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Hello from France

Jebe

New Member
Messages
12
Location
France
Hi everyone !

I'm a fairly new but enthusiast aquarist. Two years ago, I got a 80L tank which somehow gave birth to a amazonian 525L, a poecilia 125L and a microfauna 60L.
I discovered the Apistogramma genus through Mike Wise and Tom Christoffersen articles, and I fall in love with their incredible diversity and fantastic behaviour. A fishroom is planed in the future. In the meantime, there's a certain 80L that's being turned into an Apisto tank :)

July - set up of the tank.
August - introduction of plants, unselected Neocaridina shrimps from the other tanks, cyclops and ostracods
October - several handfull of leaves and... it's done.
20201016_233954.jpg


Last sunday I welcomed 4 tiny Apistogramma baenschi F2 : one male, two possible females, one undetermined. With some luck the original breeder kept the location he caught their grandparents

The male and a female (?)
20201013_142848.jpg

20201013_142939.jpg


I have no real experience with Apistogramma, so advices are more than welcome. Glad to be here !
 

Jebe

New Member
Messages
12
Location
France
Hello everyone, small update. They are feed three time a day with at least one meal of live (daphnia mostly with occasionnal red worms) and are now 5 and 1/2 month old. The male developed much more colors since day 2.
20201019_223213.jpg

20201019_234914.jpg


But... When looking at adult A. baenschi pictures I find little in common with mine both in term of colors and form (small lips, marked lateral band). At which age will they take their adult traits ? Could they have been mistaken for another Apistogramma species ?
 

ButtNekkid

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
315
Location
Finland
If with "weird" you mean the fragments of the vertical bars shown by the male, such markings are not unusual especially in younger A. baenschi.

I was under the impression that those black marks only appear on wild specimens.
I vaguely remember reading here something about a virus. My memory´s a bit shot at the best of times though! ;)
 

Frank Hättich

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
563
Location
Germany
The black spots mostly seen on wild caught Peruvian Apistos and pesumably caused by a virus look different than the black blotches at the positions of the vertical bars on these fish. Or do you refer to the small black spots on the posterior lower part of the body? These are not the virus related spots either, but rather quite typical markings of A. baenschi and some other related species.
 
Last edited:

ButtNekkid

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
315
Location
Finland
Yes Frank, those are exactly the spots I was referring to. Now that you said it it´s quite obvious.
Two straight lines of dots in the area you mentioned.

Do you happen to have pictures or some source for the virus related spots?

Apologies to Jebe for hijacking your thread!
 

Frank Hättich

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
563
Location
Germany
Do you happen to have pictures or some source for the virus related spots?
E. g. in this forum:

And some pictures in the scientific description of A. barlowi (especially Fig. 7):
 

Jebe

New Member
Messages
12
Location
France
Hey there,
I have several questions. Please let me know if it would better be to open new subjects rather than group it here.

The 4th (unsexed) individual, bullied by all the others and pretty thin, was moved to a 60L tank in which it promptly eradicated my whole Daphnia colony. I didn't knew it could all fit in one tiny fish. So...
1) Is it possible to keep live food in an Apistogramma tank, or will they always eat it all in a few days ?
2) If it's possible, which microfauna would you advise ? Apparently they just can't resist Daphnia swimming around, and a well established Ostracod colony didn't last more than 15 hours either.

Other problem. As expected the male claimed the largest bunch of roots on a side of the tank and a female clamed the holed-filled one at the other side. Which leaves a 2nd female hanging around and being chased by both.
3) Is 80L (80cm long) to little for 1m/2f A. baenschi ? How would you change the settup to ease the tensions else ?

Thank you in advance !
 

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