Re: Apistogramma borellii

[Mike & Diane Wise <apistowise@fgn.net>]

I believe that the reference that you are
referring to is: Staeck, Wolfgang. 1999. Ein
Zwergbuntbarsch der Subtropen: Apistogramma
borellii (A Dwarf Cichlid of the Subtropics:
Apistogramma borellii). Aquarium Heute 17(1):
248-252. In it he state that A. borellii was
highly polychromatic in each population that he
sampled (although, as I remember, there was a
tendency for populations from the northern range
of the species to show more yellow). Yes, he
mentions that among each population there were
'super males' that look like the Opal form. 

Most 'super males' are merely red-faced blue fish. 
They are beautiful in their own right, but they 
are not Opals. These red-face blue 'super males' 
are not the same as the strain produced in the 
1970s in the former DDR. They were line bred to 
produce a fair number of Opal colored fish from 
each spawn. An excellent photo of an Opal borellii 
is found in Yamazaki's book "South American Dwarf 
Cichlid", p. 116, bottom. This is the photo of
Opal I use in my slide presentations It not only 
shows the deep blue & red cheek marking of the 
red-faced borellii, but also yellow & green 
scales. This, to me, is what an Opal should be. 
One could, of course, reproduce the original Opal 
strain by selective breeding. The trick is to 
select a female that produces a good number of 
Opal offspring when bred to an Opal male. The 
problem is that all females look very similar, so 
you have to try many females & then wait to see if 
she produces Opals - or be very lucky & pick the 
right fish. Once you have an 'Opal female' then 
back breeding with Opal males should produce 
broods with good numbers of Opal males.

This is why I recommended care in buying Opals. I
would not buy Opals from a breeder without seeing
the fish first. The strain is not fixed. They are
just like A. cacatuoides Double- & Triple-Red
strains. A large proportion of Triple-Reds are
from broods produced by Double-Reds. They are just
the 'super specimens'. I have not seen anyone with
fish that produce large numbers (>60%) Triple-Red
from a Triple-Red strain. More often than not the
Triple-Red females have problems reproducing. Just
my opinion.

Mike Wise

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