Hi all,
Females are naturally alot smaller, and yes i'm pretty sure you can mix i.e a tripple red male and a golden female etc.
This is right, all the colour forms of
A. cacatuoides are just that, colour forms.
Apistogramma cacatuoides is a polychromatic species and breeders have selected for the red, orange and leucistic forms. I really like the blue/yellow forms, but they aren't often for sale.
This is one that Steve Chesters (from the BCA) had, wild and imported from Peru.
The female will always be a fair bit smaller than the male, this is actually a pretty good clue to whether cichlids are pair forming or naturally polygamous (male/females harem). If they are pairt forming like
Hemichromis,Rams, Oscars, Angel Fish etc the male and female tend to look similar and be of a similar size, if they are haremic the male tends to be a lot bigger and showier than the females.
If the female isn't ready to breed it would be worth putting a piece of pipe high up in one corner of the tank, to give her somewhere safe to retreat to. If an
Apistogramma spends a lot of time near the top of the tank, it is because it doesn't feel safe at lower levels. If she is really small a 35mm filnm canister works quite well.
I also use 1/2 coconuts for this, you can cut a very small notch in the rim, and the female will be able to enter, but not the male. They cover really quickly with moss if you super-glue some on, so they can be intergrated into the aquascaping unless it is a very bare tank (if it is very bare your cichlids aren't going to feel safe what-ever you do).
cheers Darrel