is my apitso agassizii really breeding pair??

[jhj0112]

Hi All,

I have been told that our agassizii is a breeding pair. I don't know what kind of agassizii this is...

As I study more about apistogrammas, I start doubting if we really have a breeding pair because no matter how closely I look at them, they look almost identical. I googled all images of apisto pair pictures and male/female difference are very noticeable. I wonder if We have 2 females and one female thinks the other one is male.

here are the picture of them.

suspecting male



female



female is showing typical breeding behavior toward another one( swimming sideway) and defending her area.

is it possible that male and female look similar? they both are in breeding color for sure ( pale white to bright yellow).
can female mistakenly attempt to breed with another female??

another question! can apistogramma interbreed?? I just got sp. steel blues and one of my macmasteris male start showing courtship toward one of sp steel blue..( they are in another tank).

any comment for apisto newbie( me

) is really appreciated.

 

[merlin]

Cant see your pics.

 

[jhj0112]

I don't know what happened but here they are again
the first two are suspected male. the other two are female.

 

[tuna]

They all look female to me.

 

[Mike Wise]

I tend to agree with tuna, but need to know how large/old your fish are.

 

[themountain]

Two girlies ..no doubt

 

[jhj0112]

thank you everyone! I bought a pair of agassizii double red

 

[jhj0112]

one more question... can I add these 2 female agassizii to the pair if they can breed? it looks like what I have is 2 female agassizii tefe not double reds... can they inter breed? currently double red pair is in 20G long tank while 2 females are in my 90 G SA community tank.

 

[Mike Wise]

Double reds are a domestic mix of various populations of the A. agassizii superspecies. As such, they'll breed with any other A. agassizii. If, however, they are A. sp. Tefé - and I don't know how to tell the females from A. agassizii - they are a different, closely related species. Will they cross? Yes, but the eggs usually don't hatch. If the eggs hatch, the fry are weak and don't usually survive long. If the fry survive, the resulting adults show deformed fins and rows of scale and are infertile.

 

[jhj0112]

Thank you mike wise for taking your time to answer my question. I guess I will have to sell 2 tefe females( I'm guessing they are tefe... the ones in the pictures).. double reds pair are beautiful