ID please

[JCoxRocks]

Just bought two of these little guys yesterday. I won't say what they were sold as, or what I think they are. Instead, I would like anyone/everyone to chime in with their opinions.

Sorry for terrible photo quality. These were taken with my iPhone in a hurry at lunch today.

J

 

[ste12000]

They are Apistogramma sp 'Steelblue'.. Strongly suspected to be a man made 'hybrid' species from Asia. Yours are both males if the pictures show two seperate fish.

 

[aquaticclarity]

I agree, a male sp. "steel blue".

 

[JCoxRocks]

They are Apistogramma sp 'Steelblue'.. Strongly suspected to be a man made 'hybrid' species from Asia. Yours are both males if the pictures show two seperate fish.

All photos are the same fish, but the other is near identical.

Any ideas of what will successfully breed with it as finding a female(s) is turning out to be near impossible.

J

 

[aquaticclarity]

"Any ideas of what will successfully breed with it..."

Please tell me you are joking!!! There are MORE then enough very nice tank strain and wild caught fish available. Why make yet another mystery fish? If you can't find females for your steel blue males trade them in, give them away, or put them in a community tank to enjoy but PLEASE do not try to cross them out to something else!

You should be able to get some reasonable seldom imported fish that would be a blessing to keep in the hobby before they can't or aren't collected again. Use your tank space, time, and other resources to keep something in the hobby instead of creating a mess just because you can't find females for it! PLEASE!!!

 

[JCoxRocks]

Please tell me you are joking!!! There are MORE then enough very nice tank strain and wild caught fish available. Why make yet another mystery fish? If you can't find females for your steel blue males trade them in, give them away, or put them in a community tank to enjoy but PLEASE do not try to cross them out to something else!

You should be able to get some reasonable seldom imported fish that would be a blessing to keep in the hobby before they can't or aren't collected again. Use your tank space, time, and other resources to keep something in the hobby instead of creating a mess just because you can't find females for it! PLEASE!!!

No no no... don't misunderstand me. My question was directed more to the hybrid side of things. If this fish is in fact a hybrid, what is the female used for this? I could simply breed with the same female and get a smaller percentage of steel blues, correct?

Understand my intent is not to breed a bunch of bastard apistos here. But female steel blues are near impossible to find anywhere.

J

 

[ste12000]

No no no... don't misunderstand me. My question was directed more to the hybrid side of things. If this fish is in fact a hybrid, what is the female used for this? I could simply breed with the same female and get a smaller percentage of steel blues, correct?

Understand my intent is not to breed a bunch of bastard apistos here. But female steel blues are near impossible to find anywhere.

J

Not quite true, female A.sp 'steelblue' are available, we see male heavy batches hit the UK from time to time but they usually contain a few females.. The trouble is the females can carry a lot of blue making ID hard..

No one knows 100% that A.sp 'Steelblue' is a hybrid, its highly likely but never been confirmed by any 'Mad scientist' who 'created' it.. All we know is that there has never been a recorded collection of the species from the wild and the first fish to enter the hobby came from Asia?? this indicated that it was a man made fish. Wether its a hybrid or not is open to debate but its certainly not 100% confirmed!

 

[Mike Wise]

According to Römer (CA1) the original stock of Steel-blue males sent to Europe were crossed with female "A. caetei". Since we don't know which "A. caetei" was used, we can assume that European stock is at least a cross between 2 similar forms.

 

[aquaticclarity]

Just wait until I get pictures of the A. caetei Caete that I just got in up. At first glance I would SWEAR they were sp. "steel blue"!!!