Re: New subscriber

[Thomas Soelter <Thomas.Soelter@ruhr-uni-bochum.de>]

Hi Ken,

thanks for the mail.


> Not being able to get females happens quite a lot.  It is
> not very easy to obtain apistos here in Scotland and
> whenever you do see them they are often all male.  I
> recently was in a store and they had in stock nijsenni,
> agasizzi and cacatuiodes all males.  Not very good for the
> hobbyists or the store as most people who keep these fish
> do so with the intention of breeding.
>

Maybe that the mostly of the female A. nijsenni of europe are shipped to germany - i
saw a lot of female fish in the past. But where do the other female Apistogramma spec.
go- i don't know.

> Some dwarfs tend to be shy by nature, this does not mean
> you will not be successful.
>

That's all right Ken. But if you do put a couple of young A. spec. into a tank alone
you might get problems (i.e.: mostly they are to young to breed but they do - the
result no growth of the females anymore, sometimes they get so weak that they get sick
and die of any disease).

> Finally I thought it was easy getting quality fish in
> Germany.  Many people travel from the UK to Holland and
> Germany in search of species that are unavailable in this
> country.
>

The stocking of apistos in germany is not really bad but depends on the season. The
main problem is that most fish stay much too long in the stores in overcrowded tank
with lots of fish that are no good for them.

So far,
Bye Thomas