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Apistogramma
borellii: The "Little Opals"
Jane
E. Swanson
GPASI
Journal , Fall
1987
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On
a family trip to eastern Pennsylvania, we scheduled a lengthy side
trip to George Fear's fish establishment in northern New Jersey. George
is a hobbyist turned commercial, who has a terrific selection of cichlids
from all over the world, and we dropped in to sell--and to buy.
While poking around and peering in the dim recesses of a small tank
in the back row, I spotted two tiny fish very different from the hordes
of rough, tough Tanganyikan, Malawian, and Amazonian cichlids surrounding
them, and recognized them as some kind of young Apistogrammas.
They appeared to be a potential pair, being different in size, but
that could have alike turned out to be a bad joke on me if they'd
merely been much different in age. There was little to excite one
in their present youthful appearance, both being typically apisto:
rather muddy yellowish. George knew them only by the German hobby's
common name, "Opalitas," under which he'd imported them
(the German hobbyists are the world's most active Apistogramma
aficionados). He said they were so called because of the beautiful
opalescence of their coloring as adults.
How could I possibly have resisted? Of course, anytime you find a
reputable importer who can tell you that some particular apistos are
all the same species--even if he can't begin to tell you what that
species might be--YOU BUY THEM! The good part is that the price is
usually quite reasonable, since the market is small. The average fishkeeper
does not see the potential beauty in these dull little guys.
If they are in apparently good shape, regardless how small, and most
especially if they come from tank-raised stock, you have every reason
to believe that they will grow up to their huge 1i" to 2.8"
potential in your tank. Then, if one or more turn out to be male,
you can join the Apistogramma Study Group of the American
Cichlid Association and identify your fish! If you have all females,
however, you will probably never know who they are, because all apisto
females look pretty much alike.
We got lucky, and our little guys very quickly showed themselves to
be one male, one female. That means that the one did not grow or change
at all, and the other grew to about 2" and developed a lovely
light blue coloring on his sides with yellow and signs of other pastels.
The color is hard to describe, and attempts to do so usually result
in glowing terms that prepare the uninitiated for a truly spectacular
beast, while the actual creature is quietly beautiful in very subtle
tones.
The female stays short, at just a little more than an inch, and just
becomes a bit sturdier looking with age. She remains rather dull brownish
yellow unless spawning or tending fry; then she is vivid yellow. Her
only decoration is the traditional apisto black bar from her eye downward.
The male, in addition to achieving an impressive 2", SL (that
means "standard length" of body, without caudal) at full
size, and coloring up, gains very long ventral fins with extensions,
a full, round caudal, and a high, full and very proud looking dorsal
which almost doubles his "height." His finnage, in addition
to adding considerably to his apparent size, serves to make a dominant
male a very showy fish. Ours was classy looking enough by July that
we took him to Milwaukee and entered him in the ACA annual convention
species show.
He won second in his class, and better, was positively identified
by the national experts on the subject as A. borellii. The
identification was the primary reason for taking him on the long trip.
He came home proudly with his plaque and his new name, and settled
down with his by now much impressed female and raised a few families.
More about that.
Since BAP cichlid points are something I need like a prehensile tail,
I was concerned only with making these fish deliriously happy, not
necessarily in raising fry. Although I know that all apistos require
water of lower pH (NEUTRAL, AT THE MAXIMUM!), and that many, if not
all, supposedly require 4.5 in order to have live and healthy spawns,
I did nothing special to lower the pH of our tap water. We are very
lucky, as fishkeepers, to have tap water that tests at precisely neutral
at all times of the year. In a tank with live plants and sponge filters
and few water changes, there is a natural gradual drop in pH toward
a more comfortable level for these fish.
They lived in harmony in their 10-gallon, bare bottom tank. Fine sand
is normally recommended, as they place their fry in hollows in the
sand; being very tiny, the fry might get lost in larger gravel. Filtration
was by two large Jungle sponge filters. Very heavy vegetative cover
was provided--dense surface plants (salvinia, duckweed, and
water sprite and nonrooted types such as Java fern and Java moss.
Several "caves" were provided, consisting of tiny flower
pots with notches cut (knocked) out of the rim and upended, small
clay saucers treated the same way, and additional cover in that the
sponges were both tipped up on small rocks to permit fish to hide
beneath.
In all this cover, it was often difficult to tell whether the fish
were still on the premises. Needless to say, I never saw a spawning;
however, occasionally I caught sight of smaller fish along with glimpses
of the originals. After about six months the algae had made it impossible
to see ANYTHING, and when I tore down the tank for cleaning I counted
18 adult and half-grown fish. Unless they had brought their relatives
over from the Old Country, we must have had several spawnings, with
some survivors. All were old enough to sex, and I divided them up
among all possible tanks in order to restore peace and quiet.
