Apisto viejita

[vphilou]

Hi,
I bought 2 apisto from SLS on saturday (meant to be a juvenile pair of veijita although I suspect the small one "female" is a cacatoide, not sure yet). Well the small one is going fine and is pretty active but the other one is behaving pretty miserably (hide all the time in plants/driftwood, do not even come out to eat anymore, only did on the first day I put it in the tank, I feed frozen brine shrimp and dry food ).
All parameters in my 350L seem fine (pH=6.6-7 variation morning-evening, gH=3, kH=4, Nh4=0, nitrate and nitrite =0 T=27deg, I also have an air pump running all the time at a very slow rate)

Do you think there is anything abnormal with the setup or is it normal for fish to react in this way in the first few days?

The 2 Apisto are alone with 4 little wild guppys.

Thanks for your help

Philippe

[parkap]

Philippe,

Your water parameters are ok. The top end pH is possibly a tiny bit high, but within acceptable tolerances for veijitas.

Did you aclimatise them to your tank before putting them in?

Did you ask SLS what they were feeding their fish in the shop? Perhaps the fish just isn't used to the food your giving it. If a fish is stressed by it's new surroundings, trying to get them to eat new types of food can be impossible until they've settled down.

Hate to say it though, it sounds exactly what was happening to so many of my male agassizii's for ages. i'd put them in the tank and they just wouldn't eat and eventually died after a few days.

The other very concerning thing here is that SLS would sell you veijita's when one's possibly a caca. These are two very different species and while a beginner could mix them up and not notice the differences, there's no excuse at all for SLS to make such an error. Can you post any photos of them for us to check out?

p.

[Th0mas]

Hey Phillipe,

The other item you can tweek is the temperature - 27 is also a bit on the high end for apisto., is there a reason for this?

I would drop it down to 25, or even 23 if the rest of the tank are okay with this.

As for the hiding/inactive problem, as long as you're aware it is not loosing weight, it would be fine. Some fish are just naturally shy and will hide whenever anything move outside of their tank (my macmasteri are like that, and they're fat as pigs).

If you can take a couple of photos, it would really help.

Thomas.

[wickedglass]

I keep my viejitas at pH 5 and 29 C and they love it. They've bred in there and there's fry now and the male is back in the holding tank ... the water is filtered through peat .... my holding tank is a bit different though, the water is 7 pH and 27 C, and they love it in there, too (I have 3 males in there). hardness is extremely low on all my tanks.

the Viejitas have more of a spotted, intermittent black line than the cacs!

[vphilou]

Ok,
Thanks all for your suggestions, first Thomas I will take on board your suggestion and drop the temp to 25 as I also think that 27 could have been a bit high!

I have added a few pic, In fact I don't know what is the female (not even sure it is a female) but it has a very strong continuous line accross the body which I thought was not common on veijita.

I also forgot to mention that the male is very territorial toward the female and will not let it get closer than 10cm. It stays under the root and does not move not even do get food.

On the topic of food SLS told me they feed blood worms but I don't have any right now, I feed frozen brine shrimp. What do you guys think about this food, I did notice that a lot of fish shew it and then spit it!

Thanks all again

[fishgeek]

the photos are not good enough to say much

it appears that the fish is certainly not a cactoides
there are no visible belly stripes and the

also the spot in the caudal peduncle appears to be more typical of a viejita

andrew

need more light in the tank, shine a desk lamp and let the fish settle then try again

[arjay]

My Apistos aren't terribly keen on frozen brine shrimp either, they will occasionally eat it but most of the time they taste it and then spit it out. The only thing they will all eat without any hassles is bloodworm. I did finally get my cacatuoides to eat chopped Fish Fuel "cichlid dinner" which was great but it took a while.

Forgot to mention - I agree with Andrew, I'm pretty certain that's not a cacatuoides.

[Th0mas]

According to the photo, it can be an apistogrammoides pucallpaensis (the sideway "T" pattern on the tail end). Not certain of the gender unless a close up view is avaliable. I don't think it's a veijita as the lateral line is very solid and the body lacks any yellow/red tint.

If this is the case - you've got yourself a bargain - the pucallpaensis is definitely more expensive than the cacs, but will be more happy in lower pH water.

Not surprise the male is not happy with his mate, as it is a totally different species.

Frozen BS isn't too popular with my apisto either, so I've dropped it from their diet. Most of mine are on Frozen bloodworm, get the Hikari one as it's lots cleaner. I've not encounter any bloodworm problem with cacs or pucallpaensis so far.

Thomas.

[fishgeek]

lots of fish have the caudal peduncle spot , including macmasteri/viejita

i dont think we can call it anything form the photo's

andrew

[vphilou]

First I just want to remind you that I was meant to get a pair of Viejita and not cacs, I just said that I thought the small one was a cac but now I do not believe so anymore. It has a tiny bit of blue on its tail and cheeck and the body shape is not one of a cac.

I have dropped the temp to 25-26C, this morning no apparent change, the male is still very lethargic (at exactly the same spot as yesterday) and does not even seem to react to the female passing close.

I will try to get more pics tonight but don't think I will have the male any closer than in these photos (the tank is 500 deep).

Also I will get some blood worms and see how lucky I am with those.

Thanks all

Philippe