ID confirmation please

[FishPharm]

I bought a macmasteri pair on Saturday. The female must have laid eggs today because she is vivid yellow with a beautiful black pattern (I think prettier than male) and won’t come out of her cave and chases everyone out. The store tag literally said “apisto golden macmasteri” it’s definitely not a macmasteri gold though so any ideas on what color variant they are? Here’s the male displaying and swimming. Thank you

 

[Apistoguy52]

Looks more like A.hongsloi than A.macmasteri to me.

 

[anewbie]

I don't think they look like hongsloi or macs but i could be totally wrong. The body shape just seems more streamline than those two species.

 

[Frank Hättich]

It's a form of A. (cf.) hongsloi.

 

[anewbie]

It's a form of A. (cf.) hongsloi.

Can you provide a bit more information for my well being? I mean what is the difference between a (cf.) hongsloi and hte type of hongsloi one might buy domestically ?

 

[Frank Hättich]

There are several wild forms/populations, some of them most likely different species. Color enhanced domestic forms like "A. hongsloi II" do probably contain several different wild forms in their lineage. Whether this fish is a wild form or not, I can't tell for sure, but it might be. My use of "A. (cf.) hongsloi" is meant to refer to any wild or domestic form in the most general sense.

 

[FishPharm]

Thanks for your help. I’m a new apisto dad but they are super fun with interesting personalities. They seem to think and process their world and take things slower in a way my old puffer fish used to do and they come eat right out of my tweezers! I’m sure you all already know this but they just make me smile

It's a form of A. (cf.) hongsloi.

female came out for 3 seconds

 

[Apistoguy52]

A friend of mine imported a box of WC “macmasteri” from Colombia this summer. 99% of the fish were identical to the OP’s, 99% were also male

 

[Mazan]

A couple of years ago I bought some juvenile "macmasteri" from Colombia, one was an agassizii (which I realized straight away), the others were cacatuoides, which I realized soon afterwards and confirmed here. All of them were males.

 

[FishPharm]

I found this pic online of a. Hongsloi taken in the wild, which looks like it could be my fish’s twin! I think mines likely a wild caught Hongsloi as they are super picky eaters and spit most of the frozen foods out I’ve tried so far

 

[MacZ]

I think mines likely a wild caught Hongsloi

Did you de-worm them?

spit most of the frozen foods out I’ve tried so far

Tried anything to get them eat it, yet?

 

[FishPharm]

Did you de-worm them?

Tried anything to get them eat it, yet?

Prazipro and not sure what you mean other than tried wiggling the brine shrimp in front of them with tweezers, they eat them but spit them out. they will eat bloodworms but I don’t want to feed them often as I’ve read they cause bloat and aren’t ideal and I feed live moina but they are tiny and insufficient for full nutrition. They won’t touch flakes or cichlid pellets so far either, any tips or suggestions?

 

[Apistoguy52]

Fresh hatched baby brine shrimp. All the nutrition an Apistogramma could ever need

 

[FishPharm]

Fresh hatched baby brine shrimp. All the nutrition an Apistogramma could ever need

I got a disc Hatcher and have some in there now that hatched a couple days ago, they are still tiny though. Do you feed right away or let them grow for a week or so? I was going to feed them the hatched ones but they just spit the frozen ones out so I figured they don’t like them…

 

[Apistoguy52]

I got a disc Hatcher and have some in there now that hatched a couple days ago, they are still tiny though. Do you feed right away or let them grow for a week or so? I was going to feed them the hatched ones but they just spit the frozen ones out so I figured they don’t like them…

Right away. You want the fish to eat them before the yolk sack they carry is depleted

 

[Mazan]

I have seen quite a few fish spit out the frozen ones, they don’t seem all that keen, but they love the newly hatched live ones, even my big angelfish and Mesonauta go for them!

 

[MacZ]

Prazipro and not sure what you mean other than tried wiggling the brine shrimp in front of them with tweezers, they eat them but spit them out. they will eat bloodworms but I don’t want to feed them often as I’ve read they cause bloat and aren’t ideal and I feed live moina but they are tiny and insufficient for full nutrition. They won’t touch flakes or cichlid pellets so far either, any tips or suggestions?

Besides trying live foods (which will certainly work and are certainly best anyway), I mean the fasting method. Fast them 24 - 36 hours, then try again. Usually that works latest after 48 hours. Adding some garlic juice also has shown success.
Also the choices of frozen foods: Frozen Daphina works well usually, as do white and black mosquito larvae and cyclops.
Bloodworms causing bloat is new to me. I know of much more severe reactions, almost comparable to severe food intolerances or even allergic shocks from feeding that stuff to dwarf cichlids. Bloat is more of a reaction of Mbuna to protein rich diets.

 

[Eddy. E.]

Without offending anyone, I would be interested to know how flatulence manifests itself in Apistogramma? Do you see bubbles rising? ;-)

 

[MacZ]

"Bloat" is often used as a misnomer, actually denoting obvious abdominal swelling of a lesser extend than full blown dropsy (what we call Bauchwassersucht).

 

[Eddy. E.]

In my humble opinion, the comparison is misleading. If it is only a slight swelling, and as long as the fish still eats, I don't really see a sign of a disease problem, more of an adaptation problem? And if the fish does not accept food, then the problem is not due to adaptation, but probably intestinally based.