Need help with sexing apisto panduro

[shamedonor]

BTW yesterday night or morning the bigger male just jumped out. That's the second panduro jumping out. The first one was a smaller one just after the transition to a soft blackwater tank with no lid and few plants that is in process of being converted into a ro blackwater one so I'm adding Then I added plants and a lid. There was just a half of an inch by 3in gap near the hob filter. He managed to jump through it. Thats crazy. 2 of 3 fish escaped. Yesterday I saw them running up and down. I checked the water, no ammonia, nitrates, 26C.
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Obviously a lid will prevent it. My wc nijjensi which i really liked jumped out when i left the lid open for an hour to go upstairs. I still kick myself - oh well at least she spawned before the pair jumped so i have some f1 to replace them. However it makes me really mad at myself for a very long time when this happen.

Lid is the best solution.

The thing that makes me nervous is that the last panduro is also swimming up and down like if it was stressed. The only thing I could suspect as a potential reason is that the previous owner kept them in a tap water tank (no lid but lots of floating plants and thay were many in there). And I put them into a ro blackwater aquarium. First two had a week of gradual (-2 gh daily) transfer and the only remaining one had just a couple of hours drip acclimation. Though it might not be an issue as they are kinda returning to their normal natural water and not inverse so the acclimation might be enough

 

[anewbie]

You could try dimming your aquarium light significantly for a few days and see if that helps it settle down.

 

[shamedonor]

You could try dimming your aquarium light significantly for a few days and see if that helps it settle down.

Will give a try. Nothing to lose anymore. First need to get a good fit lid and then start it again. Meanwhile rasbora will test the tank

 

[Mike Wise]

OK, at 1 - 1½"/2,5 - 3,5cm your smaller fish is still (if properly raised) a juvenile and could be either sex. Given a month or 2 you should know for certain.

 

[shamedonor]

OK, at 1 - 1½"/2,5 - 3,5cm your smaller fish is still (if properly raised) a juvenile and could be either sex. Given a month or 2 you should know for certain.

Thank you. When or at which size do they usually get physically ready for reproduction?

 

[anewbie]

My nijjensi reproduced at a very young age - i think the female was around 1 1/2 inch and the male 1 3/4 inch but i never formally measure them. Conversely my a. sp ispiranga reached full size a year before they spawned with the male and female being somewhere between 2 and 3 inches. My a. wolli spawned very young the female has doubled in size since she first spawned a year ago - the male could never swim and i never got a good idea of his size but the females started spawning around 1 1/4 inch to 1 1/2 inch.

 

[Mike Wise]

For panduro females around 1¾"/4,5cm should show definite female markings. As for sexual maturity it really depends on factors like water quality, food and temperature, but most apistos are sexually mature at 6 - 8 months.