistogramma enthusiast? If so we invite you to join our community and see what it has to offer. Our site is specifically designed for you and it's a great place for Apisto enthusiasts to meet online. Once you join you'll be able to post messages, upload pictures of your fish and tanks and have a great time with other Apisto enthusiasts. Sign up today!

Crenicichla notophthalmus

Andrew C

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
113
Location
Bridge Of Weir, Scotland, UK
Got a pair of crenicichla notophthalmus around a year ago.
The pair got their weekly waterchange today, and tonight the female is now sporting a bright pink belly, which i never noticed before, she always looked quite dull to me.

Is her belly turning pink a sign that she has just matured, or is it a sign of a possible breeding ?
 

daphilster08

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
47
Location
St. Paul/ Duluth Mn
Got a pair of crenicichla notophthalmus around a year ago.
The pair got their weekly waterchange today, and tonight the female is now sporting a bright pink belly, which i never noticed before, she always looked quite dull to me.

Is her belly turning pink a sign that she has just matured, or is it a sign of a possible breeding ?


It would seem like it too me! But I am not sure. I love dwarf pikes though! So congrats if they are!

Oh, and one of my best friends came from Scotland :)
 

Andrew C

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
113
Location
Bridge Of Weir, Scotland, UK
It looks like the female has finally matured, as she is now sitting on eggs :)
The pair have grown well and filled out over the last year, they ignore dry food of any form, but love any frozen food.

When feeding tonight the male looked a bit rough and the female was nowhere to be seen, even when food went into the tank, which is unusual for her, as both of them are normally waiting for the food to go in the tank.

I carefull moved the decor about and checked the long tunnels, and sure enough i found the female with eggs in one of the tunnels.

Some pictures of them when i first got them;

Male
crenicichla-notophthalmus-1.jpg


Female
crenicichla-notophthalmus-4.jpg


The pair
crenicichla-notophthalmus-1-1.jpg


The pair
crenicichla-notophthalmus-2-1.jpg


A more recent picture, which shows a bit of a long tunnel, it is roughly 25mm by 25mm by 300mm long.
Crenicichla-notophthalmus-2-2.jpg
 

Andrew C

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
113
Location
Bridge Of Weir, Scotland, UK
Thanks Mark
The female still has eggs, looks like she has moved them to under a bit of wood.
Her new spot under the wood is letting her eat again when the food drifts by her, instead of the male eating it all, as she didn't eat for three or four days when she was in the tunnel.
 

Apistomaster

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
703
Location
Clarkston, WA
If it's any consolation, I had 6 C. regani for a year in good condition but I never did get them to spawn, at least not that I noticed. The females developed nice rosy well rounded bellies but that was it. They are a nice Cichlid and mine were not aggressive toward other fish but the males could get into some scrapes with each other. I kept them with Discus and that was a good combination.
They actually did not bother several pairs of Apistogramma borelli but I am sure they ate their fry. The A. borelli did age fast in such warm water. They were from my F3 generation and I had some spares available I could afford to try keeping with the dwarf pikes.
 

Andrew C

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
113
Location
Bridge Of Weir, Scotland, UK
Not been any signs of breeding since the time i posted, but i got some better pictures of the female.
She was displaying to the male just before i got the camera on her, but as soon as i started to focus the camera, she stopped displaying.

The male was camera shy
Crenicichla-notophthalmus-5.jpg


Pity she wasn't still displaying as she has lovely fins.
Crenicichla-notophthalmus-3-2.jpg


You can just make out the pink on the bottom of her belly, at times her whole belly becomes pinkish.
Crenicichla-notophthalmus-8.jpg
 

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
17,915
Messages
116,200
Members
13,027
Latest member
tonc61

Latest profile posts

Josh wrote on anewbie's profile.
Testing
EDO
Longtime fish enthusiast for over 70years......keen on Apistos now. How do I post videos?
Looking for some help with fighting electric blue rams :(
Partial updated Peruvian list have more than this. Please PM FOR ANY QUESTIONS so hard to post with all the ads poping up every 2 seconds….
Top