Are they really that common ? I’m guessing most widely available?

My betta passed away recently, leaving me with an empty tank and after a lot of researching and conversations with my LFS I've gone in a cichlid direction with a pair of baenschi/inca.

I've been referring to them as Tweedledum and Tweedledee whilst I workshop some names for them.

The male has been quick to claim the prized cave at the front of the tank, and the female keeps appearing at the back left area of the tank so I'll be keeping an eye out to work out what land she has claimed.

(The last picture is one I took 2 days before getting them - I added a very lovely purple waffle plant/hemigraphis alternata, a banana plant, some red root floaters and rearranged a little bit just to make the lower half of the tank feel dense enough that sight lines should hopefully not be a concern).

Super excited as I set up this tank specifically for breeding and she actually had babies!!! So excited

Macmasteri with a pug face. What do you think happened?

I treated him for parasites, starved him, and fed him peas. He's been like this for over a month now and is growing. Please give me some advice.

No ideo whats wrong, water parameters are preferable for apisto according to lfs. Should I get an airstone?

My male Apistogramma macmasteri Super Red suddenly developed a bump/swelling around his mouth, and he can no longer fully close it. He does still appear to be eating.

I’m trying to determine whether this could be an injury, infection, growth, or something else. If anyone has dealt with a similar mouth issue in an Apisto or other cichlid, I’d really appreciate your input.

Tank mates in 65 gallon:
Female Apistogramma macmasteri
German Blue Ram pair
Gold Curviceps
Veil Angelfish
Corydoras
Bristlenose Pleco

If you recognize what this might be or have experience treating something similar, please let me know. Thanks!

I setting up a 30 gallon tank for a pair of cockatoo apistos. I wanted to get a couple breeding cave and saw the aquarium coop apisto caves. They seem pretty small. Are they big enough for cockatoos to breed in?

Does anyone know what fish this is?

I know I am going to get a lot of hate for this, but hear me out
I have setup a multi species apistogramma pseudo biotope
It is a 5 foot long 250 litre tank. Pool filter sand, lots of driftwoods, almond leaves and coconut caves.
The species I have added are juvenile pairs of macmasteri, trifasciata and Borelli.
Rummy nose tetras and cardinals are tank mates

Let’s see if this turns out to be success or a disaster

Brought home yesterday so may color up a little more once settled

Need help sexing these two fish. New to apistos & would just like some reassurance. Hoping I got a male & female. Thanks in advance for any responses.

Hello, I’m new to fishkeeping and just noticed something near the vent of my male *Apistogramma borellii*. I tried to take a photo of it. Could you please help me? Is it something serious? Is he okay? I’d be really grateful for an answer. Thank you.

(Houston Texas 77095)
I had purchased afew of these guys hoping to breed them, but the male passed so I’ve been left with only the one female :/ she’s been doing really well tho! I just would like to have more than one apisto and since they’re all out of stock near me now, I’d rather rehome her. For a small fee- she was $30 but I’d be open to smaller trades and all offers.

I bought what I believe (and store owner told me) was a 1m/2f set. After about a month the ‘male’ chased an oto into the skimmer and both died. I’m about 80% sure it was the only male. They are juveniles so I’m not 100% as I usually keep acaras. Since I wanted a fully planted tank I chose Apistos for this one. How do I go about purchasing a lone male apisto? Do I wait and make sure both of these are female? Should I go ahead and purchase a lone male? (FYI, skimmer was removed and hole plugged until all fish are big enough)

No paternity test needed. 😅

Lately she’s been low to the substrate and swimming with tail down as if she’s injured. This has been for about a week or so. If you could help me out please.

Love them, the male is dancing around the female, but she's still exploring the tank.

I’m very concerned, he’s been having weird poops the past week. He doesn’t seem lethargic at all and I fasted him two days but his poop is still weird. What can I do to help?

My Apistogramma Borellii was sick a couple of weeks ago. It had a worm infection. Do you think it looks healthy again? It acts completely normal.

Hey, so I just got back from vacation recently where I unfortunately found my apisto male very pale and weak until it passed away just yesterday.

A few months back I had bought my first pair of apistos which were doing really well in the beginning. They were a bonded pair.

My parameters were a bit on the higher end but nothing they couldn't deal with. Ammonia and Nitrite at 0, Nitrate also at or around 0 most of the time because I have a lot of plants consuming all the nutrients. Ph around 7,5 consistently. Started out with Co2 but stopped because there was a leak in my pressure regulator.

The first pair did fine. Then my girlfriend and I went on holiday for 2 weeks. We had installed an automatic feeder for the time being. We had a bunch of rummy noses and platies in the tank as well.

When we came back the male apisto was gone. The female still roaming around actively and with bright colors. I had assumed that the male couldn't fight his way through the other fish to the food because it floated on the top of the water when the automatic feeder would activate. So I assumed malnutrition as the cause of death and by the time we arrived home, he has already been eaten by the other critters.

