now i'm confused on what i have

jonnyuk · Sep 20, 2020

hi all, bought a "pair" of apistrogramma's yesterday. the shop ordered them as a pair and sold as a pair. the guy who sold them spent some time looking at them to ensure they are a pair (he seemed to know what he was talking about so trusted him (first mistake). anyways i can sex rams but apistogramma's are new to me in terms of sexing.
i have two questions

1: what apistogramma's do i have, they changed colours so much over the last 24hr, i thought i had orange flash, then triple red but now i'm not sure.
2: do i have a pair - the bigger one will sometime chase the smaller one (not overally aggressive more a warning i would say), other times they swim together.
thanks

Colin_T · Sep 20, 2020

What did you buy them as?
They look like a hybrid between Apistogramma cacatuoides and something else.

They both look like young males but without knowing the actual species I can't be 100%. But males usually have colour in their fins and females don't.

Wills · Sep 20, 2020

I’m not sure which strain of cacatuoides they are but I would say two males sorry

Lajos_Detari · Sep 20, 2020

They do look like Orange flash.
But I wonder why there are so much black bars on their bodies.

Is your tank very dark?
Or are they healthy when they were in the fish store?
Some Apistogrammas fish turned dark when they are sick.

jonnyuk · Sep 20, 2020

they where sold as double reds but i just so happened to be at another lfs picking up a new external filter and i saw the same fish, they had them as sunbursts....looking at pics they do look like them. i just need to read up on how t sex them.
my tank is brightish, i have a fluval nano over the top of a dennerle scapper 55l.
not spent much time looking a the tank today so can't say if they have settled down.
the bigger one coloured up really nicely, one has turned a really bright yellow/orange, black horizontal stripe, single black mid body, with orange fins. the smaller one is has a darker body (almost grey), single black horizontal strip, no black spot, orange fins.

jonnyuk · Sep 21, 2020

better pictures of today. the bigger one is very protective of a cave under the bog wood, won't let the other one near at all,

Essjay · Sep 21, 2020

I think the one that it turning yellow is a female. The pelvic fins have black in them as well. Females of majority of apisto species show this type of colouration.

This is a female A. cacatuoides I had a few years ago

jonnyuk · Sep 21, 2020

funny you should say that, i also think it's female. more from behaviour, it's defending a cave area only, could be wrong but woudl not expect a male to do this

Colin_T · Sep 21, 2020

If they are Apistogramma cacatuoides, the females have a round tail and the male's tail is squared off and develops short filaments on the top and bottom of the tail.

The male will develop long fin rays on the dorsal fin and the female will have short fin rays.

Just look after them and post pics in a month and they should be able to sex them by then.

Lajos_Detari · Sep 21, 2020

jonnyuk said:
they where sold as double reds but i just so happened to be at another lfs picking up a new external filter and i saw the same fish, they had them as sunbursts....looking at pics they do look like them. i just need to read up on how t sex them.
my tank is brightish, i have a fluval nano over the top of a dennerle scapper 55l.
not spent much time looking a the tank today so can't say if they have settled down.
the bigger one coloured up really nicely, one has turned a really bright yellow/orange, black horizontal stripe, single black mid body, with orange fins. the smaller one is has a darker body (almost grey), single black horizontal strip, no black spot, orange fins.

I guess they are double reds as the orange flash will be more orange.
For good a quality orange flash, it will have solid orange.

itiwhetu · Sep 21, 2020

I'm going to put my hand up, and say I think they could be Apistogramma caetei. But don't hang me on that. I am not going to guess sexes on those photos

jonnyuk · Sep 22, 2020

That is a very good shout, they do look very similar...so bloody confusing trying to figure out what I actually have

AtomicFish · Sep 22, 2020

I don’t know anything about apistogrammas but they do look interesting.

itiwhetu · Sep 22, 2020

AtomicFish said:
I don’t know anything about apistogrammas but they do look interesting.

Fantastic little fish

Lajos_Detari · Sep 23, 2020

Your fish are Cacatuoides which is the most commonly sold species(among the Apistogramma) in the fish stores.
You can recognize them by their fins and tail colours.

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now i'm confused on what i have

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