Steel Blue Apisto Breeding

[steel blues]

I currently have a male and four female apistos in two 10 gallon tanks. There is one dominant female that beats up the male, so I moved her to another 10 gallon tank. Early on there were a few large displaying matches, but I can't be sure if this was courting or fighting. The female turned a solid dark color and the male turned platinum white if that helps. Now that the dominant female is out, the male is just chasing around the other females. I really want to breed these, but I have never bred an apisto before and I don't know what to do. I have tried everything. Help!!!

 

[Richard Brice]

No that is not the spawning coloration of a steel blue female apisto. The spawning color is yellow like corn.

How do you know the sexes of the fish?

Richard Brice

 

[steel blues]

The Males have much more blue on their heads. I put the male in the 10 gallon with the dominant female for a little while, but she went crazy and he was cowering in a corner. My main question right now is; Which sex should be the dominant one. And one more thing; a new dominant female has taken the old ones place, but I don't thing that she's beating on the male.

 

[Richard Brice]

I have to disagree with you on the sexing method. I had had quite a few breeding pairs and I have not noticed any differeance between the amount of blue on the head. A theory of mine in sexing them is the amount of blue pattern on the annal fin (male have more of a pattern but females do have some pattern). Another theory is a black band at the base of the tail for the female. These are only theories and only using a small known sexed population of a few dozzen of the fish and also after examining a few hundred unknown sex fish.

Richard Brice

 

[Richard Brice]

Neither the male nor female were dominant in my tanks, but they had 20 longs that have a lot of java moss and annubias nana in them. The female guards the PVS pipe where the eggs are laid and the male still hangs out in the area but never got closer than 8 - 10 inches to the opening of the pipe. At night he goes to another cave to sleep.

You might have a lot of males.
photo of breeding pair

below is a photo of 2 females not spawning

 

[fishgeek]

richard with the fish i had
i found the females didnt have the brown speckling between the blue on the face
generally they did have lesser blue in my case though i have only had 4 females(3 breeed from the intial one)

the caudal fin also seemed in my females to be more rounded aswell

steel blues there was a rather long and comprehensive thread that had been added to by most here who had tried to breed this fish
if you use the search function on the rt of the top header..and enter steel blue you should be able to find it

andrew

 

[Richard Brice]

I am familiar with the post. I have contributed to it a few times.

Richard

 

[steel blues]

I can promise you that I have one male. He is different in every way imaginable, and a mirror of the online pictures and videos that I have seen. Still, no one has answered my question. What do I do to get them to breed? Put the male and the strongest female together? The weakest? Do I keep them all together? Do I seperate the sexes for a while?

I've heard that males are supposed to be bigger. He's the same size or a tiny bit smaller. Could this be why he's not breeding? He chases the 3 weaker females, but they show no interest in him.

 

[fishgeek]

water temperature can be increased toward 28 celsius to encourage spawning

softer water change may help

i would probably want more space than a 10 gallon for the number of fish you have , if this is all the space you have then maybe just choose a pair in here

the fish would appreciate some high portein or live foods to encourage sawning before the increase in temperature

please read the thread i have alluded to, unfortunately this fish does not ahve a large volume of refrence literature
romers suggest that they need very soft acidic water to breed 100uS and ph 5.5-6.0 and that he managed to breed them at 24 degree's

andrew

 

[steel blues]

One female is dying from an infection that she got from getting brutalized. Nobidy's answered my question yet. Should the male or the female be doing the chasing?

 

[aquaticclarity]

Steele Blues,

I’m sorry to say your question is impossible to answer. Fish, not unlike people, each have their own personality. This means that there are no hard fast as to how a given fish acts or interacts with another fish. You can generalize: dominant male Apistos while hold a territory and defend it against other males; females will hold a subterritory within a dominant males territory and defend their space against other females; breeding females (with eggs or fry) will chase away all other fish, including males. But these generalizations are only that, generalizations. Fish don’t read books or check forums, so they don’t always act how we expect them to. (I wish they did read the info, it would make my life easier if they all acted as we think they should!)

So that leaves your question “should the male or female be doing the chasing?†The answer is both. If the pair isn’t compatible they will fight and chase each other around, especially in a 10 gallon tank. I agree with fishgeek, try keeping only pair in the tank. I would also highly recommend you get 5 or 6 dither fish, an inexpensive small schooling fish that the Apistos can chase and focus on as a common enemy. This often, but not always, helps to settle warring fish.

Keep asking questions, it’s the second best way to learn info right after learning from first hand experience. Asking questions first is a lot easier on the fish though:biggrin:

Jeff

 

[steel blues]

The problem is that there's one female that pounds on every other fish, but if shes not there then the male chases all of the other females, in which there is one that picks on the other. In short, they can't live together in harmony at all.

 

[fishgeek]

give them more room and they likley will
i think i said that before though

andrew

 

[steel blues]

My photo album:
http://s175.photobucket.com/albums/w147/bobberly1/

Do you think the first one is a male or a female? By the way, the labels are backwards.

 

[steel blues]

My entire prospective has just been flipped around. I now know that I have 3 males and a female. I'm trying different males with it, and I'm going with the assumption that the male should be dominant. Any more help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[steel blues]

Oh, and does anyone know the scientific name of this fish?

 

[Mike Wise]

The Steel-blue Apisto has no scientific name. If it truly is a hybrid of 2 or more species, it never will. Hybrids are not valid species.

 

[steel blues]

Okay this species is starting to really annoy me. I'm pretty sure I'm going to trade them in for a pair of another species next time my LFS gets an apisto shipment.

 

[steel blues]

Is this a male or a female?

How about this one? Sorry for the size.