Added female bitaniata and a rock cave to my 20 long.

[derekw]

I got some rocks at my parents riverside property and created a cave in my aquarium. I have a small flat rock at the bottom of the cave for my new apistos to spawn on. Here's a look at the scape and the fish.

 

[kribensis12]

Gorgeous! I'm not super familiar with bitaniata but I believe most apistos are cave spawners - so you'll probably find that they don't use the breeding rock you put in.

Apisto's are usually fairly shy and like to use "apisto caves" (basically caves with small openings) because it's the most easy to defend and helps them feel that their fry are safe.

 

[derekw]

Gorgeous! I'm not super familiar with bitaniata but I believe most apistos are cave spawners - so you'll probably find that they don't use the breeding rock you put in.

Apisto's are usually fairly shy and like to use "apisto caves" (basically caves with small openings) because it's the most easy to defend and helps them feel that their fry are safe.

Thanks for the advice ill use some rock to make the cave opening smaller

 

[Byron]

I acquired five of this species in the early 1980's, when they were known as Apistogramma kleei [more below on the taxonomy for those interested]. They spawned but for the life of me I cannot remember the details. All five were in the tank alone. The dominant male spawned with one or more females, but some time later when the male died, a fish that had "appeared" to be female turned out to also be male, developing the finnage (though not like the dominant's had been in splendour) and spawning with a female. According to Linke & Staeck (1994), this species spawns inside small shelters, on the ceilings of caves or below leaves. So you've prepared for either contingency.

Tom Christoffersen who runs a site on Apistogramma [http://tomc.no/default.aspx] describes the female/male strategy:

Subordinate males ("sneaker males") camouflage themselves as females to avoid the dominant male, this helps the subordinate male to survive in an enclosed space. In nature this occurs when low water season sets in, and the small streams dry up to small ponds. Or for some other reason, their habitat is overcrowded.​

​

Males that grows up together with one (or more) Alfa males, can show less developed fins, reduced size, and almost the same coloration as females. The body form and fins will sometimes indicate a difference, but it can be very well camouflaged​

​

The dominant Alfa male is often fooled by this; it happens that "sneaker males" can camouflage themselves so good that they get access to a Alfa males territory, under the cover of being a female. And in many cases mate with the females, before the Alfa male gets his chance.​

​

When the Alfa male disappears, when he dies or for other reasons is gone, the subordinate male will have no reason to camouflage itself anymore, and he will develop natural male coloration and male fin shape.​

So it is not some sort of gender change, but clearly a survival strategy. Clever fish.

Apistogramma kleei was described and named by Hermann Meinken in 1964 [the paper is here: https/www.datz.de/images/stories/Erstbeschreibungen/Apistogramma kleei - 1964-10.pdf ]. Meinken also described the "species" A. sweglesi in 1961 and A. klausewitzi in 1962. In 1986, the eminent Swedish biologist Sven O. Kullander, a recognized authority on cichlids and especially Apistogramma, determined these "species" were actually Apistogramma bitaeniata which had been described in 1936 by Jacques Pellegrin, a French zoologist who discovered some 350 new species including several from the cichlidae family. So A. kleei and the other names are synonymous with Apistogramma bitaeniata Pellegrin 1936 and thus invalid as distinct species.

 

[kribensis12]

@Byron that's awesome information! I had no clue that apistos, being so similar to one another (in some cases) could develop such unique differences.

 

[derekw]

I acquired five of this species in the early 1980's, when they were known as Apistogramma kleei [more below on the taxonomy for those interested]. They spawned but for the life of me I cannot remember the details. All five were in the tank alone. The dominant male spawned with one or more females, but some time later when the male died, a fish that had "appeared" to be female turned out to also be male, developing the finnage (though not like the dominant's had been in splendour) and spawning with a female. According to Linke & Staeck (1994), this species spawns inside small shelters, on the ceilings of caves or below leaves. So you've prepared for either contingency.

Tom Christoffersen who runs a site on Apistogramma [http://tomc.no/default.aspx] describes the female/male strategy:

Subordinate males ("sneaker males") camouflage themselves as females to avoid the dominant male, this helps the subordinate male to survive in an enclosed space. In nature this occurs when low water season sets in, and the small streams dry up to small ponds. Or for some other reason, their habitat is overcrowded.​

​

Males that grows up together with one (or more) Alfa males, can show less developed fins, reduced size, and almost the same coloration as females. The body form and fins will sometimes indicate a difference, but it can be very well camouflaged​

​

The dominant Alfa male is often fooled by this; it happens that "sneaker males" can camouflage themselves so good that they get access to a Alfa males territory, under the cover of being a female. And in many cases mate with the females, before the Alfa male gets his chance.​

​

When the Alfa male disappears, when he dies or for other reasons is gone, the subordinate male will have no reason to camouflage itself anymore, and he will develop natural male coloration and male fin shape.​

So it is not some sort of gender change, but clearly a survival strategy. Clever fish.

Apistogramma kleei was described and named by Hermann Meinken in 1964 [the paper is here: https/www.datz.de/images/stories/Erstbeschreibungen/Apistogramma kleei - 1964-10.pdf ]. Meinken also described the "species" A. sweglesi in 1961 and A. klausewitzi in 1962. In 1986, the eminent Swedish biologist Sven O. Kullander, a recognized authority on cichlids and especially Apistogramma, determined these "species" were actually Apistogramma bitaeniata which had been described in 1936 by Jacques Pellegrin, a French zoologist who discovered some 350 new species including several from the cichlidae family. So A. kleei and the other names are synonymous with Apistogramma bitaeniata Pellegrin 1936 and thus invalid as distinct species.

Thanks for the info, hopefully my female is not a sneaker male.