APISTOGRAMMA.

The dwarf cichlids have everything the large cichlids have,they are colorful (maybe not all), have temper, does not need huge aquariums, and are usually easy to keep. There are of course things you have to take care off, such as temperatur,size of the tank, feeding, hidingplaces, waterquality and if you want to keep them with other fish. Females can be so tough when she is guarding frys, that she can even kill the male.

So here comes one or two of the things you have to take care off. The tank must have a size that goes with the fish temper, and not to forget hidingplaces. This can be for females to hide from a lustful male, or a male hiding from a furious female. One of the reason that so many are keeping dwarfcichlids is, I think, that you can keep these fish in a rather small aquarium.

If you are keeping these fish right, provide them with the right condition, food and water quality, they are not difficult to keep. Some of them might be a little tricky to breed, but this is a challenge to you as an aquarist. Water temperatur should be kept from 25 and up to 30 * Celsius and the pH should be around neutral or lower. What size shall the tank have, well it's better the tank is wide, or the bottom surface is large. These fish does not need a hig tank, so if you are going to make the tanks by yourself, make them wide.

A tank with the measure 50x30x25cm.(L x W x H) should be adequate for a pair of Apistgramma. If you plan to breed these fish on a large scale, I would recommend you to buy several pair or at least 5 to 10 small fish, and put them together in a larger tank and let them choose their own partner when times come. This will usually give you pair that goes well together, and might give you fry from the first batch with eggs. These fish loves live food. You can give them mosquito larvaes, bloodworms, Grindalworms, Cyclops, and if you don't won't to go out and catch live food, you might buy some in your local store, or you can hatch brine shrimp.

This is also necessary when you get frys from your fish, to give the fry the right start. To make hidingplaces I use rocks and bogwoods, but I also use half coconut shell, that I have drilled a hole at the top, the hole must not be to big, only so the fish can get in. If the hole is too big, the fish will feel insecure, and they might not want to lay eggs.

You can also use live plants in a tank with dwarf cichlids, or only rocks and bogwood and maybe javamoss covering the bogwoods and the rocks. But, in biotops where I have been collecting Apistogramma, there have not been many plants. For those of you that wanted to get in touch with other people keeping dwarf cichlids, take contact with "Apistogramma Study Group".

Apistogramma iniridae, Kullander 1979.

Photo: Alf Stalsberg.

Apistogramma iniridae was described by Dr. Kullander in 1979, and it was collected in Colombia in the province Guainia. The province Guainia has Rio Orinoco as the border to Venezuela.

I was out in Puerto Inirida in 1991 and 1993, and among several places and tributaries rivers to Rio Inirida where I was collecting, I was also at one of the places that Apistogramma iniridae was collected, the first time. And that was in Caño (Rio) Bocon.
We was collecting in a pond with restwater left there after the water in the river was going down due to dry season. In the pond there was plenty with different small Apistogramma and among them only the Apistogramma iniridae was described. Among all the different Apistogramma we collected, the only one known in the hobby here in Europe was the Apistogramma sp."Blutkehl".Click at the photo and take a good look at the fish.

Apistogramma sp."Blutkehl".

Photo; Alf Stalsberg.

Other fishes collected in the pond was Corydoras sp., Loricaria sp., Nannostomus unifasciatus, Amblydoras sp.,and Crenicichla sp. It was also a Tetra sp. there. The water was shallow and very hot. Water temperature was 36* C., pH was 5,7, dH 0 and microsiemens was 30.

Apistogramma viejita comes from Colombia, east of Villavicencio, near Puerto Gaitan. There are so far three different colortypes of the fish, they are named Apistogramma viejita I, II and III. The fish on the photos is calledApistogramma viejita I.

Photo; Alf Stalsberg.

Apistogramma viejita II is more colorful and A.viejita III is more dull in the color. The Apistogramma viejita was described by Dr. Kullander in 1979. The colortype I is found between Puerto Lopez (south east of Villavicencio) and Puerto Gaitan. The colortype II is was collected in ponds where the Rio Guarrojo start. Rio Guarrojo is situated east of Rio Manacacias, and Rio Manacacias ends out into Rio Meta passing the town Puerto Gaitan, and Rio Guarrojo float into Rio Vichada and Rio Vichada ends into Rio Orinoco, and so do Rio Metae too.

Type III of Apistogramma viejita comes from ponds and waters that goes west from Rio Manacacias, these rivers and waters ends into Rio Guaviare

Apistogramma borellii

Photo: Alf Stalsberg.