Female macmasteri ID

[raymond82]

A year ago I bought a trio of Apistogramma Viejita, which (of course) turned out to be Macmasteri.

The male:

Since one of the females died recently I bought a new female macmasteri today, but now I'm comparing her to the one I bought previously and they look quite different to me.

The old female:

And the one I bought today:

The pictures are not the best quality, but two things strike me as different: the older female is yellowish, while the new female is much paler and even looks a bit pink. But most of all the black markings look different, with the old female having a continuous band and the new female has more vertical bands. Why do these females look so different?

Thanks!

 

[Mike Wise]

You're right, the photos of the new fish are not good enough for an ID. From what I see now, the new fish is not a female - and not macmasteri, but I could be wrong on both counts.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
With the proviso that I am very poor at this, and if Mike doesn't know what it is I certainly don't, but in the bottom picture it looks like a male Apistogramma "Masken" or similar to me.

If it was wild this would hail from Peru. TomC has collected them on at least 2 occasions
<http://apisto.sites.no/fish.aspx?fishIndexID=2256&gruppeID=1>

cheers Darrel

 

[raymond82]

This A. Masken is a very beautiful fish, if mine was this species in stead of macmasteri I for sure wouldn't mind...

I've been trying to get a better picture but it's very hard, since I have to use my phone cause my normal camera needs repairing. I will keep trying and as soon as I get a better shot post new pictures.

 

[raymond82]

Ok, my camera is fixed so here are some better pictures. Hopefully they're good enough for an identification.

I'm curious about your opinions, if more pictures are needed let me know!

Thanks again!

 

[Mike Wise]

I have to agree with Darrel and Raymond - A. sp. Masken and probably a young male. These are beautiful fish when in the right conditions.

 

[raymond82]

Mike, Darrel, thanks a lot for the identification!

With the proviso that I am very poor at this

You were too modest Darrel!

It does mean they put me in a bit of a situation at this shop since I wasn't planning on keeping this species. Besides I'd need a female for this too. I guess I'll just keep him in the community tank for now and I'll have to keep looking for a macmasteri female...