Agassizii’s Dwarf Cichlid

Country of Origin: South America

Diet: Micro-predator

Water Chemistry: pH 5.5 - 6.5, kH 0 - 2

Temperature: 26 - 28 C

Over the past few years I have had a strong interest in American and West African dwarf cichlids.

To me these more peaceful fishes always seemed more interesting than the fishes of the rift lake valleys of Eastern Africa, and the fact that these fish could be kept in planted community aquariums added to my fascination.

Eventually I bought myself a pair of the red morph of Apistogramma agassizii. It should be said that finding good stock is arguably (at least in Australia) the hardest part of keeping Apistogramma species. When buying Apistogramma species, make sure the fish is alert and feeding well, if in doubt ask the LFS owner to feed the fish for you before you buy. I have spent a lot of money on Apistos only to find they would not eat, or died of some mystery illnesses within a few weeks, the males for some reason seem particularly prone to mystery deaths, but more about that later.

Anyway, I bought the male and the female from different stores, although they may well have been related I tried to ensure that this was not the case. Once in their new aquarium which was a 20″ tank they seem to settle in well. The tank water was kept soft (by peat filtration in a small fluval canister filter) and acidic (round 5.5) using Sera pH down, which does not contain any phosphates. Small water changes were undertaken every week to try and maintain stable water chemistry. The tank was furnished with a number of terracotta pots and filled largely with java moss.

Within a few months the male was displaying to the female and spawning had occurred, the 25 or so fry were cared for almost solely by the female. The male played a small role in fry raising, returning fry that had strayed from the school to the female and guarding the tank perimeter from potential predators. The female would chase the male off if he got too close to the fry. I had two successful spawnings and had little trouble raising the fry on microworms, egg yolk and powdered flake food.
Then, for no apparent reason the male died after the third spawning, there did not appear to be any sign of disease and there had been no change in the water chemistry. It was not until later when I was chatting with Stephanie Nicholls and Thomas Lee, two other Sydney Apistogramma enthusiasts that we found we were all having the same troubles with the males dying for no apparent reason. We are yet to discover the cause for this problem, however it does seem fairly common in Australian Apistogramma strains. It should be noted also that I have kept and bred Apistogramma borelli for three generations with no such problems, so it may be that this phenomenon is limited to a few species.