cricha's Apistogramma sp. 'Mamore'

[benetay]

Chris,

If the eggs are laid inside the wall of the flower pot, just make sure the air bubbles touches the eggs to ventilate them. Stagnant & unfertilized eggs will develop fungus over time. Fungus is white & hairy covering the eggs. too difficult to miss.

Anyway nice A.mamore is that a yellow form? The one i used to have even the F1 at 3cm has full red tail. Impressive to see such fishes locally. How i wish i still have my pair!

[cricha]

thanks for the prompt answer Benetay. I'll be sure to try this method when I get the chance.

I'm not sure if the 'mamore' is the yellow form. I just know that it's of German stock. Managed to get another male today but unfortunately, it has a blue tail. Going to try and pair it with the remaining female.

[benetay]

Chris what are you intending to do with mix and match breeding? Why don't you use a easier apisto to try artificial hatching before getting all hype up for a rarer pair? Please reconsider mix and match breeding if you don't know the outcome of the fries.

Moreover with easier apisto, the breeding cycle is as fast as a week. Yes. when i remove the clutch of eggs & re-condition the female(caca), after re-introducting the male, they spawn. Almost every week. From there you can try out on artificial hatching.

Post your results when it happens. I do not have a detailed record when i had the chance, now that i think back maybe the next time i'll do one proper recording.

Cheers!

[cricha]

I've read that; a sp 'Mamore' clutch consists of both red & blue tails. This is something that breeders have been unable to 'fix'. My earlier male (for eg) was the only 'red-tail' in the whole shipment.

The reason that I'm considering artificially hatching the eggs, is because the female has has eaten them the past four times she's spawned. Perhaps it's time for some human intervention...

[benetay]

Chris,

Breeders unable to breed only red tail mamore? I beg to differ. A good and reputable breeder will always cross back the strongest strain in the clutch meaning the nicest alpha male that display the most stunning colours.

I've seen tanks filled with all red tail A.mamore & they're bred not wild. Considering the price for A.mamore it shouldn't cost you more than 200SGD per pair to obtain a beautiful red tail specimen.

On the other hand lets say i'm a breeder, i breed a batch of A.mamore both parents are full red tail for e.g. knowing that the female comes from a batch of highly consistent full red tail batch. The result will almost be certain if the genetics from all the previous spawns to be true red tail form. This will certainly increase the percentage of full red tail A.mamore .

Let me quote another e.g. A.caca triple red. What does that really mean? All the fins are suppose to be red, anal,dorsal,caudal. There are breeders & shops that still sell double red as triple red. This are all trade names given , i might have a double red clutch with a very nice 'triple red' lookalike & i can post it as a triple red without people knowing. Price varies according to the strain of that particular bred fish.

A.caca can fetch up to 100 a pair sometimes even more. How many of us here are willing to pay such a price? when we can settle for something similar of the same quality?

i might sound harsh on breeding ethics but that is to prevent any disappointment when your fries emerges out as something unknown or a strain less desire. Breeding can be fun but be responsible for the fries. Unless i know of people who can adopt or purchase my fries later on will i determine if i should breed them & not breed first talk later. (breeders' POV)

There is a big difference in a breeder and a apisto hobbyist, i'm stating as a breeder POV so please take it with a pinch of salt.

I've seen many apisto hobbyist come and go with the mentality of breed first talk later. It's like a crash course on apisto learning. Until you are serious in their strain type might you want to re-evaluate my stands. Until than i believe you can always go ahead with breeding

If the whole batch of mamore turns out to have only 1 slightly red tail specimen, there might be chances way up in the generation tree that both red tail mamore did actually spawn before in order to produce a tinge of red in their genetics.

Do you happen to know that line breeding cause double red caca into double yellow caca? No it's not a joke, it's real. Thats the result of line breeding massively for commercial purposes. There is no right and wrong in breeding. Luckily apisto cannot be cross in-between species if not i can just wait for another LH craze to emerge as mini LH.

