Juvenile - my guess a month old Ortegai Apisto

[Ortegai]

Hi

I've just acquired a youngish pair of Ortegai off a breeder in Sydney last weekend. I suffered a almighty scare when I fed live blackworm to the newly acquired fish, 2 hours later they were both breathing heavily at hovering at the water surface.

First thing was to isolate them in my hospital tank and I added a tsp of marine salt. It looked to me that the live worms were to blame and the female was constipated and not in a good way. Off to the supermarket as I have no Epsom salts at hand, another tsp and 5 minutes later, she seemed to pass out a bit of black poo, I felt less stressed.

She continued to swim erratically and I was so sure she would not make it so decided to chance it and put both of them back in the breeder tank. Next morning, I was dreading the inevitable but could not see her anywhere, I turned the driftwood, looked everywhere sponge filter included, no luck!

3 hours passed and I finally spotted her in a little cranny of the driftwood, looking a bit worse for wear but nevertheless she wasn't swimming erratically. Best feeling in the world for me, I had saved her( Epsom Salt worked!)

SO this thread is to warn any keepers of dwarf cichlid NOT to make the silly mistake of feeding your new fish too soon with too much live food(worms in particular) I think she had a bad case of Bloat and I nearly lost her. Looking back, I was over eager with them as you do with all new fish, trying to get them to eat to settle. Live bbs is fine for new fish if you just drop a tiny bit in but no black worms especially if they aren't chopped up.

Here is a pic of how she's looking now just 2cm but very healthy, any other tips are welcome from TFF
I'm attempting to breed her when she's grown to 3.5-4cm

 

[GaryE]

It would be more of a biting off more than they could chew situation than bloat. I would always start new Apistos on baby brine shrimp. The hunting it calmed them and was irresistible, and the food was small.
I kept salt far far away from any Apisto. It's a med of last resort for them - a totally alien substance in their environment.

A ortegai is what I used to consider a generalist . It has a high body and doesn't seem to be super specialized/adapted to one environment. They take well to the aquarium as long as the water isn't too hard.

I used to be really into Apistos, and bred more than 30 species. A. ortegai, then a newly found undescribed fish (it's been a few years...), were the last species I got before I decided to try something new. They didn't breed at my place - so over to you!

 

[Ortegai]

I had them breed for me in 2019, the colors I got from the wild pair were stunning. The young were in hues similar to dad, blue, red and purple. Gorgeous fish.

 

[GaryE]

Mine were back in 2005. They were beauties. I'm glad they caught on. The number of undescribed but fantastic Apistogramma that used to come in once, and only once ever is a lot more than most of us realize. There is a lot of biodiversity we don't see, even with the fish groups we think we know.

 

[Mr Limpet]

I had Apistogramma ortegai Papagei back in 2020. They bred for me right away, but 100% of the offspring were males. I later found out that higher temperatures can lead to a preponderance of males.

I recently orderd a new pair to try and have another go at lower temps, but instead I was sent a duo of Apistogramma cf. ortegai Pebas, a beautiful species in its own right but nowhere near the splendor of the Papagei form.

 

[Ortegai]

What kind of diet do you put your cf ortegai Pebas on currently? I assume they are wild caught and are harder to feed commercially available foods. I agree the ortegai Papagei are very pretty but we can't get hold of that variety in Australia.

 

[Mr Limpet]

What kind of diet do you put your cf ortegai Pebas on currently? I assume they are wild caught and are harder to feed commercially available foods. I agree the ortegai Papagei are very pretty but we can't get hold of that variety in Australia.

Mine have been taking Bug Bites Tropical Flakes from the start. I feed that in the morning and in the evening they get either Grindal worms, frozen spirulina brine shrimp, frozen cyclops or BBS. I avoid black or bloodworms as I’ve found that they can cause bloat.

 

[Ortegai]

I feed Bug Bites as well - they are the best flake money can buy and I have a friend that also swears that worms( black or blood) give Apistos bloat. I’m trying bbs and flake and Hikari micro pellets on this pair and hope they condition well for spawning.