Within recent years the information & availability of Apistogramma species has increased dramatically. Books on dwarf cichlids, like the Mergus Cichlid Atlas by Uwe Romer, have made information on the natural habitat, breeding & scientific studies of these fish availabile to the average hobbyist. With this increase in availability, it's no wonder why Apistogramma caught my attention. Of the species I have kept, one of my favorites is Apistogramma sp. "Rotpunkt".

It would seem a few years ago some collecting took place for this species, as it made its way into the local fish shop. This was one of the first species I kept. It was a very plan looking species when it first arrived but I took some home just to see what they would turn into. As the group of four grew, a blue pattern formed on the face of the males going into a yellow coloration on the back end of the fish & extending into the fins. Females turn the intense canary yellow with a broken black line that runs along the mid section. All fins except the pectoral fins are edged in black in both sexes.

The four A. sp. "Rotpunt" were placed intoa thirty-eight gallon tank with some black phantom tetras, various Corydoras catfish & some Apistogramma steindachneri I acquired that same week. There they stayed with just general water maintenance of weekly water changes of twenty percent & a diet of frozen mosquito larvae, brine shrimp & small sinking pellets. Water values were slightly acidic with a pH of 6.8 & a temperature of around 76 F.

After about six months, I did lose one individual. It seemed that the one dominant male had chased the other male relentlessly to his death. This happened even with a very well planted aquarium with plenty of hiding places. The other remaining individuals looked to be females but its very hard to tell females in juvenile Apistogramma until they give you a hint of yellow.

Months past & I kept doing water changes regular on the tank. Within those months, I noticed a female hanging out in the back left corner of the tank. She seemed to be cleaning the edge of one of the rocks in the tank one day. From there, she moved the black sand substrate away to make a small depression in the sand. A few days later, while checking on the tank, I found around twenty pinkish red eggs. The female was fanning them & guarding a small territory around the rock the eggs had been laid on. The male did guard the outside territory but it took the females encouragement to get him to defend the site. As I have kept more species of Apistos, I've found that the female does most of the guarding until the eggs hatch. Once the fry reach the freeswimming stage, then the male will care for the fry more.

Two days later & in approximately forty-eight hours, the eggs hatched out. The female guarded the fry very well & cleaned them regularly. Several other pits were made & the female transferred them back & forth for the first three to four days. After which, the fry became freeswimming & started searching for small foods. Days past & the number of fry diminished. Community tanks do not usually lend themselves for being the best way to raise baby fish & within a few days, all the fry disappeared.

Weeks past & soon after the female was plump again, another chance seemed on the way. A few days later, more eggs were found. Again they hatched & became freeswimming days later. Soon again, the fry disappeared. It seemed getting the eggs to hatch was easy but trying to raise the fry impossible. This continued to happen time in & time out. So the decision was made to siphon out the next batch of babies to a ten gallon that was fitted with water from the thirty-eight gallon tank, along with a sponge filter & a heater set at 76 F.

Thankfully, the pair of Apistogramma sp. "Rotpunkt" surprised me with the most eggs I had seen yet from them. I easily counted over a hundred eggs. I knew I couldn't put all of the fry into the fry tank I had set up. After two days, the brood hatched out & I siphoned off half the brood to the newly setup fry tank. Days later, I introduced some microworms as a first food. Whether or not they ate any of them I really do not know but I had to try to feed them something. Microworms work well for bottom feeding fish like cichlids as they sink to the bottom of the tank where the cichlids are usually looking for food. A few weeks later I started the fry on frozen baby brine shrimp. Water changes of twenty percent were given twice a week. They seemed content with this routine & grew relatively quickly.

I was glad that I was able to remove the fry from the main tank containing the parents as a few weeks later I added some fish to the tank without quarantine. My work place, got some Corydoras habrosus in that I really wanted. They were just too cute to resist & into the thirty-eight gallon they went. Looking back, that was the biggest mistake I could have ever made. After two weeks, I noticed a change in all of the fish. Loss of appetites & some marks on the sides of some of the fish threw up a warning sign. It would seem that the new Corydoras brought in a disease along with them. All of the black phantom tetras, all of the Apistogramma steindachneri & my beloved A. sp. "Rotpunkt" had succumbed to the bacterial infection. I was heart broken over the whole thing but knew that I had the next generation in the fry tank.

I continued to do water changes on the ten & the fry continued to grow. At about two months of age they were around 1/4". I added grindal worms into their diet & they had quite an appetite for them. Never could I have known what would happen next. At about ten months, they had managed to grow to about 3/4". One day I noticed something in the tank, eggs. The pinkish/red color caught my eye. My A. sp. "Rotpunkt" F-1's had spawned & at such a small size.

It just goes to show you that even when you think you know what to expect that fish will surprise you. At this point, I gave away all of my A. sp. "Rotpunkt" but will probably try to reacquire them in the near future. While there are plenty of species of Apistogramma to work with, some just stay with you even after they are gone.

References:

1. Bork, Dieter & Hans J. Mayland. "South American Dwarf Cichlids." Lands-Verlag. Hannover, 1997.

2. Romer, Uwe. "Mergus Cichlid Atlas I". Mergas-Verlag. Melle, Germany, 2000.