My first Apistos and looking to breed

[Romic]

Hi there, I am University student that is doing a Non-Salmonid Husbandry course and have chosen to try and breed a nice pair of Apistos and hopefully get right into enough to setup more/bigger tanks in the future. I just moved in my two new Apistos that my local pet shop helped pick out and made sure all my water parameters were good.

Once they become more adventurous I will get a photo up of them so that someone can help me ID them possibly. They are a nice yellow colour with black striping. I have studied fish long enough to know that they are indeed a Male/Female pair.

If anyone has any tips on what I can do to encourage them to breed that would be fantastic. There is plenty of structure in my tank for them to hide/nest, the water parameters are just as they prefer, just curious as to any tips/tricks that might speed things along or get them going.

Thanks in advance!


Marc

 

[slimbolen99]

Welcome Marc. A lot of your specific breeding advice is going to center around a proper identification of the fish in question; however, I have found that supplying great water quality, a low pH, and good quality live or frozen foods provides my fish all the opportunity to spawn that they need.

 

[Romic]

http://imgur.com/qspWk

I can't snap a picture of either of my fish cause they just sit in their new hideouts most the time. They come out for food briefly and never in a part of the tank where a picture can be taken. The picture I found is exactly what my fish look like, and I love them already! I think they are Apistogramma agassizii "Rio Madeira" (assuming that Rio Madeira is where this specific apisto is originally from?) if anyone can confirm this that would be great. Any help is much appreciated, and Thanks slimbolen99

 

[Mike Wise]

The fish in the link is indeed A. cf. agassizii "Broad Black Caudal Seam (BBCS) Madeira" Personally, I would be very surprised if this is the actual fish that you have. Notice that Ken's photo is from 1998, when Trop Rio first collected and exported this form. It has not been in the hobby since then, to my knowledge. Well, that's not exactly true. I have been keeping this form for the past 14 years, but don't distribute them. They are extremely hard to breed (pH<5.5 and virtually no hardness). They certainly aren't your average aggie. Note the pattern on the caudal fin. Notice how wide the dark outer caudal band actually is compared to many other forms. This is a diagnostic feature for the BBCS species, which is found in many rivers that flow into the Amazon River from the south (Brazilian Highlands), below the mouth of the Rio Purus.