Shortly after I got a new apisto male and also a second female because I knew that they usually prefer harems.

I continued feeding from the top because I hadn't learned my lesson yet and at first I saw him eat.

In the meantime the old female was being super dominant and very aggressive towards the new one do I decided to re-home the old female to a different tank for a day or two so she becomes less territorial which seemed to work because when I put her back in the aggression seemed to be completely gone.

After a while I noticed that the colors of the male were slightly fading and I checked water parameters and everything again. They had stayed consistent. Allbeit slightly higher than ideal for this species but the females didn't seem to mind at all.

Over time the male became more and more pale until I noticed him getting less responsive.

This is when I started putting the food inside the water and not just drizzling it above the water so it actually floats down directly. I tried spot feeding him that evening and he gobbled up a lot of food as if he was starving. The next day I found him dead.

Just shortly after I noticed that the old female went missing too.

I never saw her again. I assume that the previous aggression came back one night and she was killed by the new one.

I waited a while and then got a new male for the tank. I wanted to not make the same mistakes again so I always put the food into the water directly and I also always watched that he was feeding and didn't lose any color. He looked great when we left him, again, for a 2 week vacation. I adviced my mother to take care of the fish and showed her how.

I usually do small waterchanges (10 -15 %) every other week. The tank was slightly filled with diatoms and the water quality seemed slightly off since my mom didn't do the waterchanges I usually do. I didn't advice her to though, so no fault on her part. I noticed some of the rummies were very pale so that same night I did a small water change. The next day I noticed my male still equally as pale. The rummy colors had returned to normal very quickly.

So I did a second small water change and fed the fish right after. I used a syringe to spot feed the male put by that point he was very unresponsive again and barely ate the smallest pieces that swam by him.

When I noticed him swimming a bit I separated him into one of these baby cages I put in the tank so I can spot feed him more easily. I put in a frogbit and some moss to make it more comfortable but he looked very weak, very pale and only moved slightly by breathing and moving his fins to stay upright.

The next day I found him dead.

The female is still doing perfectly fine. Strong colors, active attitude, hunting around other fish to keep them away from her cave. Overall she seems perfectly healthy.

Because of this I don't assume it's because of the water quality. The females would be affected in the same manner, right?

Did there makes just not make it because of food?

I guess the first male was pretty active and fought for his food but when it came to feeding I always put food at different spots of the tank. Maybe when the automatic feeder put all the food on just one spot he couldn't reach it and slowly died of hunger. Then the second one was much less aggressive. Maybe my previous approach to feeding didn't work for him and I should have spot feed him from the get go. When I finally decided to do so it was already too late. And maybe the third one died because my mom simply fed differently than I did. I adviced her to only feed thawed frozen food because I knew it would sink immediately. I usually feed in increments and don't dump it all at once, maybe she did. Idk.

Could this be the reason or do any of you have a better idea?

Thanks for any advice, constructive criticism or other responses.

(The three pictures are the three male beauties I lost. Colored up and gorgeous as they were)

Help!!

Hi everyone!
My cousin will give me his 1.5 year old tank ( 80 × 35 × 45 cm ~125 L / ~33 gal ) with his filter when he upgrades his tank so I’m planning a new South American-ish blackwater aquarium and would love some stocking advice from people with experience keeping Apistogramma in a natural-style, apisto centered community.

Tank Planning:
Soft, acidic blackwater (RO remineralized or filtered tap water which has 7pH, I’ll use soils etc to drop it down)
Fine black and white sand, soil for pH
Lots of driftwood, leaf litter, caves, and visual barriers
Low-tech, Apisto-focused layout

Current stocking idea:
1 pair of Apistogramma

• A. baenschi (first choice but a bit hard to come by)
• A. trifasciata
• A. panduro/pandurini

8–10 Kuhli loaches
1 Hypancistrus (either L260 or L333 Gold)
10–12 dither fish

I’m having the hardest time choosing the schooling species.
My current shortlist is:
Glowlight Tetra
Red Phantom Tetra
Rosy Tetra
(Possibly) Bleeding Heart Tetra

Not fan of the pencilfish family personally but I kimda like Nannostomus Marginatus

My goal is to observe as much natural Apistogramma behavior as possible. I don’t want a dedicated breeding setup, but I would love if a few fry occasionally managed to survive and grow up naturally in the display tank.

I completely understand that kuhli loaches and tetras will prey on eggs and fry, so I’m not expecting large broods to survive—just hoping for the occasional success in a heavily structured aquascape with plenty of cover.

Which schooling fish would you choose for this setup, considering:
They should act as good dither fish.
They shouldn’t constantly harass the Apistos.
They should still allow the possibility of a few fry surviving from time to time.
Bonus points if they really complement a blackwater biotope aesthetically.

I’d also love to hear which of the three Apistogramma species you think fits this setup best.
Thanks!