Female Apistogramma killed the male

[chenkingdom]

Hi All,

I need some enlightenment from the death of my male apisto.
Recently bought a pair of Apisto vjieta from C328.
But after not at home for a week, found that the male is hiding in my bunch of nanas. Realise that he was beaten and was almost dead.

Took him out of the tank to try recuperate him but he gave up and died 2 days later.

Now my female alone in the tank looks hyper active...

Tell me why....

[doubleace]

Bro

What size of the tank you kept them in and other then nana do you put other plants or some hiding place for them to hide from each other?

[mictok]

Hi All,

I need some enlightenment from the death of my male apisto.
Recently bought a pair of Apisto vjieta from C328.
But after not at home for a week, found that the male is hiding in my bunch of nanas. Realise that he was beaten and was almost dead.

Took him out of the tank to try recuperate him but he gave up and died 2 days later.

Now my female alone in the tank looks hyper active...

Tell me why....

Maybe the female spawned and wacked the male when you are not around.It usually happen after the female lay the eggs,they are very aggressive at this period of time.

[chenkingdom]

As this is my first time trying to keep apisto, i kept them in a 20cm x 20cm tank. Maybe the tank is too small for them.

As for whether the female have spawn? dont think so.. never find any eggs.

[genes]

Wow, 20cm by 20cm is very small. This could be the reason. Sometimes, it can work and sometimes it spells trouble like in your case because apistos are fishes that exhibit a wide range of behaviours.

[chenkingdom]

Learned from this costly experience.. thought that they will be fine after all those LFS kept them in even smaller compartment..

Maybe will buy a 1 feet tank after finding enough space in my room..

Anyway since i left with a female apisto vjeta, anyone tried breeding this species with others?

[joopsg]

chenkingdom, apisto may look small but they are full of aggression.
Board bodies apisot like caca, agassizzi, macmasteri, vjieta should be kept in a 2ft tank with lots of hiding space.
If you will able to get a 30cm cube, it will be better. For your situation
Small tank, you may want to try the slender bodies ones. Like Trifisciata.
Vijeta and macmasteri both belonging to the same complex so sometime we may purchase hybrid of these 2 species.
Nevertheless, it take time to make the pair bond. They cannot use the pick and match concept as either side will turn nasty. That what happened to yours.
If you are keen to get this specie, do not purchase them hastily.
Take your time to observe them, you will eventually found a bonded pair.
this will save you a lot of trouble and money. They tend to be bonded very close so if the mate die the remaining one may reject the new partner. Waring to you.
However, in your case, the pair has not bond. Your best bet is to get a bigger tank and a bigger vijeta male but keep them apart first. This will avoid casualty.

[chenkingdom]

Thanks Bros for all your advice... Will take note when i try my hands on breeding apisto next time.

Before ending this thread, let you guys see the lady killer:

[joopsg]

Nice catch

[C_Aquatics]

lovely...great color for a female

[trident]

looked like male leh..............

[FishSoup]

Yeah, i think this is a male... you probably got a sneaker male!

If so, then its no wonder the other guy got killed..

[C_Aquatics]

oops, thought it was lack of experience with this species. Good call FishSoup

[Reginald Ho]

I agree with Trident and Fishsoup... Males are more golden yellow in colour. Btw, it lookes more like a Macmaster than a Viejita...

[chenkingdom]

What??? its a sneaker male??? worst still is another species and not Vjieta?
I got it as a pair... I bought this pair because i thought that the female is ready for breeding as it has become yellow.

I will try to take more pictures for you guys to judge if it is a sneaker male or whatsoever...

Im sad because the male that died is really nice in colour.. pity pity..

[genes]

Many of the farmbred A. viejita sold these days are actually hybrids of A. macmasteri. Some points to identify them have been laid in another thread as our forumer wiki noted, the first dorsal spine is solid black for A. viejita and not for A. macmasteri. Another sign to look out for is the caudual spot, with A. macmasteri having an elongated vertical spot while A viejita is small and rounder.