# Apistogramma baenschi



## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

G'day guys,

On Thursday I bought an Apistogramma Baenschi pair. On Monday evening they spawned. The female has dug out a cave under a mopani rootwood. In the photos below, you can see the pile of sand built up from her excavating. Unfortunately I can not get a good shot of the cave mouth due to the angle and the Java fern tied on to the mopani rootwood.

Female

















Male


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## MonteSS (Dec 8, 2008)

Very nice. My favorite Apisto. GL with them

...Bill


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## RayQ (Sep 26, 2007)

FANTASTIC! I haven't seen these before, thanks :thumb:


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## smitty (May 7, 2004)

Great.


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## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

RayQ said:


> FANTASTIC!


With those last pics, shouldn't it be 'Fintastic'?? 

One of the few apistos I actually like, you must be doing a bang up job *DFF* to have them breed that soon.

I am starting to love mopani root wood more and more, it's perfect for cave loving species.


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## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

Thanks guys. I got lucky with the male showing off.

I keep saying it, give your fish the optimum conditions and they'll do the rest. My tanks aren't setup to look pretty as I'm more focused on breeding on a small scale, but the fish appear to like thier surroundings. I can't emphasise enough how important water quality is, especially trying to replicate low PH, low dissolved mineral content, and acidity.


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## blue acara (Aug 8, 2006)

Lovely fish like the markings and colours, particually on the caudal fin of the male! Congrats on the spawning :thumb:


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## little_b10 (Jan 29, 2008)

Great looking fish, I'm hoping to get a few apisto's soon in my 36 corner bowfront. Hope they look that good.


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## edburress (Jun 9, 2007)

That male is amazing 

Congrats on the spawn. You're making it look easy!

Ed


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## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

This pair has been very intersting to watch over the last week. The female dug out two other caves under driftwood, and each morning for the last four days I would wake up to find her guarding a different cave. On monday she had moved the wrigglers in to a cave at the very front of the tank, and I was able to shine a torch in and see the wigglers in the bottom of a pit. I am used to this type of behaviour from dwarf acaras, but this is the frist time I have seen this behaviour from an apistogramma species.

Today I have about 30 free swimming fry. They stayed pretty much in one spot all day, towards the front of the tank in the middle, swimming around the skeleton of an Indian Almond leaf and a driftwood branch. There are two dwarf pencilfish in the tank, and they are hiding out in some floating pipes. The male baenschi tends to keep his distance, because if he gets to close, he gets chased off.

I'm not very good at photographing fry, but for those of you who know what to look for, here are a couple of poor photographs.


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## Auballagh (Jan 29, 2003)

Nice! Some great pics of some really cool cichlids.
Congrats!


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## Fishguy28 (Feb 5, 2007)

As small as newly free swimming fry are you did a great job of photographing them :thumb:


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## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

Thankyou guys. I took a couple of more photos on Thursday, just after the fry had a feed of bbs. They were all fat and sluggish after thier feed and all together outside one of the caves. You can see all thier little, fat orange tummies.


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## edburress (Jun 9, 2007)

:thumb:


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## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

Thanks Ed.

They're much more active now, actively searching through the java moss and subwasatang for food, unfortunately this means they spend the majority of the time at the back of the tank and are no longer easy to photograph.


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## Fishguy28 (Feb 5, 2007)

DeadFishFloating said:


> Thanks Ed.
> 
> They're much more active now, actively searching through the java moss and subwasatang for food, unfortunately this means they spend the majority of the time at the back of the tank and are no longer easy to photograph.


But it's alright as long as they are there 8)


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## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

The fry have been free swimming for about two and a half weeks now. I still can't take photos of young fish to save myself, but can't resist trying anyway. The fry have pretty much scattered all over the tank now, and mum doesn't even try to keep them together. Both mum and dad just swim around keeping an eye on the fry and trying to scare off the agassizii male in the next door tank. It's actually a lot less stressful keeping a species where the male is allowed to help care for the fry.


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## nightowl1350 (Nov 26, 2005)

Great pics. Love the fry. You (and the pair) did a great job.


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## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

Hi guys and gals,

A quick update. The fry have been free swimming for 6 weeks now, and are about 1cm SL (2/5ths of an inch). I removed them from the parents two weeks ago and have set them up in a 30cm cube to grow out for a couple of weeks before they are moved to a larger tank. The parents spawned again and I now have 4 day old free swimming fry with the parents.

6 week old fry.

















New mum (again). The four day old fry fled to the back of the tank when I put the camera up to the glass, while mum wasn't that fussed, held for a pose, and then went in search of her fry.


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## BelieveInBlue (Jul 17, 2011)

can i has some of the offspring pl0x? =P Cool fish, I'd have gotten those instead of the cacatuoides if they werent lik 30 dollars each >.<


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