I love SA dwarfs

[Sharpfish]

I love Apistos. We need more S.A. dwarf talk. http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/oo13/sharpfish/fish1016.jpg

[mk_ultra]

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/brievad/P1010199.jpg

[AlishanAS]

OK Wally. Talk them up!!

Both fish dealers who are on our PA road trip itinerary, frybabies and Anubias Design, are well stocked with Apistos and other dwarf cihlids.

[YoungAquaticPhotos]

Here is one I had at my last house:
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e325/YoungAquaticPhotos/DblRedCacatuoideMale3T.jpg

Wild agassizii ones I caught in Peru and brought back. Most of the agassizii I caught at the one lake had these spots all over them.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e325/YoungAquaticPhotos/WildApistos.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e325/YoungAquaticPhotos/AgassiziiMaleFemaleWeb.jpg

[Sharpfish]

I was trying to get something together for a road trip this weekend. But there is no way for me to accomadate the tour and my wife's birthday. I am crying inside right now.

[Sharpfish]

OUTSTANDING photos to all. I think the back spots on wild caught fish are parasitic scars or a stage of the parasite kind of like Scales on plants. I know you see a lot on wild caught natives like Dace.

[Sharpfish]

I love S.A. dwarfs ( finally to the topic of this thread). They are action packed. They are compact, colorful, easy to maintain, and full of personality.

You can keep them tanks as small as 10 gallons for most of their lives and they will raise their families in the same tank. I fthey get to big and aggressive move them into a 15 or 20 gallon. Most other cichlids can only stay in these tanks as fry and be moved into larger accommadtion quite quickly.

The colors are as varied as any other cichlid class from red, orange, yellow, green, blue and multiple color patterns. They also run the table on tail configurations from square to lyre to round and everyone in between.

Easy to maintain. Most live in slow moving stagnet waters, choked with leaf litter. It is a mess total disarray.

And enough attitude to compete with any of the biggest Central American cichlids. They defend the turf. They display and protect their families as proud as any father would.

How can you not love that! Everything all the other cichlids have in a nice neat package. And the small tanks, you can keep more in the same amount of area. GOT TO GO TO STORE TO FILL ALL THOSE TANKS (and get away from the familiy for awhile but don't tell them where I am).

[chris1932]

As a keeper of Apistogramma I agree with Wally. Every color in the rainbow, great parenting skills and space savers. I was asked today how many I have? Its a lot. Funny thing is that everyone knows the tank raised color strains. The wilds are incredible. Start converting shellie tanks because I am going to post a picture of each wild Apistogramma I have ever kept.

[Bev N]

Yep...pretty fish with attitudes which makes them some of the most interesting fish I've ever kept. I don't for the life of me know why they are not more popular.

I think there may be the misconception with apistos are they are difficult to keep and cannot be kept in community tanks. The same with rams which is far from the truth. They are not difficult to get to spawn but the fry are tiny and require smaller foods and the rams don't make the best parents.

Checkerboards are another very pretty dwarf. There are a few different species the most common I think is the Dicrossus filamentosus. They are easy to keep and a trio will do well in a 15 gallon.

The most difficult dwarf that I have currently are the I. Adoketa. They are stunning and while very easy to keep they are extermely difficult to get successful spawns from. I know of one guy that has gotten one breeding of freeswimming fry. I talked to him and he has yet to replicate that spawning. The only ones that seem to be having success with those are the guys in Germany where these came from.

For someone with less than the tank space that Julie has the dwarfs work very well in our fish room. One of the reason we keep to the smaller species is that we can accomodate a larger variety and the dwarfs definately fit the bill.

[Sharpfish]

The Ivanacara adoketa fry are exceptionally small. The mothers from what I hear hide them very well. Eric Bodrock has successfully raised 2 spawns that I know of. His came from Norway. It is hard to get the LF stores to bring in any different species and if they do they are almost always mislabelled.

[Bev N]

Yep...Eric was who I was talking about. He is coming out this way in June I believe so I'm hoping to get some pointers.

I don't know of any list that these are on just yet. Since they are so darn hard to get I'm hoping to be successful with them. I know of one other person locally that has a group of them but no luck yet either. We both got ours from the same breeder. We are both using r/o water, almond leaves, alder cones and feeding a ton of live foods. If they are happy they will breed....it's making them that darn happy that is the challange. I've only had mine since late summer I think so I'm not overly concerned yet. I think they need to reach the right maturity level and no so much the right size.