illumnae's Apistogramma elizabethae "Super Red"

[illumnae]

Here are some not good quality pictures of my new purchase taken with a pns camera he's not so skittish anymore, and it seems his favourite hangout spot is the corner right next to where i usually sit. of course if i come near he scoots right away until i've been still for quite some time.

[genes]

Good looking male. You can try the mirror and take a pic of him flaring.

[Cacatuoides]

NIce to see your "gem"....I'm sure he's coloration will improve greatly once he settle down and having fun in the tank

[illumnae]

wanted to give him a few more days to acclimitize before whipping out the large mirror for him to flare at

[tcy81]

very nice Aipsto Elizabethae you have there, the redness spreading to the belly.

[iwishweallcouldwin]

nice looking piece you've got there, he seems to be enjoying himself by exploring your tank! may he settle down even more soon! nice red belly.

[illumnae]

nice looking piece you've got there, he seems to be enjoying himself by exploring your tank! may he settle down even more soon! nice red belly.

thanks =) he indeed has been exploring the tank, but the female at the moment seems more "Christopher Columbus" than he. the leaf you see him sticking his head out of is his favourite hiding spot at the moment, situated at his favourite "chillout" corner too. for my benefit, this corner is right in front of me when i'm sitting where i usually watch my fish so it's a good bonus for me

[siriuslim]

its really a gem you got there..
nice meeting you too..

[trident]

so shy that day when we saw it at Biotope,
at least now it's moving about.
congrats bro good catch !

[illumnae]

Good looking male. You can try the mirror and take a pic of him flaring.

haha spent the last 4 hours sitting in front of my tank trying to catch a shot of him flaring...unfortunately he gets spooked when my camera gets too near, and the zoom function of my camera doesn't seem good enough to take him from afar...the couple of times i managed to catch a shot of him flaring, my hand shook and the picture came out blur giving up for the night as my camera is now out of battery!

on the bright side, at least i managed to see him in his full flaring beauty =) only managed to catch a brief glimpse of this once before in the shop, but now he's alot less shy and flaring alot more! one interesting thing i notice is that unlike my bitaeniata, who likes to do a full flare and whack the mirror with his tail, this guy prefers to do a frontal gill flare and attempt to bite his reflection. only once in a long while will he resort to a full flare and i only saw him do the tail whack like 2-3 times in the 4 hours.

this is why i enjoy apistos so much...every fish is different and exhibits different characteristics and idiosyncracies =) a pity that it'll be hard to catch him in full flare, but at least he's not a "rubber stamp" fish that's the same as others of his kind

[iwishweallcouldwin]

haha got good things must share! i'm sure many many forumers would love to see your gem in the fullness of his glory as well!!! but i totally agree with you that its not easy at all to catch them at their best, requires alot of patience, which is something that i've learnt through fish keeping haha.

[leeruisheng]

Looks like my German eliz.

About the flaring thing, I had the same experience with my Dicrossus maculatus. On first encounter with the mirror, he will flare maybe 2 to 3 times but after that he just puff his cheeks and ocassionally bite onto the side of the mirror. I'm using a mirror size of about 8 by 8cm and he is strong enough drag and flip over the mirror.

[illumnae]

This is the new home of my apistos

i'm sure many many forumers would love to see your gem in the fullness of his glory as well!!!

haha i'm not so sure about that bro i'm just a newbie with a nice fish, and i'm sure many of the bros out there have nicer fish of their own too i'm just a small fish in a big pond

[iwishweallcouldwin]

haha then i think im just a bbs. how big is your tank?

[illumnae]

Tank Specs:

Size: 2x1x1 (ft)
Substrate: ADA Africana
Lighting: 18W FL @ 1.4WPG(i'm thinking of upgrading this to 24W or 36W so i can see my fish better, it's rather dim now)
Ferts: WonderGro root tabs
CO2: None
pH: 4.8
Flora: Peacock moss, Crypt 'balansae', Crypt becketti, Echi. Parvifluous "Tropica"
Fauna: Apisto. elizabethae (1 pair), oto (3), espei rasboras (6), dwarf pencilfish (6)

[illumnae]

The amusements never cease...i just spent the last 30min watching the female try to woo the male into the cave...she's yellowish with black edged ventrals and has a full looking belly.

the male, however, is not responding. he flares back at her, and follows her to the entrance of her cave...but then JUST before entering he'll run away to go eat, or to chill in another corner or just to go do something else.

i think the female's really frustrated with him....an example of a commitment phobic male?

[trident]

maybe the male didn't like what he saw inside the cave?
tell her to hide the handcuffs, whip..........

[PeterGwee]

The tank needs more plants so as to provide loads of cover for the shy nature of apistos.

Regards,
Peter Gwee

[illumnae]

I'll try to do something about it...genes has advised me on this as well.

the limiting factor i have is that my lighting is really bad (1.4wpg) and i'm trying to stick to no CO2/excel and no ferts except the root tabs i've inserted. as such, plants don't grow very well...i just had 3 anubias nana die off on me (the dw used to have 3 anubias tied to it...when they died i retied moss on the wood)

i've been thinking of upping my light to 24W (1.8wpg) or 36W (2.8wpg) but i'm afraid that if i do so i'll have to start dosing ferts and CO2/excel to avoid algae issues, which i 100% do not want to even consider

so far i've had moderate levels of success with lightly planted tanks (similar to or less than the planting level you see in this current tank) and my apistos have bred and seem pretty happy...

but i'll see what i can do...perhaps double the density of the crypt becketti and balansae at the back, or replace perhaps with crypt wendtii for thicker leaf cover? i can't seem to think of other solutions (besides ugly java ferns ) to fit in with my limiting factors mentioned above

[PeterGwee]

Larger driftwood overhanging on the tank edges and moss it heavily or with anubias. Non-CO2 tanks do best with no water changes except say 3-6 months. Light dosing weekly base on plant health of the fastest growing species. You just have to make sure the plants don't get overshadowed in low light tanks else things are fine. (You need dosing of KNO3, PO4 and general trace mix like flourish as and when necessary without basing on test kits unless you calibrate them against reference standards.).

Regards,
Peter Gwee