my first Apisto -Borelli

[boost.puppy]

I have had this guy for around 3 months now, bought him as a baby & now he's starting to colour-up quite nicely.. he's no where near the quality of some of yours but I love him.. I have named him Andrea.. Andrea Borelli :P

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t176/kurramiah/1.jpg

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t176/kurramiah/20080316_IMG_0045.jpg

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t176/kurramiah/20080316_IMG_0044.jpg

Can any one Sex him? I bought him as a male, but I expected his dorsals to grow a little longer, so Now I'm not sure.

[Th0mas]

Hi boost,

Whoever sold this to you is correct about the gender, it's a male - but not a borelli. This is known as "Steel Blue", not 100% certain about it's heritage as there has been talks about it being a hybrid.

And most important of all - finding a female for it is almost impossible (another reason for the hybrid speculation).

Anyhow, it's still a nice good fish.

[Robdog]

I'll second that. Steelblue but a nice fat one.

[boost.puppy]

oww.. now I need to think of a new name...

is it an Apisto though???

I don't really understand, in what context does Hybrid mean?

is it a test species?
I just want to know If me being all happy I haven't killed an Apisto (therefore doing the right thing) is in vain!

[ILLUSN]

I love the steel blue apistos, arn't they a cross from opal borelli's?

they grow into nice fish, that one's got some good meat on it too.

[Th0mas]

Strictly speaking, they are still apisto. The reason these are treated to be hybrid is because they were first known to mankind from Singapore (not the South American's Amazon).

It is still not totally clear about the origin of this particular fish (I would not call it a species until the whole story is cleared).

[boost.puppy]

I knew he was from singapore (but thats half the reason why i bought him.. didn't want to kill a $250.00 fish I'd rather kill a $6.00 fish...

Illusn, I got this round the corner from your place, Pm me If your interested, got him really cheap & he's got lots of nice brothers still there.

he is nice and fat isn't he? He lives off spirulina flakes, Mal's dried blackworms & frozen Blood worms, few pellets here & there, but mainly a protein diet.

he also has a gorgeous colour to him, which i can't get with my $200.00 camera :P the only way to describe him, is he's the same colour as my chromis... a marine fish which has a chrome look about it.

his fins are starting to grow, but his dorsals aree so short, is that something I'm feeding wrong???

[Th0mas]

Hi boost,

This is rather normal for most apistos in LFS when they're not kept in the optimal condition - they become a rather dull fish and thus making them difficult to attract buyers (unless they know what to expect when having them properly conditioned). However it would be really difficult to find a $250 apisto in any of the Sydney's LFS (except possibly for the one at Campsie which has had a reputation on how they priced their stock).

Like you said, the "Steel Blue" is a beautiful fish, hence they're still in the trade after all these years despite of the pressure for being a possible hybrid. These days the wholesalers tend to label them as borelli to distract unaware buyers, which IMO it's a bit dirty.

I wouldn't be worrying too much about the dorsal as this can varies between fish. He may just be one that has a slight shorter dorsal in his blood. It's still a beautiful fish.

[boost.puppy]

I must say, I'm pretty dissapointed with the place of purchase, I expected them to have higher quality for their reputation.. but like you have said previously, theres not many quality Apisto breeders out there.

he's a good beginners fish, I might be able to find a female for him (of another strain ) as a practice breeder even.