Experiences with A. agassizi Tefe

[fishboy20]

I was wondering if people who have bred this variety of Apisto. came up with the fry showing a bunch of different color morphs as in Uwe Romer's book. In otherwords, does this location breed true? or is just a small group of the juveniles exhibit the color of a "tefe agassizi"?

 

[Neil]

There are supposedly 2 forms of agassizii "Tefe" and debate as to whether it is even an agassizii. Regardless, it is a fish that in which I have seen several different looks. It is entirely possible that there are many out there that have been breed to different forms of other aggies. They are somewhat polychromatic, but if you have a true wild male and female from a particular population, their fry will look much the same. I have had both. Awhlie ago I had some that had slightly different looking fry. All pretty, but different none-the-less. Most recently, though, I got some wild specimens from Oliver Lucanus that breed pretty true to the look of their parents. I say "pretty true" because there was slight variability, especially in the look of the young fish compared to the look of the fully mature fish. They also change a great deal during certain behavioral modes and would sometimes get those maroon horizontal stripes, etc. All specimens from the same spawn had this variabilty, so I would say that that was a function of behavior more than polychromatism.

Neil