Your Favourite Apistogramma!

[marle]

nice video!

If you want to increase the chances of breeding, may i suggest to remove other fishes and keep both of them there or vice versa..

[Apistoinka]

Bro marle was right... If the feel stress they will not breed too... Or you can add in more plants or woods to create more hiding spot for them to make them feel secure and more choice of finding their favorite spot to breed...

[huhengyi1986]

Anyone here keeping borrelli opal pair?

[bernie]

Anyone here keeping borrelli opal pair?

I am keeping a pair and a third one. But this third one not sure is a male or female.

[Apistoinka]

Me too I have a trio of opal... Currently no sign of breeding but no fighting either...

[Ecalyte]

Hello everyone!

I am no longer keeping Apistogramma.. but in the past, I kept many many species.. Tried a full male-only 3ft planted tank. Worked out very well.. the lack of females tamed a lot of the aggression, and there were constant flaring. Anyway, I recently managed to find pictures of my old stock.. this was in 2003, hope you guys enjoy

First attempt at a community tank. It housed 4 pairs that spawned successfully.


3ft all-male planted tank


Revamped 3ft all-male community tank


Apistogramma Cacatuoides 'Triple Red'


Apistogramma Agassizii Tefe




Apistogramma Trifasciata



Apistogramma Veijita



My all time favourite.. the super rare Apistogramma Pulchra 'Xingu'. This pair cost me... a lot. It was a one-time shipment done by Charles of Biotope. Pictures do not do this beauty any justice, as I was using a crap Olympus point-and-shoot camera. Bear in mind this was in 2003.. Point and shoot cameras were not very good...



Hope you guys enjoyed!

[stormhawk]

Nice tanks Ecalyte, I liked most the older 3ft scape before you revamped it. That huge piece of wood looks awesome.

The A. pulchra male was in splendid shape. Did this pair spawn for you? I still remember the huge A. tucurui at the old Biotope at Bukit Merah, when Charles was still in charge.

[Ecalyte]

Yes they did, 3 times. I think the stress of being in a community was too much for the female.. being a young mother. She ended up eating all the eggs..

Back then, the Apisto scene was very very lively. I remember the petfrd bunch had monthly outings to the pasir ris farms. Even though 90% of us were playing around with only the 4 common species (Tri, Aga, Caca, Borelli.. Panduro and Veijita were considered quite uncommon back then), Charles managed to bring in some real exotic ones. There has never been another occurrence like the Bukit Merah Biotope in terms of Apistogrammas.. pity really..

Were you into Apisto then? I remember when Inka 50s were the most prized apistogramma.. Gan brought in a shipment and they were kept in 2 huge blue water barrels in murky water. We literally had to take a net, scoop in and see what we caught. It was like Apistogramma roulette.. haha! I can't seem to find my Inka 50 pictures I kept it at petfrd's gallery, and they've since resetted their database.

I might be tempted to start again.. but that won't happen until I move into my own place.

Also, yes.. that driftwood was amazing. I got it from this fish shop called H20 behind Kembangan MRT station. It cost me $25 !! You can see it again in the 2 other scapes I did tilted in different ways. Such versatility haha..

[stormhawk]

Nope, I was more interested in their micro fish aka Boraras, Indostomus and such. Those tucurui were bad *** fish. If I'm not wrong, NKS at Kovan, used to bring in wild Apistos, but I didn't see on my first and last visit to date to that shop. They seem to have shifted focus on to plecos and other big fish.

H2O. Brings back memories. I went all the way there to buy a particular Apisto, ended up buying nothing because they were out of stock. Is it still in business? I ended up going to Pet Safari at Simei and buying a nijsenni pair back home. They died when my resident Kribs in the tank bashed them since the Kribs were guarding their fry.

I went to this old apisto farm, Toh's? or something, near Teo's Aquatic Plants at LCK. They had some amazing pairs of the common Apistos.

[Ecalyte]

I haven't looked around for Apistos at all.. Initially before I ventured into CRS, I thought of restarting Apistogrammas.. so I went around looking. I was so disappointed at the lack of availability in the LFS-es that I decided to start CRS instead..

H20 has been out of business for several years now. I think their location played a huge role in their inability to keep up with their costs..

The hobby has changed a little bit too.. The Agassizii super red is now sporting a WHITE BODY? With NO MARKINGS? What's up with that.. and when did that happen??

[stormhawk]

Bad brood stock at the farms, with too much inbreeding. The quality of the common species has fallen drastically over the years. I ever saw a short bodied agassizii Tefe once at C328. Needless to say, that was a major turn off. The caca Triple Reds have short pelvic fins, even in males, and the colors and markings are probably due to color enhancers rather than good genes. Washed out specimens are common now, for all the common types. Even the poor panduro needs some help in refreshing the lines with new imports.

Toh's farm closed down a few years ago. It was a pity because their common apistos were excellent in both color and form. I had a pair of trifasciata from that farm that spawned the very night I placed them in their new tank once I got back from the farm.

I thought H2O was still in business. They had a huge selection of tanks but like you said, location was not exactly great. It's hard to find nice Apistos these days. When Scope was still active, you could get decent pairs from him that he'd bring in from overseas. Now, we're restricted to the fish that is being circulated at the LFS. Only home breeders would have decent fish for purchase.

[mordrake]

Yes those were the days....
I remember bumping into cloud and zealot at Gans. They were kind enough to help me pick out some apistos from a mixed tank. Really playing apisto roulette using a huge net and a bowl.

[barmby]

Ecalyte, thanks for sharing! very good idea to just keep the male only tank.

oh....cloud79! the owner of petfrd. i try to register at petfrd again after it was hit. then i never hear anything from him.

[marle]

The Apistogramma Pulchra 'Xingu' is indeed a beauty. Have not seen such specimens before..

[Jitticus]

my friend's apistogramma hongsloi form 2 pair.

[Apistoinka]

Seems like Malaysia can find better Apisto compare to singapore...

[doppelbanddwarf]

Very nice hongsloi, its been a long time since I seen this species in singapore.

[Aquanoob]

I am very interested in Hongsloi, can pm me where to get it in Malaysia?

[Apistoinka]

Bro aqua noob poison kick start again after looking at the picture???

[Aquanoob]

No, I have been looking for Hongsloi for quite some time now. Have asked some lfs but they don't carry it. I like the colour of Hongsloi.