Who wants to play - NAME THAT APISTOGRAMMA?!

Back story- last week I noticed this little guy hiding in a 30g at Bridges pet. A week later the fish was still there. The store clerks didn't even notice this adult male in the tank. I enquired about species and a "specialist " was brought over. I asked the clerk if he knew Apisto's? The clerk smugly said;"yes". I asked what species this fish closest resembles. His return was;" an ugly cacatuoides". Right there I wanted to smack him in the back of the head....ha! He sold me the fish for $5
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The fish isn't as blue as the picture shows. The fish and camera caught the light just perfect. His body is a bit more of a gray. And the bluing on the face is more of a specked iridescent.


Any ideas? Maybe steindachneri? Perhaps a hybrid? Eunotus? There is so many...lol

Any support appreciated,

Looking at the striping, shape, and hints of yellow, I'd guess it was in the cruzi group? I gave up trying to ID apistos a couple years ago, since there's hundreds of variants and they might differ by a vertebrae or something else I'd never notice.

$5 is a steal! The only problem is finding a female, which is probably why you want to ID him.

Are those sake bottles I see?

Squirmteben wrote:Looking at the striping, shape, and hints of yellow, I'd guess it was in the cruzi group? I gave up trying to ID apistos a couple years ago, since there's hundreds of variants and they might differ by a vertebrae or something else I'd never notice.

$5 is a steal! The only problem is finding a female, which is probably why you want to ID him.

Are those sake bottles I see?

Thanks for the input. Im learning its not always easy to ID these fish. ID isn't a huge deal, I do want to get as close to an ID as possible so I can have a better answer than "I dont know"...ha

My goal for now is to get as many Adult males as i can to comfertably thrive in my 140 gallon. So far I have 3. I need to wait until my plants mature before I add more.

The bottles I found at a second hand store. They are porcelain and look like a cream bottle or something. Thought they would be good for small Apisto females to hide in later... I internet Searched sake bottles and they look exactly like what popped up.

This fish is a little bad ass . Takes on my male Krib without fear. Swims around fully flared like he owns the whole tank....

There is a picture on the internet of the Apisto cruzi. Looks just like this Apisto!
I got to do more research on the Cruzi later. Just wanted to thank you!!

Chad

I hope that you're one step closer to IDing the fish. I found a site a couple years ago that had hand-drawn diagrams of all the different apistos and notes on how to ID them. Unfortunately I can't remember how I found it, but the amount of information was daunting.

I'm thinking of getting some rams or an Apisto trio for one of my tanks, might throw some sake bottles in there if I can find some for cheap; I really like that idea.