I'm certain you know of the well-known German breeder Wilhem. His super red range of apisto are one of the finest and most stunning colouration i've ever seen in the apisto breeding society. He has kept a stringent method of breeding to produce top class show case super reds that are readily available in the world. There are a few forumers here with his fishes before, they can tell you more about it.

I take the locality with a pinch of salt unless i meet the person face to face. I can ship my apisto here to Germany and back to SG & claim it was from Germany. These are business and marketing strategy to convince buyers that it's a good buy. I've met up with the founder of A.inka 50 a few years ago in Japan. He was the one that net the fish up from amazon basin & the price of inka 50 was like 300SGD per pair. That fish was flown halfway across the globe,packing & unpacking,flying here and there just to reach it's final destination alive. What has happen to the quality of inka 50 nowadays in the LFS? Still there are people massively breeding for commercial purposes. The apisto market is small but not dead just that who is willing to pay for the hefty price tag. I did.

Breeding of apisto is all in the genetics level with little exception on a case to case basis.

I understand the urge to breed your beauties like i also do. Maybe you can update us on the progression on your pair!

I guess i've sidetrack quite a lot. Anyway, Chris, if you'll like to know more, we can catch up on a coffee session. I've been through this phase quite a number of time and typing it all over again.

Cheers!

[yorky]

Bene, its you, the master breeder.
Long time no see. Itching for some action again?

[illumnae]

I've seen tanks filled with all red tail A.mamore & they're bred not wild. Considering the price for A.mamore it shouldn't cost you more than 200SGD per pair to obtain a beautiful red tail specimen.

i think prices have dropped massively. the wonderful specimen below only cost $60 for a pair This species of apisto is truly beautiful and i can only hope in future i'll be able to own another Ap. sp "Rio Mamore" like this!

[yorky]

Hi illumnae,
As per the fish in the pic, with no offence to bro Genes, colour-wise is nice.
However, something wrong with the spine.. especially the joints at the caudal fins.
Probably too much in-breeding.
Do watch out for these signs when purchasing especially if you plan to breed them further. Might not be worth your while..

[illumnae]

Haha that probably explains the lower price i paid for it i guess. i loved the colouration and finnage on this guy though

[benetay]

Too bad at this phase i cannot keep a single fish. It'll be nice to bounce straight back into keeping apisto. Timing is everything, without sufficient time, our apisto will suffer.

Glad to see so many apisto keepers nowadays.

Premium grade apisto still fetch high prices right? if it's cheap i'm glad to come back! very glad! Don't want to pay so much and either the male or female die along the way. It'll be pretty disappointing.

[yorky]

If I recall your standard, premium grade apistos are vey hard to come by these days even overseas.

[cricha]

Hi Benetay,

it took me some time to digest your comprehensive answer.

First I have to reiterate that I'm new to Apistos. I'm just a keen hobbyist and most of what I know I've read from books and on the net - ie the red & blue tails mixed clutch of sp 'Mamore'.

I'm very curious to know if the professional breeders have managed to 'fix' this 'problem'. I've posted this question on Apistogramma.com and hopefully will have an answer soon.

The next time I'm in Singapore, I'd love to have kopi with you and any of the kaki's here who'd care to join us.

Yorky,

How do I recognize premium grade Apistos? What should I look out for when choosing fish?

[benetay]

If I recall your standard, premium grade apistos are vey hard to come by these days even overseas.

Thats sad to know, Seems like the only place that is left for high quality apisto is in Japan?

Chris, don't worry so much into tank bred apisto, normally once you reach a stage, tank bred apisto do not have an appeal to you. You'll be looking for wild fishes but with a premium

Premium wild fishes don't come in big batches therefore replacement are almost impossible to be purchase.

Just look at the price tag when you see a truly beautiful apisto. There is this website from Japan. Just do a convert on the currency. www.rva.ne.jp

[cricha]

A pic of my replacement sp 'Mamore' male.

[benetay]

Great details! Love the finnage.

[trident]

Chris,
Looks like you have been busy, love the color.