Breeding Fact Sheet No. 31

Apistogramma viejita Kullander 1979.

I have always been interested in keeping South American cichlids, especially Apistogramma viejita. This species, originates from Columbia, in particular, the Orinoco River basin and the upper Meta river basins.

The male fish, reaches a size of 7 to 8 cm and the females around 4cm. Males, as well as being that much larger, display different colour patterns with a larger dorsal fin and has two red stripes in the caudal. The females have a patterned body and are more yellow in colour.

I keep my fish, under the following conditions. Temperature range 22 to 25° C and a pH of between 6.5 and 7.2. The lighting is not too bright so plenty of floating plants are used. The décor is a mix of rocks and clay flower pots. These fish can be kept in a community tank.

To breed this species, I used an 18 x 8 x 8 tank. An open ended flower pot was placed in the bare tank. A sponge filter was added together with some floating plants. Ph was 6.5 and the temperature 22°C. The female was put in the tank for 2 or 3 days and fed with plenty of live food, earth worms and tubifex etc. Once she was acclimatised to her surroundings, then male was added to the tank. For a day or two, the male chased the female around the tank and then the female took refuge in the flower pot more and more. After a day or so, the male also entered the pot. At this stage, the female started to attack the male, biting his fins so he was removed and the female left to tend to her eggs which were attached to the roof of the flower pot. After three days, the fry were free swimming but stayed inside the flower pot. When the female brought the fry out of the pot, I started to feed micro worm and liquid fry food. I kept the female with the fry as it appeared that she was cleaning the fry. When the fry were able to feed on newly hatched brine shrimp, the female was removed as they were then capable of taking care of themselves. Water changes are done every two days when two to three cups of water are changed. Out of two broods, I averaged between 30 and 40 per brood.

This is an excellent dwarf cichlid to keep and breed.

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