Keeping and breeding wild agassizii

[macdav07]

Next week I'm getting a pair of wild caught Apistogramma agassizii (from Peru apparently), and my goal is to breed them because it's a recently discovered variant. I don't have any experience with Apistos so maybe agassizii isn't a good idea, but I like a challenge!
My water parameters are: pH: 7.2-7.6, kH: 2, gH: 7, nitrate <10 ppm, temp: 76F.
Is my water too hard/alkaline for this species? Should I even try? I would rather not use an RO system and would opt for leaf litter and peat moss if necessary.

 

[Hapisto]

Hello, try to look for the water parameter from where the fish has been caught.
But has you point out, your water is too hard. You need to soften your water if you expect to breed them.

 

[MacZ]

For keeping the parameters are okay-ish, depending on the parameters of the origin waters.
For breeding you won't be able to bypass using RO. You can't lower conductivity by adding anything, so dilution is your only option. RO, DI, distilled water... whichever of the three you use.
White peat* and botanicals/leaf litter both release humic substances, only reducing pH, while countering KH to a degree but the portion of the GH consisting of calcium and magnesium will stay basically untouched. Also with existing KH botanicals have minimal impact on pH.
Additionally, for wild caughts 10mg/l of nitrates would worry me.

*You'll need actual peat. Sphagnum moss (aka peat moss) is about 50 years of anoxic decompsition away from what you need. Look for peat pellets in aquarium stores or ask for unfertilized white peat at a garden center.

I don't have any experience with Apistos so maybe agassizii isn't a good idea, but I like a challenge!

Honestly... Can you cancel the order? Don't take this the wrong way. Challenge or not, the fish have to pay the ultimate price if it fails.
A. agassizii come in several closely related variants from the wild and in several manmade domestic breeds. The species itself is not a factor here.
The point in this case is rather: If you have no experience with Apistogramma at all, spare the wild caught specimens a possibly agonizing and unworthy demise and opt for tankbred specimens of wild forms. Those are hardier, not overbred mutants as the domestic forms and should be a great entry for you into the realm of Apistogramma. Get your hands wet on those, they are much more forgiving.

 

[Mike Wise]

Out of curiosity, do you know where this new variant comes from?

 

[Tom C]

It reminds me of this one, collected in the Rio Corrientes:

 

[Frank Hättich]

Out of curiosity, do you know where this new variant comes from?

It comes from Albertino, but I don't know the catch location. Here are some more photos. It reminds me of A. cf. agassizii (Pastel):

 

[anewbie]

Be aware that agassizii are harem breeders and there will be aggression between male/female during breeding cycle. If the tank is small or not well scaped there is a good chance one will kill the other. So you want a well scape aquarium of decent size.I mention this because it sounds like this is your first time with this species.

 

[macdav07]

Update: it was unfortunately too late to cancel my order, and received them Saturday. I have drip acclimated them to my tank and treated them prophylactically with Paracleanse to eradicate any parasites/protozoan infections from the wild.

So far they seem to be doing alright, but they did not eat the freeze-dried brine shrimp. So tonight I'm gonna try live baby brine.

Following MacZ's advice, in a few months, I'll be ordering an RO unit to lower the hardness and pH. I'll be doing this gradually.

Oddly, they don't really look like the photos I got online, their body is more brown and more orange tail fin.

(As for the catch location, it was some remote area in Peru)

Thanks for the advice!

 

[MacZ]

Stress and the lights can make a fish look vastly different. The kind of camera and picture editing (or the lack thereof) also have an influence. Give it some time and maybe it'll show better colours. If it keeps looking extremely off after a few months it's a shame.

Is the substrate gravel or soil?