Three females? when I wanted a male in a fire red trio

[demented pea]

Ok as a noob in terms of apisto' keeping I trust my lfs guys to help me sort things out. Always been good so far and they have awesome cichlids there.

The "male" seems to have the same body shape and tail as the females. Do juvie males get pointier caudal fins as they get older or do they have the same shapes all the way through?
He is really orange and the other two are decidedly yellow and one of them looks like spawning girls I have seen vid's and pics of.

He is not looking for a cave and he is very "fish-pecked". I have added some more wood for hidey holes and this seems to have helped with broken lines of sight.

As fast as I learn two things there are forty more to go.....

 

[Mike Wise]

Without knowing what species you have, it's hard to say. I will assume that you have A. agassizii Fire Red. In this case, yes the posterior tips of the males dorsal and anal fin (as well as the tail) will get longer and more pointed than that of the females. What size are they (total length)?

 

[demented pea]

Hi Mike, They are just over an inch and a half and yes they are agassizii fire reds.
One of the girls is very yellow with orangey tips and she looks very like images of an adult female I have seen(internet). The other female is a bright daffodil yellow and no other colours and is the subdominant.

What I was sold as the male(he is the right colour) is a vivid orange and he doesn't act the same as the other two,in fact he is the bullied fish and keeps out of the way.

I have broken up the lines of sight in the tank and there is plenty of housing for the three of them. The girls have chosen their caves and seem very settled.
I had hoped to breed them eventually but if the boy is a girl then that ain't gonna happen!

I have tried really hard to find some pics that match but people like showing moms and babies not juvenile males(sigh) can't blame them for that.

Not too many fire reds in pics either. Not much luck in finding people here in UK to help me. If he is a she I will need to exchange for a real male but heaven knows how I will do that as they are not common where I live!

 

[demented pea]

I have found out from a fish shop in Tyneside that I do indeed have three females and have purchased a spare male that they have....he is arriving on wednesday and will have a harem waiting for him.

Only thing is that my tank may be too small for 4 apisto's and the dither cardinals.....argh get one thing right and then it all goes wahoonie shaped nad it all has to change.

 

[ste12000]

Not too many fire reds in pics either. Not much luck in finding people here in UK to help me. If he is a she I will need to exchange for a real male but heaven knows how I will do that as they are not common where I live!

You have obviously not looked hard enough then!!! why not try the UK based British cichlid association, we have all the UK's top Apistogramma experts on there and there is a ton if information available. Fish are also freely swapped and traded between members, if your looking for Apistogramma then come and join in..http://www.britishcichlid.org.uk/phpBB3/

 

[demented pea]

Yes I did find the british cichlid assoc' I found the website a bit confusing as I am dyslexic, some sites are harder than others. I wasn't sure if I should join as I only have one lot of apistos and all my other tanks are community etc...

I will go and have another look. Thanks though for the info' on fish sharing.