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Dwarf Cichlid ID

lil-lynx

lil-lynx

Member
Joined
23 Jan 2010
Messages
499
Location
Staines
Hello yesterday I bought two new dwarf Cichlid as I saw them on a journal and they looked fantastic the colours are amazing, anyway moving on im not sure on some things these things are:

Have I got a male and female ?

What type of dwarf Cichlid are they ?

And they were in the same tank and when I got them home i have quite a heavily planted tank with lots of dense plants and a little cave (which was made for my corrys) and they both go in there together and wont let anything else near ( they chase them away) and it likes like they kissed or rubbed ? is this a sign of breeding ?

photos will be added ASAP
 
will i need to have pure ro water in my tank of half ro and half tap water ? will this make them more happy as my water is a bit hard and these like soft but i heard co2 softens the water and so does bog wood correct ?
 
Hi Lil-lynx
You fish looks like a domestic form of either apistogramma cacatoides or apistogramma agassizii. i would need a better picture of the tail or wait until it is less stressed and some of the black body markings come out.
Neither of these need very soft water, less than 10ºGH will be fine (you can get this info from your waterboard if you don't have the test kit). If it is much harder you could add a bit of RO with water changes.

Neither CO2 or bogwood reduce hardness, they both cause the water to become more acidic which fools a test kit.
Here is a fairly decent page of pictures of cacatoides, there are various colour strains, males and females are labelled and are quite clearly different.
http://www.piranha-info.com/default.php ... acatuoides

Hope this helps, if you need any more info let me know.

Rob
 
Here is a fairly decent page of pictures of cacatoides, there are various colour strains, males and females are labelled and are quite clearly different.
http://www.piranha-info.com/default.php ... acatuoides
Click to expand...

3rd from the bottom is mine im sure, i will try and get a better picture when he/she calms
down if it is the 3rd from the bottom would it be a male or female and also how do i tell the different ?
 
Hi all,
The image shack picture is a male Apistogramma, I think it is the red tailed domestic form of Apistogramma agassizi, although you can't tell from the photo.

The fins are quite different, A. agassizi has a spade shaped tail fin, and a straight topped dorsal fin, it is also quite a slim fish . <http://www.dwarfcichlid.com/Apistogramma_agassizii.php>
Apistogramma_agassizii_4.jpg


While A. cacatuoides has a spiky dorsal and 2 points on the tail fin. Here is a "Double Red" A. cacatuoides.
composite.jpg
they are much deeper bodied than A. agassizi

Have a look at ApistoBob's web site for husbandry details, his site is full of good advice. I'd recommend it to all fish keepers. <http://www.dwarfcichlid.com/Aquarium_care.php>

cheers Darrel
 
will try get a photo from my dslr only had the n95 8gb to hand
 
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