cricha's Apistogramma sp. 'Mamore'

[cricha]

I bought the pair when they were very small. The male only had a small dot of red on its tail. This male is just beginning to come into his colours and is now about 3cm long.

They've spawned unsuccessfully a few times already. I hope they get it right soon.

[trident]

Chris,
Beautifully shot! That's a very nice mamore.
Looks like it's still young.

[wiki]

Beautiful Male!!

[doubleace]

very beautiful.. Since it is still young maybe it will show out more colors during it grown stage.

[leeruisheng]

Nice specimen. Ventrals are huge for it's body size.

[illumnae]

very nice! i love the intense yellow colouration on the head. makes me miss my old Ap. sp "Rio Mamore" that i let go a few months ago...maybe it's time to go visit my friend to see how the fish is doing!

all the best on spawning this pair...i'm sure they'll get it right soon!

[genes]

Great picture.

[wasabi8888]

"Sui Sui SUi"

Another great photographer in the making.....

[cricha]

Thank you.

Hope to learn from the more experienced photographers here.

[mervin]

very nice fish indeed !!!!

boy do i miss my apistos......

[trident]

can always start leh.........

[cricha]

Alas my once beautiful fish now badly needs a shrink!

The other day my 4 young nieces and nephews came over to spend the day. When I got back at night my male was no where to be seen. This was the total opposite of it's normal behaviour.

Over the next few days, I observed it closely. It seldomn comes out to feed and when it does, it crawls along the bottom. It now is very, very timid and swims everywhere with its' tail almost dragging along the bottom. I don't think it's because of an injury as I've seen it swim away normally once or twice, when chased by the female. It's been over a week with no change, I think my male was severely traumatised by the kids.

Has anyone had such an experience?

[cricha]

Male didn't make it

[trident]

so sad that the male has died

[jedimech]

So sad to hear of the incident.

[Simon]

a few years back, my male also suffered from the same fate however, the female was defending her frys and the male got injuried and eventually died. Sadly, the fry about 10-15 all died suddenly when they were a month old.

any other mamore owners like to verify this? female is extremely aggressive so wise to remove the male from the tank?

[benetay]

I'll briefly state some of my past experience on A.mamore and share some insights on breeding ethics.

Apisto mamore requires larger tank space. They can only be found in one location in the amazon basin which is pretty near to the smaller A.trifasciata. They have similar looking appearance just lacking the 3rd line running from the start of the body to the anal fin.

Have bred them successfully in a combination of 1 male 3 females in a 6 x 2 x 2.5 tank. With harem breeding the success rate of A.mamore will greatly increase due to no dither fishes around and the only dither is another female.

A.paucisquamis female are born aggressor they'll normally kill off the male when they're not in breeding mood. On the other hand, A.mamore are far easier. They breed readily. The female will show their courtship dance once they settle into a tank. Once the female(A) have laid the eggs and fertilize, they do not tolerate the male entering anywhere near 30cm circumference near the site. They'll chase the male off from one end of the tank to the other.

In order for the male to mate again, he'll find another suitable female to spawn. If there is lack of females around, he'll try to mate with the current female(A) again despite her having a clutch of eggs. To make things worse, female A.mamore dress in breeding colour display one of the worst territorial behavior that i've ever seen so far. Almost unbelievable.

To reduce the conflict between the male and female(A), if there is another female(B) around it'll normally change the course of damage done. Female(B) will have a chance to breed with the male thus leaving the other female(A) alone.

To sidetrack a little, female apisto of the same species during spawning do not mind 'sharing' their babies with another female. Meaning female(A) babies can run off to female(B) brood and nothing much will happen to the fries. They 'share' their burden with one another. Very interesting to watch those fries swimming from one mother to another with no adverse effect.

My experiment on A.mamore was suppose to be 2 males 4 females in the 6footer but 2 didn't make it to the tank resulting in only 1 male 3 females.(lucky one male manage to make it)

Back to the point, therefore when female (A) & female (B) are holding eggs, the male will look for another female to spawn again. The only logical female will be female(C). Normally female (C) will not spawn due to space constraint. Must be asking, 6ft cannot even spawn 3 females together at the same time? That i cannot answer, could be my tank wasn't planted or design densely for that to happen. All i can say is those small apisto can really swim very quickly. They chase each other tank end to tank end thats why i think it wasn't design nicely for 3 of them to spawn at the same time. If i had more time on hand i could have done something better. Was also holding onto 20 smaller apisto tank at that point of time.

