# Apistogramma questions



## MacFish (Jun 15, 2006)

Just picked up a trio of Apistogramma Caetei at the HDAS auction. These are my first Apisto's. Any tips and tricks appreciated. There really isn't too much info on this species online. I've found a little but not much.

They are in my 33 Gal. Temp is 79, pH is 7.2 which I know is a little high for them. Anyone foresee and major problems? I know I will likely have to lower this to get them to breed. I'll be working on that.

There are still about 10 - 15 HRP babies in with them but the Apisto's are all a little bigger than them and the females are really pushing the HRP's around. I was glad to see that  I will hopefully have the HRP's gone by the weekend.

I'll try to get some pics tonight if I have some time but here are a couple that I have found online..

This is what the females look like...









This is close to what the male looks like..


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Wow.. thats a nice fish! 
I wish you good luck with them macfish ^^

Sorry i cant be of any help however :3


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## Westender (Mar 24, 2006)

I can't remember much about caetei particularly, but I'll check my books when I get home. Are they WC?

I'd probably pay more attention to tds than pH, but from what I recall caetei are pretty easy to look after and aren't particularly fussy about water parameters. 

Feed em well, give them some nice leaf litter for the tank bottom with some caves and they'll handle the rest.

Dominic


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## MacFish (Jun 15, 2006)

Much appreciated! I've managed to get some info about them and it looks like I have made a good choice. I'm glad. I usually research well in advance but I got a little too excited when I saw them at the auction. I didn't have the time to check them out. I figured I was fairly safe but it's nice to hear it wasn't a boo boo


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## moon (Mar 11, 2006)

Macfish
Those Apistos you picked up at the auction were mine. I've have the parents of those for about two years. I got them as 1inch fry at the St.Catherines auction. They were housed in a 15g tank with lots of hiding places broken flower pots, coconut shells etc. The water was RO with TDS of 70 and Ph 7.2. I did add a lot of dried Oak leaves to the tank. The fry were fed bbs initially. As they grew the diet changed to flake, fozen brine and live white worms. In about nine months pair formation had occured and two females were occupying various hiding places.
Both females spawned at the same time. The dominant male was tolerated but the sb-dominant males were hounded by both females and the domoinant male. So I took them out.
An interesting thing occured with the fry. They were looked after by the mother and also a younger surrogate mother. This was very interestingto watch. The fry were fed micro worms initially and then bbs. I had close to 40 fry and left them in the tank with the adults. Eventually I sold a bunch of the fry and kept about 10.
The ones you got are some of those fry.
I still have the original pair. The male is about 4in now.
They are relatively easy to keep and spawn. I hope you do well with them.
Now if I can say the same for A Pandurini. That's another storey.
Joe


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## MacFish (Jun 15, 2006)

So we swapped fish 

Thank you very much for the info! I really appreciate it. I am very excited about these guys. 

Do your pair look like the ones in the picture above? From what I have read, there are a few different colour variants (that may actually be different species) and I am curious as to what yours look like. 

One of the females looks like the pic above. The other is a little more brownish. The male has hints of the blue but his background colour is more whitish/blue.

I tried getting some pics last night. They are still way to afraid of me and my camera


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## moon (Mar 11, 2006)

Mine do look like the pics you posted. The male is quite large. He is about 2 years old. They don't live much longer than 2 years. They've also stopped spawning. That's also a sign of old age.
Joe


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## MacFish (Jun 15, 2006)

Oh really. I didn't realize they had such a short lifespan. 

I went anf got some Cardinal tetras and some new decorations and they are swimming around much more now. 

Still trying to get some good pics


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## MacFish (Jun 15, 2006)

The bigger female is now looking very yellow. The smaller female has been bright yellow since I put her in the tank. The bigger one and the male seem to be guarding a cave and chasing the other fish out including the smaller female. Interestingly though, the smaller female is helping chase away any other fish. 

I hope this means the trio is starting to form. I'll be keeping an eye on this


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## moon (Mar 11, 2006)

Looks like it. Get some bbs and microworms ready.


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## MacFish (Jun 15, 2006)

Looks like the threesome is off  

The male decided he wasn't ready to share his cave after all. He is now chasing the bigger female away and she is in turn making sure the smaller female stays out of sight. Just turned the lights out. We'll see if they settle their differences in the dark  

Man, these are tough little suckers to photograph! Been trying since I got them. Got a decent pic of the bigger female tonight but not post worthy


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