A 10-gallon tank is large enough only for one pair, or in the alternative,
one female and her brood, or for many young to grow up in the absence
of adults. Most other combinations will result in constant tiny battles
that bode ill for weaker fry or those in the wrong place at the wrong
time. The male or any other hapless female on the scene in a tank
this size are likely to be in for a tough time from a healthy female
"defending" her brood from enemies real or imagined. The
"spares" make good additions to the bottoms of your community
tanks, and if sex-segregated by tank, or placed into larger community
tanks, you can keep quite a few together.
When I broke up the "extended family," I gave the most promising
young male and female to Tim Adkins, for whom they spawned almost
immediately while I didn't turn their afterspawned siblings until
another six months or so had passed.
I did get to witness one spawn very clearly-literally, as she placed
the eggs on a glass side of the tank. The eggs were 30-40 in number,
very tiny as appropriate to the size of their mother, and a brilliant
dark red in color! The mother, unfortunately, was a younger, smaller
female, and probably was severely harassed by the other female. The
fry disappeared shortly after hatching and before becoming free swimming.
This was my semi-final evidence that a 10-gallon tank cannot support
two females if fry are involved.
The ultimate evidence of that was what happened when I ended up with
simultaneous spawns in opposite ends of the tank. I took the male
out and left the two females, fairly certain that neither had any
reason to know the other was even present in the tank, densely filled
and darkened by the presence of dense vegetation). Things went quietly
while each tended their wrigglers in their respective cave areas out
of sight of each other. Neither ventured out to look for trouble,
a role normally played by the territorial male, who does no direct
brood tending. The problems began as the fry became "free buzzing."
This is my own term for an early stage not quite free swimming, implying
as that does some sort of obvious control by the little creatures,
while at this stage the entire brood just "buzzes" around
in a mass, seemingly under some sort of central control. Gradually,
the females and fry rose slightly from the bottom as the fry began
to feed on baby brine shrimp. The females now spotted each other and
became somewhat agitated. When the fry broke rank slightly a few days
later, the mothers became even jumpier. They began aggressive little
forays into each other's territory, and finally they started kidnapping
each other's fry until it was tiny pandemonium. I finally took out
the smaller female, and the larger (my original lady) took over care
of the entire group. I removed this group of 40-50 young when they
were a solid half inch or so, putting them "under" a mob
of young pearl danios who never even knew they were there. The male
rejoined his mate, and we had another good spawn. We have a nice group
of perhaps 25 adolescents coming along. The original pair have now
been with us for over two years, and we have plenty to share with
the rest of the hobby.
A 15- or 20-gallon tank should be the smallest used to support a male
and two females and their respective spawns, and then only with heavy
vegetation, either rooted or not, and caves and other cover. Even
then, it is often recommended that a few small tetras be thrown in
as dithers to hold conspecific thuggery to a minimum. That is a term
almost laughable with such tiny fish, with their teeny mouths, but
a brooding female barely more than an inch long can batter the male
to the brink of death in a too small tank. Absolutely NO other bottom
fish should be included.
Sand or fine gravel is customarily used, although ours were always
over bare black slate, I believe the fish are more comfortable over
a dark substrate, so personally would not use very light sand or gravel.
I have never raised live fry in a bare-bottomed glass tank, although
I have seen many spawns in same. Whether it sets up the fry for predation
or the mother simply refuses to care for them in such nerve-wracking
surroundings, I do not know. The filtration should be by sponge filters,
and you can leave crawl space under them as a refuge for fry. Undergravel
filtration is out, because any gravel that permits water flow could
trap the wrigglers.
I have not addressed temperature heretofore because the question does
not arise in our fishroom. If you're not comfortable in an air temperature
of about 81 degrees--and I am not-and a water temperature of 79, then
you're just going to be uncomfortable. Our discus do get a "booster"
heater, but the goldfish just have-to sit around and fan themselves
(what else is a fantail for?). Guests don't stay long, and start stripping
and gasping after a few minutes. Fortunately, that temperature is
delightful as far as the apistos are concerned. They like it on the
warm side, many types coming from very shallow ponds and small streams
that all but dry up and bake in the Central American summer sun. It
is very risky to keep heaters in smaller tanks, and regulating the
room temperature may be preferable.
Heavy top vegetative cover will be doubly useful. First, those thousands
of tiny rootlets on duckweed and Salvinia eat up great amounts
or nitrates, the nontoxic but still undesirable end product of the
nitrogen cycle. Unless you are going to make a project out of peat
filtering your water, you will want to make only very small water
changes--perhaps only 10 percent every couple of weeks--to avoid any
but the slightest rise in pH; in that situation, these tiny natural
filters will keep everyone happy. The other use of top-cover plants
is to shade the tank, although it may mean that you need a flashlight
to view your "little opals." |
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