r/apistogramma

I got the female apisto Trifasciatas about 2 months ago. They were so young that it was hard to make out their gender so I picked what I thought was the healtiest looking male (shows how much I know

So fast forward to today and I went back to the LFS to get the male. They are the same batch from the same store but my female has grown quite a bit bigger in my tank than her old tankmates from the store.

I have the male in an isolation tank and right away they seem to be hitting it off. There is flaring of fins and flicking of water. No aggression, no charging at each other.

I'm going to keep the male in the tank for a few more days to monitor but should I be worried about how much bigger the female is?

Got a male & female caucatoides previously but unfortunately the male was too small and didn’t make it as the female grew fast and bullied the male . Now I’ve found a good male to go with the female . This my third attempt at keeping a pair. 1st one I ended up with two male apistogramma agassizii, next was this female and a tiny male . And now this is the latest . Hope third times the charm .

I’m getting close to adding a centerpiece pair to my 60 × 40 × 50 cm (120L gross) planted community aquarium, but I keep going back and forth between a few Apistogramma species.

Current stocking:
8 Threadfin/featherfin Rainbowfish (Iriatherina werneri) a mid-top dweller specie. Somewhat fast, males has longish fins like “thread”
9 Forktail Blue-eyes (Pseudomugil furcatus) a top dweller specie, relatively fast. Doesnt have long fins
Planning to increase my Clown Killifish group to 4 again mostly top dweller but comes to bottom time to time, no long fins and fast
6 Pygmy Corydoras, will add 2 when I find
1 juvenile + 1 young L144 Bristlenose
3 juvenile L262 Plecos, size of a pygmy cory

I also have two Rhinogobius at the moment, but they’ll be moved to another tank before adding the Apistos, just to be safe. They are semi-territorial botton dwellers, never saw any aggressiveness but Im not sure how would apistos approach to them. Added a pic of my rhinogobius and L262 to end.

The aquarium has decent amount of caves, and visual barriers, I hope. There’s a Tiger Lotus growing on the left, Rotala filling in the center (will add more), Bacopa between the rocks (will add more), got a coconut cave that Im tryinh to figure out where to put, and I’m aiming for a lush, natural-looking aquascape with tannins that will give it a tea color.

I’ve narrowed my choices down to Apistogramma borellii, agassizii, baenschi, and cacatuoides, but I’m having a hard time deciding. Although Baenschi is my fav one, I’ve heard they require bigger footprint and are more aggressive.

I’m much more interested in personality and behavior than bright colors. I’d love a pair that spends a reasonable amount of time out in the open, shows interesting natural behaviors, and has the potential to breed without turning the whole aquarium into a war zone. Since I already have Pygmy Corydoras and several plecos using the bottom of the tank, I’d also like to avoid a species that’s excessively territorial.

Im open to any suggestions about my aquascape to make it the best for apistos.

For those of you who’ve kept these species long-term, which one would you choose for this setup, and why? I’d especially appreciate hearing about real-world temperament rather than what care sheets say, since I’ve found those often don’t reflect how individual species actually behave in a peaceful community aquarium.

Hello everyone,
I bought two cacatuoides yesterday and I was told they are a male and a female. I put them in an 80-litre aquarium and everything was fine at first. However, today after feeding them brine shrimp, one of them started harassing the other and chasing it around the tank. The weaker one still eats normally, but it now mostly stays near the glass. The more dominant fish seems fine. What could this behavior mean, and what do you think their genders are?

So for about 2 months my man here has had a discolored patch just above his black lateral stripe. It used to be a lot whiter. When I noticed it I put him in a 10 gallon and dosed the water with Paraguard for a few weeks but nothing really changed. Since then it got less white and seems to be "healing" but now I'm noticing tiny white spots on his face when zooming in. Is this just natural pores? None of the other fish in the community tank are showing similar signs.

Before noticing this he was in a separate tank breeding with a female who became pretty nippy before I removed him to let her raise the fry on her own, which is why I'm wondering if its an injury, but the white spots on the face have me worried.

I purchased these two cacatuoides but neither has the horizontal black band. They were labeled as “lemon” but other pictures I’ve seen of these gold forms still show the black banding.

Anyone else have a “lemon”?

Hello, all!

I’m new to this group and a new apisto owner, and I’m so excited to be a part of this Reddit!

I have three teeny tiny apisto babies that I got from the fish store that I work at, and I need help determining the specific species because they came in with a different, generic name, and my store gets mislabeled fish all the time. They are all siblings, so I will rehome two to my friend and buy another to keep from inbreeding when I breed them soon, so that’s why I need to know.

These pictures are pictures of the biggest baby I have. They are in a heavily planted three gallon cube currently while I am cycling a 20 gallon. Is it too soon to tell? Or can we determine the species? I don’t have a picture of the parents, unfortunately, so I’m relying on the babies’ markings for ID.