Back to South American Dwarf Cichlids
Apistogrammas are a good sized genus made up of small cichlids from South America. These fish are great for folks with a limited space for fish or those that want cichlids and plants in the same aquarium. I would say that this is one of my favorite groups of all cichlids even though most people know me for all the Africans I have bred over the years.
For the most part these little guys and girls live in small slow moving streams and river backwaters along the Amazon basin. Some live in fairly clear water while others live in the black waters of the Rio Negro. There are several complexes within this genus that are split by body shape and finnage. These fish will range in body size from four inches down to an inch, with most males being just shy of two inches in overall length. The females tend to be a fair amount smaller than the males. The males come in every color imaginable with shades of blue or yellow being very prominent. The tails of the males can be all different shapes from crescents to spades to bilobate (extended rays). Although the males are pretty, the females are arguably as pretty as their counterparts. Most of the females while in breeding color or fry guarding color are shades of deep yellow with different patterns of black lines and blotches throughout. Their tails and pectoral fins also will display in black and yellow.
Over the years, I have kept several species of Apistos and have bred most of those that I have kept. I will be writing this article in general terms, more about this group as a whole, than about any specific fish. I have always kept these fish in a low tech aquarium, never watching pH nor testing other things chemically. There are a lot of folks out there that will say you have to keep most of these little beauties in fairly acidic water, testing hardness and nitrates all the time too. Many will also say that you need to feed almost exclusively live foods as they will not take anything but these foods. I am not one of these people!
I usually house my small pairs/harems of apistos in small 10 or 20 gallon tanks with a bit of plants and a few friends such as small tetras, livebearers or my favorites, dwarf barbs. These friends would always tell my apistos that there was nothing to be shy about and would keep my beautiful little cichlids out in the open. I will say that I was fairly lucky to have the Grand Rapids city water for my source as it is relatively neutral to slightly alkaline, unlike what I presume is liquid rock out here in the desert of Arizona. Back to the point of the water, like I said I never did any testing of the water, however knowing that nitrates build up over time and trace elements were depleted by the plants, I would do 20-33 percent water changes every week or two. If there were newly born fry in the tank or I knew the female had eggs somewhere I would tend to not do water changes at that time so as to not disturb them. Most of the Apistos that I had bred were bred in straight old tap water however some of the harder fish I would drop a little sphagnum peat moss in a corner filter ( I wouldn’t bubble it though) or add more into a clay pot with some cryptocoryne plants. There were other times that I added the peat and dropped in a piece of driftwood that I knew would really leach it’s tannins (turn the water brown) into the water. Doing either of these things would help with softening the water and over time would help to drop the pH slightly. This was enough to fire up some of the harder fish to spawn.
If you are thinking about trying some of these charming little fish I would look for A. cacatuoides, A. borelli, or A. macmasteri, as a great starter fish. As we should all know by now it is best to start off with 6 fish and let them pair off naturally. Keep in mind that in a 20 gallon or smaller aquarium some of the fish will most likely have to come out over time. You can also buy a pair occasionally from a local store if they are large enough to sex. A little trick if these fish are “teenagers ” or younger is to have the owner feed them heavily on live or frozen foods, as they gorge themselves the females will usually show a little yellow and the pelvic fins on females have a few black rays. Sometimes this trick needs to be tried a couple of days in a row to get the females to show. Males will typically be the larger fish in the tank with larger dorsal and anal fins. It’s all the fish between the male and for sure females that are the trouble as many males will not grow nor show at the same rate as the others and can be mistaken for females. You can keep extra females in the same tank!
Once you get them home they will most likely sulk for up to a couple of days but with plenty of cover and a few friends this will be a short issue. The tank should have several hiding places for the pursued female to hide. I typically like flowerpots to use as the females will also lay their eggs underneath these. For real small Apistos I use the tiny little red clay flower pots that can be found at most nurseries. I lay them on their sides as Apistos generally lay their eggs on the roof of the cave. In the wild, they lay on the underside of stones, driftwood and leaf litter. For medium to large Apistos I generally use the clay overflow trays for a 4” pot. I will lay this upside down and put a rock under the rim to prop it up so I can watch the fish go in and out. I have also used broken pieces of flower pot on their sides too! Remember to have more than one hiding place! If you have your temperature between 78 and 82 degrees it usually doesn’t take too long for these fish to get comfortable and get down to “business”. I have had several pairs spawn in 7-10 days! They will lay their small red adhesive eggs in the pot, if you cannot see the eggs, a good indication of a spawn is that you rarely see the female as she is in the pot and when you do, she is glowing black and yellow. If you are busy like I am, many times you won’t notice they spawned until you see mom herding her fry all over the aquarium. The females are typically very good with parental care, however it is not uncommon for the female to eat her first spawn or two. Being very cynical at least she has eaten live food and it usually doesn’t take long at all for her to spawn again. Usually after I see the fry swimming in the water column I begin to add live foods. I most often just start out on live baby brine; frozen will work well most of time as well. If you have none of that available I sometimes will squeeze a sponge filter or backfilter cartridge slightly thus releasing a lot of very small edible organisms until I can get my hands on baby brine.
After 10 days or so I pull the fry out with a small net or suction tube and put them into another tank for rearing. I do this to maximize the amount of fry out of a single pair of fish as the parents then have no chance to eat them and they get reconditioned for another spawn sooner.
At this point I would like to say that never, ever mix species of these fish within the same tank! The females look very much alike, although I do not know if they would cross breed it is not worth the risk. I do not even keep any pairs in close proximity in case they jump!
In closing, I would like to say that this is a very rewarding group of fish for those with small tank space or live planted tank or even discus (most species will handle the temperatures). They have no where near the aggression problems that most cichlids can have towards their own kind or their tank mates. They are much easier to breed than many people let on, so please give these little jewels their due in your fishroom!
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