Apistogramma cacatuoides "Triple Red"

[andyt_uk]

saw what i think was the above named fish today
£5.49 for a pair
any advice on these, they were only about an inch long
will they be OK with a couple of equally sized angels?
how many should i get?
how big will they get?
do they have any special needs?

hoping you can help - plan on revisiting that store tomorrow, so hoping can get some advice, and if that advice is favourable, hoping they still have some ;-)

thanks

 

[Cian McLiam]

WOW thats a great price, if they are really triple reds! You can tell because the triple means it has red on the dorsal, tail and anal fins, double reds have red on dorsal and tail only.
They get to about 4 1/2" when fully mature and are a superb little fish with lots of character and can be fairly simple to breed. You should get one male for three femalse at least, they are a harem breeder but a pair will sometimes breed themselves also. They are one of my favourite fish and arent too picky with water quality. I keep mine at 26C, PH 6.8 and soft water, they succesfully spawned about 6 months ago and I kept two fry, a male and a female. They are very inbred so may not live to the full lifespan but for that price I would definitely go with them. My angels arent particularly fond of them,but they have never actually made contact with them.
Heres apic of my male: ( you cant really see the full red colour on the fins with this lighting!)

Ken

 

[juanveldez]

I would go with the triple reds if you can get your hands on them they really pretty and really peoaceful. I really don't think that I can say that for the angels, my wife had a angel when she was a kid in the very same 55 that I am useing today, and that fish was downright mean. he killed any fish that was put into the tank with him.

 

[andyt_uk]

thanks ken
not so sure it was a triple now, the red was a deep red on the tail fin, was a lot smaller than yours so difficult to tell
think i will go back tomorrow anyway

 

[emjay653]

I would agree it's a good price, as I've just bought a pair for £8, although mine were just sold as Cacatoides. Talking of which, how many different varieties are there? The ones I have, have deep orange on their tail, dorsal & anal fins

Ken,

Is 4 1/2 the full size of these fish? The tank they are in has Red Robin Gouramis, and a pair of Hoignei. Would it be better to move them to another tank in which I keep Firemouths & Acaras? Do you know what size Hoignei grow to? They're very similar to the pics you have of your Hongsloi (Sp).

As an aside, I'm not sure about being peaceful, as mine are currently at odds with my Hoignei pair, with the female being the more aggressive. However, they don't bother any of the other fish, except when one of the gouramis annoy it

Mj

 

[Cian McLiam]

my largest male was nearly 4" not sure they will get bigger in captivity, they dont live very long because of the inbreeding. They fight among species but dont really do damage unless you got veijitas, they can be nasty. I think they would be bullied to death with the acaras so its best to leave them with hoignei.
Ive seen double red, red, sunburst, natural and white(gold) forms of cacs yours sound like sunburst or orange flash.
Not sure about hoignei but apistos dont get bigger than 4-5" or they wouldnt be dwarfs anymore!

Ken

 

[emjay653]

Hi Ken,

Thanks for the info, I'll keep it where it is, although I need to put more plants and caves in there to keep them all happy.

As an aside, do you have a picture of a female Hongsloi? I've looked at pics on-line of a male Hoignei, and the more I look at the male Hoignei I have, the more it looks like the pic you have posted of your male Hongsloi!!! I'm beginning to wonder if I've been sold two seperate types of Apistos. masked as a pair.

Ewps, sorry Andy for hijacking your post.

TIA
Mj

 

[Cian McLiam]

female hongsloi is the small fish in the botom middle...

 

[emjay653]

Does the female change colour at all? The one I have is more white than yellow. I've found a pic of a pair of Hoigneis, but the female in the pic is also yellow (See link)

Mj

Ps How do you add images?

 

[Cian McLiam]

yeah, the female was white for a week or two, but turned yellow once the male started taking an interest in her. Pre-spawning behaviour can be seen once she has become yellow, she will lean sideways to show the male her eggs building up inside her and both will shake their tails at each others face to indicate interest. When she has cleaned a spawning site she will lure the male there by shaking her tail and swimming around him until he follows her to the cave. This is pretty standard behaviour across all apistos that Ive kept and should begin once water conditions become favourable and they are fed lots of natural foods like bloodworm and brine shrimp.

Ken

PS to add images click IMG above the box where you type a reply and type in or 'copy and paste' a link to the pic URL. Its easier in the Aquarium pictures forum, where you can upload a pic from your pc using the 'attatch image' and 'browse' buttons.

 

[emjay653]

Cheers Ken,

I'll keep an eye on them for this bahaviour, not to mention keeping my fingers crossed.

Mj

 

[andyt_uk]

well i got em
1m2f still not sure but might be a triple red male
will post a pic later if i get one

 

[andyt_uk]

couldnt get a good picture last night, but looking at Kens pic what i think is the male has red on all three fins, the tail is very similar the kens pic, and the same pattern/colouration flows through the anal & dorsal fins
one of the females looks similar but much less colour, the other female doesnt have much colour at all.