Apistogramma Blaukopf aka "blue steel"

[cory]

Hi All,

Has anyone seen Apistogramma Blaukopf aka "blue steel" in our LFS?

Kindly inform me if you know which lfs selling.

Thank you very much

[stormhawk]

I saw a few at C328, in one of the upper tanks at the left entrance of the shop. All males though.

[cory]

Thanks storm,

Managed to purchased 2 yesterday, both males .

[burpz]

A different project? How come get all males bro?

[cory]

Hi bro,

Not new project lah.... Few days ago did a search on apisto in AQ forum & saw some old posts by our members, found this hybrid apisto quite nice & decided to get 2 to housed in my 3.5ft comm. tank

http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...sto+blue+steel

Only have all males in the tank bro, that why only managed to get 2 with most metallic face. From the previous posts, learnt that in the market its kind of difficult to get females due to juvenile females didn't survive to adulthood & protecting the strain of this species.

[burpz]

I see... Nice! Wanna add some nijsenni too?

[cory]

You intending to release yours?

[burpz]

Maybe lor... Currently housing them in separate tanks in office.... Guess I really have to be very very patient with Nijsenni...

[cory]

No problem bro,

Let me know if you really intend to release the Nijsenni. If you want I can give you 2 pieces of Apistogramma agassizi "Rio tefe Cacadora" frys which I bought from bro mobile2007. But they will require more patient as they are quite small (around 1cm +) in size only, think need another 3 months to juvenile stage.

http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ad.php?t=62651

Btw, how many pieces & what is the gender of the Nijsenni?

Thanks.

[burpz]

Have one male and one "female"... haha... still trying to make out the "female's" gender... but she looks better with the male out of the tank... or maybe I should tough it out....

[cory]

Yep, think its good to isolate the female from the male & observe her. Maybe she will turn into a "fair lady" in time to come without the aggressive male

[burpz]

Yep, think its good to isolate the female from the male & observe her. Maybe she will turn into a "fair lady" in time to come without the aggressive male

Like not fully utilizing my tank space...
By "fair lady"... not a transvestite right?

[stormhawk]

Please take note that the Blue Steel is a hybrid Apisto (or so the Europeans and Americans claim), and extremely aggressive in behaviour. This is the reason why I do not keep them any more. I had a pair spawn in a 1.5 ft tank, and they killed all my Dario dario.

[burpz]

Wow... sound like a fearsome pair... Bro Cory has a pair of male, thus this aggression should be at a lower level?

[cory]

Hi bro storm & burpz,

Thanks for the advice & comments.

After observing them for 2 days, find that the 2 male apisto blue steel I got are weird . Not only they are not aggressive, they co-exist very well with my 30+ cories & 1 balloon ram.

Hopefully they will not turn aggressive in time to come

[burpz]

Sounds good! Guess they are acting more like community fishes....

[genes]

I thought this conversation here sounds alittle off. But the main reason why they are not aggressive in your community tank is because they are males. To name a few, i have tried bitaes, candidi, wilhelmi, cacatuoides, trifasciata, diplotaenia, adoketa in my 3ft planted community tank without any problem. Issue only arise when they start to breed, so they will attack any fish that comes near their breeding site or brood when its free swimming. Citing from stormhawk's experience, his blue steeled starts on the killing rampage when they spawned. If something keeps coming to attack/eat your child up, i bet you'll beat the hell out of the attackers too.

Apistos are actually really peaceful community fishes.

[cory]

Thanks genes.

If that is the case I will not be adding female blue steel into the tank even if manage to find some

[burpz]

How about adding more male apistos of other stains?

[stormhawk]

Actually genes, the pair were aggressive even before they spawned. During the bonding stage, they wiped out half of my Dario. After the spawning, they wiped out the rest.. Even my caca are not as aggressive. The Steel-Blues would attack any fish that came near their food. I was feeding them with live foods then, and they would push away any other fish that came close. The cacas in my community tank, would at least give the other fish a chance to eat.

Don't bother breeding them, because you can't even sell them for cheap to others. I remember buying some a few years ago for $1 a piece. Even then, the female is difficult to obtain.

If you crowd the tank with more Apistos, they will not fight as often. In small numbers, they will. Look at taygu's tank full of Apistogramma agassizii "Red". In large numbers, aggression is minimised.