Archivarium 2004

[Marcos Avila]

Disregarding my early days of fishkeeping (fish-having) when I used to try (and fail) to keep Rams alive while thinking they were Apistogrammas, this little 4 cm beauty is my first real Apisto

My wife is always telling me that the Age of Aquariums is my "mistress", but she's mistaken, this is my real "mistress", I even set up a condo just for her (I transformed my 60 L planted tank into a paludarium and she's the only fish in there now - long story)

Apistogramma nijsseni female




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[Sahara22588]

Oooo! Forget condo, get that girl a penthouse! That's a lovely fish...

Byez!!
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[Shawna in CA]

She is beautiful. Will she ever have a boyfriend of the fish variety?
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~~Shawna

[Mogwai]

Beautiful colours - she's very nice.

[randomrambler]

gorgeous... and I love all the markings! I also agree she needs a boyfriend lol.
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[Marcos Avila]

Thanks! She's quite a character. You should see the fury with which she attacks her own image on the glass when I turn off the room lights. She mauled 2 Silver Tips that had stayed in the tank. I had 9, and there was no way I could net these last 2 out of the tank, so I took the seven I did manage to catch and traded them in for her. In the beginning everything was OK between them, but the couple soon started to squabble a lot among themselves in between all the mating rituals, and after too many weeks of love and hate (during which I tried several times but just couldn't catch them) it seems she'd had enough of all that comotion in her new apartment, so she beat the fins out of them (literally, she ripped off all their silver tips), and I haven't seen them for a couple weeks now

Now she lives with 2 Amano Shrimp that can't leave the mountain complex or they get blasted as well. And there's a Zebra Neritina also, this one can slide around because of the hard shell.

This A. nijsseni was the only one of the species I've ever seen in Brazil, USA or Japan. I asked the shop guy (who's really friendly) if he can find me a male, but he thinks it'll be unlikely...

But she's so beautiful and cool that she suffices as the single fish in this paludarium. She's a fussy eater...doesn't like Tetra Pro our even dried brine shrimp, only frozen bloodworms and Tetra Delica.

I'll post some more pics later, including the paludarium itself, which is interesting but not too good looking due to lack of time to take care of it...
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Are you a Fish-HAVER or a Fish-KEEPER?
Success with a fish/tank is measured in YEARS, not months or weeks...

[2la]

Marcos, Rayon Vert is based out of Japan, and they've always had images of many species of apistos--many of which are still scientifically undescribed--posted on their website. I'm not totally sure what kind of company they are, but would there be any stores that might be able to pipeline some fish from them to you?

2la
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[Marcos Avila]

Thanks for the name Tula. I'll try to pass this idea on to the LFS guy (although language barrier is a major issue here despite the good will).

Coincidentally, just after I posted the previous message I went home and could spot the female Silver Tip alive and not looking so bad, although she's still essentially fin-less. If they can learn to tolerate each other I guess it'll just be two single chicks in their own little pad/puddle/paludarium...
_________________
Are you a Fish-HAVER or a Fish-KEEPER?
Success with a fish/tank is measured in YEARS, not months or weeks...

[Marcos Avila]

Woohoo! I got a male for her and he went into the tank yesterday. Actually it was a short saga...the shop guy found him and brought him to the shop, but then he very astutely chose to release him in a tank full of balloon mollies

Not only did he hate it there (probably alkaline pH) but it also cooled to subzero on the next few days and the mollies caught Ich. Then the tank was quarantined all these weeks and I had to keep checking in all the time to see how things evolved, since the guy refused to sell me the male even if I assumed total responsibility for losing him. But alas, yesterday I stopped by, the mollies were OK, he was looking great and they let me take him home

The female wanted to beat him up already while he was floating in the bag...she would bite it with such rage that I thought she'd tear the bag, and right after I released him it was tag game all over the tank...but he soon disappeared in the caves and the female became more interested in me than in him again. I hope they end up getting along...and if they end up killing each other, may they at least allow me to take a good pic of the couple first!

I've done some research and the paludarium seems to be quite close to ideal...Temp 26
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Are you a Fish-HAVER or a Fish-KEEPER?
Success with a fish/tank is measured in YEARS, not months or weeks...

[Oscar916]

wonderful fish!! do these come in other colors? I saw something like this at a shop.. it was all white with black patches, looked similar to this apisto