Back into Apistos.. with a slight problem

[stormhawk]

Hey guys, I just purchased what I think is a true pair of Apistogramma cacatuoides Triple Red from C328.



Best shot I got, since he keeps hiding and very seldom stays in one spot for long.



Close-up of the bugger hiding amongst my Vallisneria.

However I'm unsure if the "female" is a real female, or just another random sleeper/subdominant juvenile male. Have a look and let me know your opinions.


Outside her home.


Best shot I got so far, since she isn't cooperating very well.

Don't wish to clog up the sticky on sexing cacas so might as well post a new thread. By the way, the female's first 3 dorsal rays are lacking the extensions or lappets if you wish. She has a slightly truncate tail, with the upper tip gone. Probably got chomped sometime back. Has no extensions to the dorsal or anal fins. Her pelvic fins have that powder blue colour when she's not stressed, but back at the store they had black edges.

I tried feeding them with NLS pellets, but they ignored those. Guess it's time to get some frozen BW, maybe frozen Daphnia, and get me a BBS hatchery going.

[mobile2007]

Nice catch from c328.

Can be difficult to sex those more domesticated species. So, why not just keep/observe them for sometimes. Also, the weather is pretty good, lots of rain. Breeding can occurs anytimes.

[stormhawk]

Thanks for the compliments. I saw the male in the display tank and started drooling. I've not seen a Triple Red male with that much red and a decent pattern in the caudal fin, in a long time. The female was in a bag by itself, labelled caca Triple Red F. By the way, in one of the tanks nearer to the fish food section, there's some random Apistos. Probably old breeders or excess fish from their supplier.

Yeah been raining cats and dogs. But they're not interested in the NLS pellets. I don't really want to use tubifex for them. I'll probably go get some Daphnia tomorrow, since my Boraras go berserk whenever there's Daphnia.

So far the male shadows the female, but does nothing much. I need to get her plump.

[mobile2007]

You can try hikari frozen bloodworm. Most apisto can't resist that. Pellets wise, you have to train them, starve them a few days, they will then accept it.

[stormhawk]

Well I'm hoping they'll catch on since my Boraras take the NLS pellets. Though for the Boraras, the current .5 size isn't small enough. I'll probably have to crush them into powder form next time.

Paying a visit to Biotope tomorrow, since C328 is closed on Sundays. I went off too quickly just now before getting all the stuff I needed. Guess the pair got me excited.

[doppelbanddwarf]

The colours on the male looks great. To me the female looks like it could be a male but I could be wrong. They should take to NLS pellets in 1 or 2 days. Also while you are at Biotope do look out for their cacatuoides. They had quite a few pairs of very nice ones a few weeks ago but could be gone by now.

[genes]

High chance its a female looking at the fins.

[riltz]

absense of black ventral for the female, or maybe it cant be seen from the picture, but for caca black ventral fins can be used to determine sex.

[stormhawk]

The black ventral marking was showing when I first got it. Went off once I put it into the 4 foot tank with the male. I just visited Biotope today and picked up an Orange Flash female. The male instantly took a liking to her. Oddly enough, the female Triple Red kept flaring at the new female Orange Flash.

They are chewing on the NLS pellets right now, but they're not swallowing them. Instead they just pick them up then spit them right out. I think I'll just get some live bloodworm or frozen ones tomorrow.

[Jitticus]

I'm not sure where 328 gets their apisto stock from and I've bought a few times from them. In many instances, I could see the "females" were highly potential sneaker males. It can be very frustrating for those who are just starting out in the hobby.
I doubt the bosses know much about sexing of apistos, so I can only say its probably the supplier who's doing this misidentification.
Your female is also looking like a possible sneaker...

[mobile2007]

stormhawk, the chew and spit are typical behaviour of apisto. Give them sometimes.

[exotic_idiot]

Nice catch, bro stormhawk...
Quite hard to sex caca... Unless the female shows some yellow colourations...
Let's wait till your female stable first can get a more clear confirmation.
Maybe you consider feeding live brine shrimps too, let them chase for their foods..
Yeah..!

BTW, very nice killifish you have on your avatar...!

[doppelbanddwarf]

Live bloodworms might not be such a good idea. Try adult brineshrimp or bbs instead. Apistos are highly susceptible to internal bacteria from eating bloodworms and tubifex.

[Jitticus]

The black ventral marking was showing when I first got it. Went off once I put it into the 4 foot tank with the male. I just visited Biotope today and picked up an Orange Flash female. The male instantly took a liking to her. Oddly enough, the female Triple Red kept flaring at the new female Orange Flash.

They are chewing on the NLS pellets right now, but they're not swallowing them. Instead they just pick them up then spit them right out. I think I'll just get some live bloodworm or frozen ones tomorrow.

Have you tried their small fish formula? I notice that using the small fish formula seems to have solved the spitting problem.

[stormhawk]

Thanks for the comments guys.

@exotic_idiot:

Yup that's a nice killifish, too bad I stopped keeping that species a long time ago. I was very lucky to spot this beautiful Triple Red male. They had 4 Triple Red males, and I took the one the uncle put in the display tank.

The 1st female I got with it is stable now, but I am beginning to think it is a sneaker male. Anyway, I managed to get an Orange Flash female from Biotope over the weekend. Now that one I am 100% certain it is female.

I got another "female" from C328 today as well. Was in a tank with other random fish and some caca and aga. Probably leftover stock.

I figure with 3 possible females, I should be lucky enough to have at least one female.

@Jitticus:

The NLS pellet I'm using is the Spectrum Grow. My Boraras urophthalmoides love those and they grew much bigger. The apistos seem to ignore them for now. I bought a pack of frozen BW, Daphnia and brine shrimp. My Corys love the bloodworms too, if not the snails and Cherry Shrimp can have a fresh snack.

I went to C328 today and picked up this pair of Aga along with the random caca.







Female was from the display tank with a huge red tailed aga male. I have no idea what strain, but when I first picked up my Triple Red pair, that female laid eggs on the divider wall, so when I saw it today, I just had to buy it. The male is from the random tank. Has a yellowish tail with whitish spot pattern and a black edge. What strain could it be?

The female agassizii is very aggressive. She managed to out-muscle the Triple Red caca male. She only backs down when she sees the agassizii male. I saw them doing the threat posturing and they actually did the lip-locking thing. Was an awesome sight.

[SCOPE]

Good sharing! Hope to hear your breeding soon

[soltari007]

hey bro, your aga looks like the Alenquer strain, looks good!

[stormhawk]

Hope so. The male aga is very listless so it's in a hospital tank by itself now. The outlook doesn't seem good. I should have not taken the one in the random tank. It's probably sick. Doesn't eat anything, not even frozen bloodworm.

The female as usual is being aggressive. She's taken over 2 coconut husks near the stand of Vallisneria, and keeps control over that area.

I took some new pictures of the 2 extra female cacatuoides.


Orange Flash female

I'm 100% certain this one is a female



Not 100% certain on this one. It's like a wild-type caca.

Better picture of the male:



And finally, caught the male displaying to the "wild" female:



Sorry for the blur image. The male tends to do his dance when I least expect it.

[stormhawk]

A better picture of the "wild-type" female:



Is the ID correct? I thought it was a female of some other caca-type species.

[genes]

Its a caca. And most probably came from a pool of inbred red variant genes hence its showing washed out colors.

The orange flash is in her breeding mood already. Give her a cave and they should be breeding soon...