Please help ID + sex

[Matlevy]

Hi,

Anyone able to help me ID which Apistos i have?
And also which sex they are? After spending a lot of time researching, i must admit i am still not 100% sure...

 

[MacZ]

Domestic A. macmasteri. "image0.jpg" is inconclusive, I am leanning towards female though (and then it definitely is a domestic strain), "imarge1.jpg" is a male.

 

[Matlevy]

Added a few more pictures,
they definately do get a long just fine, no agression towards each or any other fish in the tank

 

[Mike Wise]

To me the "female" looks disturbingly like a young or sneaker male. But as mentioned before females of domestic strains can show many masculine characteristics.

 

[Matlevy]

Thanks both of you. I’ll keep an extra open eye on them going forward and see how they do if it turns out ive got double males.

 

[MacZ]

To me the "female" looks disturbingly like a young or sneaker male. But as mentioned before females of domestic strains can show many masculine characteristics.

Yeah, big problem.

 

[Matlevy]

The big one has been chasing the other constantly today. I’m feeling his stress a bit, thinking this is not good.

 

[MacZ]

It indeed isn't good. The tank looks small and barren and not really suitable for keeping more than a single one of these fish.
Care to show a picture of the whole tank and tell us smething about it, like the whole stocking?

 

[Matlevy]

Lido 120 (33 gal)

Big sponge filter
Fluval 207 with biohome + purigen

Fish:

2 very small Angel fish max 2 inch each
6 Rainbow praecox, very small
3 guppy mix (1 male 2 female)
1 red bristle acistrus male
3 very small siamese algae eaters

And the two Apistos

Lots of caves / hiding places
Water is crystal clear
Tetra test strips shows everything is perfect

 

[MacZ]

As I suspected... The tank has very unfortunate dimensions for most of your fish it's too high. A lot of unused space. When it comes to horizontal space requirements you're basically overstocked. The algae eaters, the rainbowfish and the angelfish will outgrow it at one point.

And sorry to say so, but... I see no hiding spots, I can see basically everything in that tank except what's behind the Filter sponge. Cichlids use caves mainly for breeding or if there's danger from above. But for inner species aggression... they are not helping. Open spaces are fair game, the bigger one surely claims basically the whole tank as territory. It takes sight blocks to allow the fish to evade each other. And we're not talking singular rocks or pieces of wood the fish can look around. A sight block has to be from glass to glass. The fish should not be able to look through under it and it should cover about 10-15cm right above the substrate.
There are some other general problems in my opinion, but I think that would take it too far right now.

If I were you I'd return the smaller Apistogramma, research the other fish and rethink and reshuffle the stocking.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Lots of caves / hiding places

OK. I'm not trying to be funny, or pick a fight etc. but as @MacZ says is right, this isn't a suitable tank for Apistogramma.

Have a look at the <"Seasoned Tank Time"> concept.

Personally I'm not a very good fish-keeper, but via my own experience and talking to a variety of scientists, microbiologists, good fish-keepers and planted tank enthusiasts, I've tried <"to develop techniques"> that de-skill fish keeping.

If you like they differentiate <"the good stuff">, the coffee, from the froth.

Basically all the essential life support is carried out by the tank environment, with limited intervention (some water changes, live food addition etc) from the tank owner.

cheers Darrel