Finally a female showed up

[koty]

Here is an adult male iniridea:

Here is the Melgar female getting ready...

... and that is a Melgar male but not the dominant

 

[Mike Wise]

You have confused your apistos. Your fish are A. sp. Papagei/Parrot not A. sp. Nanay/Melgar. I'm not surprised at the confusion. Ever since Römer put the "Nanay" name on the Papagei/Parrot fish - and refused to drop it, even after everyone else started using 'Papagei' - there has been no end to confusion.

 

[koty]

Thanks for the correction. I have to say that the female was completely indistinguishable from the rest of my fish. based on size i have clearly two (out of six) males the "alpha" is most of the time very pale.

 

[aquacave]

Good looking male A. Iniridae. Did you get them to spawn yet?

Albert

 

[koty]

yes, twice First spawn i separated 10 and now I have 6 healthy young ones
2nd time I left them with their mom but the aq. is too crowded and they survived a bit more than a week. Now I think have eggs based on the females color. I'll try to transfer them with the mother.

 

[koty]

You have confused your apistos. Your fish are A. sp. Papagei/Parrot not A. sp. Nanay/Melgar. I'm not surprised at the confusion. Ever since Römer put the "Nanay" name on the Papagei/Parrot fish - and refused to drop it, even after everyone else started using 'Papagei' - there has been no end to confusion.

Hi there Mike, here are two pictures i got from Jan (Dr. Oxmann) of females from the two species (A. sp. Nanay/Melgar and A. sp. Papagei/Parrot). Can you determine the species in each picture?

 

[Mike Wise]

The top photo is a a female A. sp. Papagei/Nanay(sensu Römer). The bottom is not A. sp. Nanay/Melgar. It looks like A. sp. Pebas. There was a similar confusion on the German dwarf cichlid forum recently.

 

[Yan]

Here are photos the male:

There name of this fish in the stock-list was Apistogramma "Melgar" from river San Martin:

 

[Yan]

There name of this fish in the stock-list was Apistogramma "Purple" from Peru:

 

[peterK]

Yan, IMHO in your both posts are A. sp. Melgar males.

Piotr>>>

 

[Mike Wise]

Yan,

The first set of photos show males of the A. sp. "Pebas"-Group. Other than photo #2, I cannot say which species/form because the do not show the diagnostic black markings. Photo #2, 5, 6 & 7 all show markings diagonstic of A. sp. Pebas. Photos #5, 6, & 7 look like A. sp. Pebas (Morado/Purple). Photos #2 & 3 might be A. sp. Papagei/Parrot, but I am not certain because I cannot see the caudal spot. All of these forms come from the Río Ampiyacu, but from different locations. They might be mixed at the importers or wholesalers.

 

[Yan]

The first set of photos (all 4 photos) show the same male in different ages.
The first two are when he was less then a year old.
On the next two he is about two and a half years old.
Here is the female of the species:

The next set of photos ( 3 photos) also show the same male.
If I can I will make a photo where the caudal spot will be seen clearly.
But I would like to note that it mostly isn't seen clearly because he is usually colored like in the photos.
Here is the female of the species:

 

[Mike Wise]

Are the photos of the females of the same specimen? The top photo is definitely A. sp. Papagei in her highest brood dress. The lower looks a bit like a female A. sp. Pebas, but the caudal patch does not taper toward the head like Pebas. I guess it could be A. sp. Papagei in a lower state of breeding readiness. As you can see it is best to see more than 1 or 2 photos.

 

[Yan]

Both females in highest brood dress.
Here are more pictures of one female:

 

[Yan]

More pictures of the second female:

 

[Yan]

The fry also have different coloring; some have a more noticable vertical strips while the other have a more noticable horizontale line.

 

[Mike Wise]

Yan,

The first female has the brood dress of A. sp. Papagei (only 2 lateral spots on the rear half of the body). The second female has the brood dress of A. sp. Pebas (has 4-5 lateral spots).

 

[Yan]

O.K.

Thanks.

 

[Apistomaster]

Nice assortment of photos of different species.