Appistogramma Opal Borelli

[VidVid]

Hi.
I just saw a pair of these fish at my lfs. It was labelled as appisto 'opal' borelli german bred. Has anyone have any experience with them? I assume that the blue one was a male and the yellow one was the female? Can you give me pointers on how to breed them? I come from Aus and they were priced at $69.95 a pair. Would this be a good price for them?

P.S is it possible to breed them in trios?

Thanks in advanced.

 

[kribensis12]

HEY! Where have you been? I haven't seen you on, since the Kribensis? By the way, how are they?

Okay, Apistogramma " Opal " Borelli . I only know of Blue faced Borelli's apistogramma and the original Borelli's apistogramma.
I had some Blue faced ones in '06 i belive ( can't remeber). I think i paid around 12 dollars US. So, what, 30 dollars in AUS? I would assume your paying way to much.
But i can tell you:
They live a soft , acidic ph, such as 5.5-7.0. They will love live food, such as Bloodworms ( frozen works great too). Frequent water changes are the key to sucssesful breeding. Thats about all i can tell you w/o burying my face in google!

 

[jb12288]

I do believe reading somewhere that borelli's do breed in trios as they establish a polygamist relationship. Apistogramma borelli is relatively easy to breed. keep one male with 4-5 females in an aquarium. Temp between 78-81 fahrenheit. and pH around 6.5. They lay up to 200 eggs in a cave and the eggs hatch in 2-4 days, after 7-9 days the fry begin to swim and are guarded by the mother. The male only guard a territory. The fry grow fast and sexually mature at around 7 months of age.

 

[kribensis12]

I figuerd i would bump this to see is she can get any more helpful information.

 

[VidVid]

hey thanks again...
kribensis12 i gave the kribs away i wanted to try something different. i didnt really want to give them away it was just they kept breeding in the community setup i placed them in and the fry didn't survive cause they always got eaten by other tank mates. so i gave them away to a person interested in breeding them.

Ye i was asking about the price and they said it was the 'opal' variety and it was also german bred. So i guess because it was German bred, the price was reasonable. I might get a trio of the appistos today and a pair of blue rams and see my luck breeding them. Thanks again for your replies. Il let you know how the breeding goes in the future.

P.S. the 'opal' borelli female is yellow and the male is blue right??? Just gotta make sure cause i will spending a little less than 100 for a trio if i do purchase them.

Cheers.

 

[kribensis12]

Im not sure about sexing them. The male will have a elongated dorsal fin, The female's may be yellow. Havent kept borelli's in a while, so i can't remeber.

 

[Essjay]

I bought a pair of the opals yesterday at £10 for the pair. I didn't ask if they were German as the shop didn't even know they were borelli, they said they're just Apistogramma opal! I did have a pair of 'ordinary' borelli, but the male died, so I wanted another pair to give me 1M 2F.

The male borelli has a large dorsal fin, one common name is the umbrella dwarf cichlid, and it's this fin which gave it that name. The body of the male is blue and the opal variety male should also have red markings on his face. My females are a sort of beigy yellow, but the original one became really bright yellow when the first pair spawned. They are also smaller than the male. The females tend to develop darker markings all over their bodies when stressed, such as when they are netted out of the LFS tank then put in their new home, but should lose the markings when they've settled in. My new female was back to her normal colour within a couple of hours.

HTH

 

[VidVid]

oh ok...
i just bought a trio yesterday. how large do they grow cause mine are as large as a cardinal tetra. Just like bristlenose trios, do the females each occupy their own cave/flower pot and the male continually goes from one to another and fertilizes the egg? or do both females lay in the same cave and the male fertilizes the eggs in one place? My females are full yellow with a short black line down its face. The male as you said has red/blue markings on its face. Il try to get pics up once they start colouring up. At what size do they start breeding?

 

[jb12288]

Males 8 cm, females up to 5 cm

 

[Essjay]

I can only say what I have experienced with mine. The original 'ordinary' borellis spawned when the male was about 4 - 5 cm long and the female is still only about 3 cm (that's total length including the tail). I was very surprised as I bought them over the internet, and thought they were dead when I opened the box. They spawned two and a half weeks later! I only managed to save one fry, which is still going strong, but the male died before they could spawn again. This time I found a shop that stocked them, even though they said they didn't have any borelli, just Apistogramma opal.

I've only ever seen them for sale here as pairs, so that's what I've bought. This is the first time I've had two females. But all my reading says that the females have their own territories, and the male's territory includes several female ones. The females have their own caves and can fight over who has which one. When mine spawned, it was the female that guarded the eggs, chasing away every fish that came near her cave, including the male. That's how I discovered they'd spawned. She had also turned bright yellow with black markings on her face and fins. They cave they used was an upside down terracotta flowerpot with a hole cut in its rim. The pair I've just bought are about the same size as the first pair, and the male is currently displaying to the female in the quarantine tank. I don't expect them to spawn for a while though, but then again, I was surprised by the first pair.

 

[VidVid]

Thanks.
what are the dimensions of your terracotta pots? I have noticed the trio displaying to each other. I just have to buy a smaller pot to act as a cave for them. I will post pics up once they start to spawn.
Cheers!

 

[Essjay]

I got the smallest pots I could find at the garden centre. They are 9cm across the open top and 8cm tall. I would have got the size smaller if the shop had had any. I cut a notch about 2.5cm high and 2cm across into the rim using a tile saw we got when we tiled the kitchen. If you are like me, it may be worth getting a couple more pots than you need as I broke one the first time I tried cutting into it. I've covered mine with java moss to make them look nicer. I've also seen ornaments in shops that look like caves with small entrance holes or you could try making some from slate if you want a variety of styles. You'll need a minimum of one cave per female - some sites recommend more to give each fish some choice.

 

[VidVid]

i have noticed the slightly smaller female attacking and nipping the male and than both start displaying to each other. He has been displaying to the smaller female much more often than the other female in the tank. I am thinking of taking the other female out and see what happens. I am also worried that if one female produces fry, the other female would just eat it. So i am really considering taking of moving one female out into the larger community tank and juts keeping the pair in the 2footer. What do you guys think? do you think they may only be a pair in their and not breed as a trio?

The smaller female shows much more yellow whereas the larger female still has that zigzag line slightly visible across its body. Both females have the same yellow colour but its just the larger one that shows a more visible black pattern on its body and eyes. What does this indicate?

Thanks again

 

[Essjay]

If one of them is showing bright yellow with sharp black markings, that would suggest she's in breeding colours. Before I got the borelli, I was going to get some A cacatuoides, but I couldn't find any I liked. However, I asked on here about getting a pair or a trio. This advice was about cacatuoides, but may well apply to borelli -

Don’t bother buying them as a trio. They never breed in groups when kept in captivity, you simply get an odd fish that waits to breed. Just get a pr and they are much nicer to have.

As the shop wouldn't let me buy just a male, I had to get a pair. They are in the quarantine tank at the moment (after an experience with a particularly nasty form of white spot, they never go straight into their proper tank!). I'll have to see what happens when all three are together.

 

[VidVid]

oh ok...
are the females meant to be the more aggressive one when displaying? My smallest female borelli somewhat swims fast towards the male and gently nips it quickly in succession before both start displaying. she also has little quarrels with the slightly larger female as well. Shes the quickest right now.