Female cacatuoides developing male colouration

[Griz]

One of my female cacatuoides is now about 16 months old. She has always been a very colourful fish, but more recently she has begun to develop some male colouration traits. She now has orange on the dorsal, caudal and anal fins as well as some of the typical black/red pattern found on males. Is this common?

Also, I'm wondering about the lifespan of these fish. I always thought 2-3 years was the norm but have also read that 4-5 is possible.

 

[Konigwolf]

Hi griz, I cant help you on the life span question, but I have some experience on the "colourful" female question. Most of the females I've had have the normal little to no colour on fins, and go bright yellow when mating but I had one that was quite large when I purchased her, thinking it was a juvie male colouring up well. At the time I sold her she was probably the third most colourful cacatuoide I've seen, she had pur red dorsal, tail and anal fins. Also when spawning she didnt go the lovely bright cobalt yellow colour normal for female apistogramma she stayed grey with a weak yellow undertone

Andrew

 

[Mike Wise]

I presently have a wild-formn male A. cacatuoides that came from a spawn in my own tank that occurred in the spring of 2000. That makes him well over 5 years old. This is unusual. Most apistos rarely live more than 3 years.

 

[Griz]

Thanks for the responses. It's interesting that this female has only had two successful spawns that I am aware of and both have occurred in just the last few months. And this coincides with the increase I have seen in this behavior. Certainly shows me a level of adaptability (intelligence?) I've not seen in other species of fish I have kept. He's courting again in the same manner tonight, so we'll see how this turns out. These fish never cease to amaze.