Given a bigger tank there are many advantages.Apisto seem to be bolder, i can even touch or pat them during feeding time(only for this harem does not apply for other species i had). They do not display sign of fear when human are around. There are also apisto even when i purchase young, they're very panicky no matter how much time i've spend in the front of the tank they'll always treat me as a cause of harm. Apisto are small but big in character. Often with rarer species spawning or even if you'll like to increase the success of each spawn, tape the tank's four corners with black or newspaper to prevent any disturbance during their breeding cycle.

If a larger tank doesn't permit, the removal of the male is highly recommended . Females can be remove roughly 30days after eggs are hatch for the next cycle to begin. Alternatively you can remove the eggs & hatch them artificially too. Why some apisto prices seems to be having a very expensive tag? Firstly they lay limited eggs per clutch, with lesser eggs the total success rate of fries reaching adulthood decline greatly. E.g. i can have 120 A.caca eggs whereas i can only have 30-45 A.diplo eggs. The percentage of fries reaching adulthood seems less. Therefore the reason of the hefty price tag. Artificial hatching of eggs may yield better result than leaving the pair to decide what to do. Some apisto take a longer time to learn than the others but if we're holding onto a rare specimen of apisto i'm sure the first thing to do is to stable the population before letting them learn.(my views) What i'm worried about is "the time to let the pair learn on what to do during breeding cycle" and "none of them dying" seems to outweigh my capability of letting them breed normally. I'll usually remove the first viable clutch of eggs and hatch them artificially which i may have higher chances of the survivability of that particular clutch.
Artificial hatching can be very painstaking but increasingly rewarding.
From past experience i was rather shock in acquiring apisto that kill their partner less than 7 days in the tank. (Imagine if each pair cost you 300-500 SGD) No replacement or singular purchase can be made. Therefore to safeguard rarer species it'll be best to obtain minimum of 2 pairs and splitting them up to 1 male 2 female in the tank for breeding purposes.

It had happen to me on a lot of occasion whereby a pair couldn't make it due to either of the gender killing their counterpart. I've resign my decision to either obtain 2pairs, 1 trio or more for safer breeding. Getting 2 pairs can be better during the long run. Massive breeding in the same gene pool will greatly weaken the gene and cause deformation. With another male, we can have another option of crossing out and strengthening the gene pool over a period of time.

Keeping 1 pair in a large tank sound absurd and far-fetched for some but if we ignore the commodities of water volume to fish kept it'll be an enriching experience to learn their natural behavior in the wild. That will be my next aim if i'm able to return back to fish-keeping when i am able to convince myself of the 'time spent' to 'labor done' for the fishes.

With so much said on this, only one can decide what you want out from your apisto. There is no hard and fast rule in fish-keeping. Just the level of commitment & discipline. That is also another reason for me not able to return to the fish-keeping scene for a long time. I applaud those who have a higher level of commitment & discipline than me.

Happy apisto-ing.

my 2cts worth
Cheers!

[cricha]

Thanks Benetay for the incredibly informative post.

I think that it's fantastic that more experienced enthusiasts like yourself in AQ, bother to take the time and trouble to share your experiences with us newcomers.

Can you please tell me more about your method of artificially hatching the eggs. I have heard about this but don't know enough to try it.

thanks

[benetay]

hatching apisto eggs artificially sounds difficult but it isn't. After a few tries, you'll get a hang of it. Though i will try my best not to intervene as much as i can during their breeding cycle but some pairs just don't know what to do.

What you need, a small tank filled with the same water as the breeding pair. small air stone to provide slight water movement to circulate the water and oxygen for the eggs to hatch. It's the same concept of the female fanning the eggs. Add in meth blue a drop or two will suffice.

During the first few days normally up to seven days, there is no need for you to feed anything to the fries. They'll consume the yolk sac during the first week. Once they start feeding on BBS, it'll be easier to care.

Doesn't sound too difficult isn't it.

Just remember to adjust the air bubbles so it just flow pass the clutch of eggs. Removal of any fungus eggs manually. Removal of dead fries manually. Try to change water using either from aged water or from the pair's tank.

you'll almost be certain of your clutch survival rate after the first two weeks.

[cricha]

Hi Benetay,

if the eggs are in a clay pot should the airstone be just outside or inside?

What's the best way to remove eggs manually and how do I recognize the fungused ones?

thanks