My Apistogramma Hongsloi - Male And Female

[Curiosity101]

See below, my lovely pair of apistogramma hongsloi. I was pretty sure my female was a male until I got some time to sit down and really study her today. It was my definite male shimmying at her that gave it away. Then when I looked close I saw she had the black splodge on the dorsal fin at the front, and the faint black line down the ventrals. All in all I'm very happy with them.
Excuse the pics though, I don't have any photo editing software on here so they haven't been cropped only resized.
Oh and they're about 2cm (female) and 2.5cm (male) in size... so I don't know what the male is thinking shimmying at the female men. She's having none of it anyways.

Female

Male

 

[Wills]

Hooray! You have fish again! I cant wait to see how these mature

 

[Curiosity101]

I picked them up on saturday but have just been letting them settle in for the past couple of days. Ha, the male is such a wuss. All full of bravado towards the female but I just put a piece of wood in for her to hide under/behind to get away from him and the first thing he did was freak out then go and hide behind the filter...

She however was straight in there having a look. I'll try n get a video of him 'flirting' if I can.

 

[BethK]

they are lovely x

 

[PDSimon]

Wow, as wills said... will be great to see them grow up! You didn't waste any time though did you

my male bolivian ram is a bit like that, he is all show and as soon as something different happens the female is curious and he goes and hides

 

[Curiosity101]

No I did not lol. The guy only lives around the corner so I was like...meh why not. Soon as the filter was cycled enough and I had a tank I bought them. Regretting my impulse tank buy a little bit as it means I've wasted a can of spray pain on the back of there current home

I went and swapped my free male for the tank part of an elite 35. It has barely any scratches (and none are visible when filled with water) but this current one is really bad.

So basically I've sprayed the back of this one for nothing, but long story short I didn't expect the person who swapped it for a fish to get back to me any time this year, nevermind in the near future.

So my plan is to remove the base from the new 35, spray with blue (another £7 ) and then empty the current tank and put the fish in a bucket for 5-10 mins. Swap tank bases so the elite 35 has a black base and not silver like it currently has. Then switch everything over and fill properly with gravel/sand (atm it's just a light covering to give them something to pick at n feel comfortable over cause it's dark.

 

[PDSimon]

Why can't you just use plastic backing? It's all I use...

What benefits does spraying have?

 

[Curiosity101]

No air bubbles. Air bubbles really wind me up... especially as they will have minimal plants in the middle - top section as they're primarily bottom dwellers... so the background will be very visible alot of the time. I'll just do a fts and see what people think of the blue I picked.

 

[PDSimon]

air bubbles? You don't stick the cheap ones on! they just cover the outside of the tank loosely.

 

[Curiosity101]

Well yeah but I mean it varies how far they are from the back of the tank... so it's not uniform. Just not something I like.

Anyhoo, got a picture resizing and a video cropping (I think). So will upload them both then post here.

 

[PDSimon]

Well if all fails, I half-attmpted to put mine on the back and side and looks good (to me anyway )

I love pics and vids so post away! you should do a journal in the section, or just carry this thread on.

 

[Curiosity101]

Tank... as you can see lots of scratches



You tube of them together. The male shimmys at around 30secs in and then right at the end.

 

[Curiosity101]

I admit my video skills need a bit of work lol... may try to get a clearer picture of him trying it on with the female if it's not obvious from the first video.

 

[PDSimon]

didn't take them long

 

[Curiosity101]

Didn't take HIM long you mean. Lol. The female isn't having any of it. She's barely 2cm long and that's including tail. And he hasn't even got any of his red colouring yet!

Lol, now he's searching for her and she's just hovering above the moss watching him. They're so entertaining, I'm really happy I've got them, didn't expect to have to put in lots of caves so soon though. I'll have to get on that this weekend. Gonna try and give her a couple of bolt holes that he's too big to fit in.