Re: Apistogramma contaminant

[Frauley/Elson <fraulels@minet.ca>]

Bill Phillips wrote:
> 
> Hello from Australia and hoping that someone can shed some light on a wild
> apisto pair that I was fortunate enough to obtain as a contaminant.
> 
> A shipment of apisto gibbiceps came into the wholesaler and my LFS found
> some Apisto agassizii (about 3 pairs) in the shipment. The problem then
> arose as to what strain the fish is - comparing with the AQualog catalogue
> suggests the strain is "santarem".
> 
> My question (crossing my fingers) is whether gibbiceps is localised in a
> particular area which may shed some light on the possible agissizii strain.
> Probably just my luck that gibbiceps is widespread in its distribution.
> 
> Many thanks for any help
> 
> Bill Phillips

Hi Bill,
I'll go out on a limb and say you will never know what strain you have.
Without precise location data, you can only guess, and Aqualog is
exhaustive but incomplete. No book could ever be complete on the
varieties of these highly variable species. 
Unless the collector 'tags' it, I'd say we're all best to adopt the
killie convention of saying it's a Commercial Import, and leaving it at
that. I have some Aphyosemion biteniatum killies imported from Nigeria
in May. I know from fairly solid experience with the fish that it is the
Lagos type, although there is some colour intensity that makes it
different from the available Lagos 1992 import. What am I on about?
As I breed it, I will distribute it as A. biteniatum CIN 00/5
(Commercial import Nigeria 2000 May). That way, other breeders who wish
to not take the risk of crossing populations will be able to ID the
strain. Those who don't care will drop the tag. Some see these tags as
an affectation, and they haven't caught on anywhere but with killies,
but there are killie strains that have been tracked since the late
seventies. What's it worth? Hard to say, but the fish are still in the
hobby, and a lot of crossed populations have turned out sterile mules
and disappeared.
Gibbiceps occurs pretty far from Santarem, more to the northwest of
Manaus. That's not to say the form up the Rio Negro doesn't look like
Santarem, but it isn't from there.
When I first joined this list I had an outstanding wild cacatuoides
tagged as Rio Ucayali. It was quickly pointed out to me that Rio Ucayali
isn't a location, it's a universe. 
I'd like to know how the colours turn out when you do grow the beasts
out though. The crossover with gibbiceps is, I think, an edge of the
range for agas.
-Gary


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