Apistogramma Agassizii: The Undemanding Apisto

Apistogramma agassizii, or the Agassizi’s Dwarf Cichlid, is arguably one of the most popular species of the Apistogramma genus. Steindancher first discovered agassizii in 1875. While there isn’t much information about his encounter, we do know agassizii have captured the hearts of many cichlid lovers. Their bright colors, fascinating behavior, and manageable size make them an excellent option for smaller tanks.

The apisto genus boasts a wide array of colors and shapes, but there’s a lack of diversity when it comes to their size. Apistogrammas come from a group of cichlids known as “dwarf cichlids.” This means, unlike more widely spread cichlids like oscars and angelfish, they stay petite – usually under 3″ (7 cm.)

If you’re new to apistos, the agassizii is undoubtedly one worth considering! Years of captive breeding means they don’t need the super-soft, highly acidic water like their wild relatives. (Some wild specimens getting as low as 4.0.)

Similarly, many captive-bred individuals will take to pellet foods. Though they may need some training and patience to get them to eat it. If you’re just starting out, buying captive-bred will significantly increase your odds of success with this little gem.

With that said, calling agassizzi an undemanding apisto is a relative statement. No apisto is as easy as angelfish, kribs, white clouds or any other beginner fish. But they’re certainly not as sensitive (or possibly as interesting!) as A. ‘black chin’s.

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Table of contents

Distribution & Natural Habitat

Agassizii inhabit a wide variety of water conditions in the wild, making them an adaptable little fish in the home aquarium. In the wild, agassizii inhabit South America, ranging from the Amazon River Basin in Peru, to the Capim River Basin in Brazil.

If you’re looking for some specifics, the inhabit much of the Amazon basin. They range from its upper section in the Río Ucayali, Peru, and into Brazil with the Capim River, a tributary of the Rio Guamá which flows into the Rio Pará at the city of Belém in the Amazon delta region.

Don’t worry; we’re back to normal English now. The important part is most of these waters are slow-moving or stagnant blackwater tributaries and pools. Often they’re filled with leaf litter, fallen branches, and have loads of nooks and crannies for these fish to hide and spawn in. Although, some collection areas have been documented in whitewater (clear, faster-moving water with little debris.)

The coloration of wild species varies drastically based on the collection site of the fish. Even captive bred fish will vary greatly depending on where their ancestors came from. Few strains are bred in captivity that you couldn’t find in the wild. Fire red, double red, super fire red, tefe, and tefe blue are a few examples. Most of these strains breed true, meaning that the fry have similar coloring to the parents.

But in the hybrid strains (such as the “tefe”s) reintroducing A. tefe at some point in the line will likely be needed to retain their coloring through future generations.

This is enough to make most newcomer’s heads spin. The important part is they like slow-moving dark water with plenty of hiding places. As far as color, I’ll cover some of the most common varieties in a minute.

Aquarium Care

Okay, now we got most of the science out of the way. So how do you take care of agassizii in an aquarium? They’re not fussy about water chemistry, anything soft (dKH of 0 – 10,) and acidic with a pH of 4.0 – 6.5 will be fine for most captive-bred fish. They enjoy temperatures in the range of 72 – 85F (22 – 29C) and plenty of leaf litter, seed pods, driftwood, and other nooks and crannies to explore in.

Plants don’t usually grow well in blackwater habitats, but if you can get some to grow, they would undoubtedly be appreciated. If you go with floating plants, you’ll likely never see your fish in their full coloration without much light reaching the bottom of the tank.

While we’re on the topic, though, you may rarely see your apistos at all. I had a pair of agassizii once that I put in the tank one day and didn’t see for more than a few minutes a day. That is until they had fry almost eight months later. Dither fish can help this skittish issue some. But don’t expect them to be front and center at all times (although I heard that about german blue rams and always saw them.) I suppose it could be, to some extent, how they were brought up.

Apistos are highly intolerant of bad water quality, so large (25%+) weekly water changes will be needed. They also don’t do well in oxygen-poor water, so you’ll need a sponge filter and plants will help if you can get them to grow.

Apistos, like most Geophagini, do best when they have a sand substrate to sift through. The sand will also allow you to see their natural sand-picking (not so much sifting) behavior as well as watch their adorable excavation antics.

Feeding A. Agassizii

Most agassizii do best with live or frozen foods, although I’ve heard of success with gels like Repashy. They love blackworms, tubifex, daphnia, brine shrimp, scuds, white worms, bloodworms, and mosquito larvae.

You may be able to get your agassizii to take pellets if they’ve been captive-bred, but I wouldn’t count on it. You can certainly try, but expect to clean up a lot of uneaten food and offer a lot of patience.

Common Agassizii Diseases

Agassizziis aren’t usually as susceptible to your common freshwater fish diseases (though, like all fish, they can get any of them.) However, it’s worth noting that if you want to keep this fish, you may want to stock up on your meds.

Ich (White Spot Disease)

Costia

Agassizii Tank Mates

Like many cichlids, A. agassizii aren’t naturally social creatures; they’re more social for the sake of reproduction than companionship. As a blanket statement, all apisto species are compatible with dither and target fish. What target or dither fish you chose is up to you, your setup, goals, and available space.

Here are some of the most commonly kept dither species for A. agassizii:

Pencilfish (Nannostomus sp.)

Norman’s Lampeye Killifish (Poropanchax normani)

Clown Killi (Epiplatys annulatus)

Breeding Agassizii

They’re harem breeders, meaning there is one male that protects and mates with multiple females that are within his territory. Most agassizii prefer small harems ranging from 4 – 7 females (if you have space.) A 50-gallon low boy is probably a safe (enough) bet for two males to share a tank, but this isn’t a guarantee that it will work as all fish are different.

If you want to keep just a breeding pair, ample space, target fish, and some experience will be helpful. Many experienced breeders breed apistos in 10-gallon tanks. But these breeders usually have automatic water change systems that change 10% or more of the water daily, and they have experience with this species, so they know when to intervene.

Watching their breeding behavior is fascinating. When the female is ready to spawn, she’ll signal to the male by turning a lemon yellow color and displaying her stomach. At this point, they’ll seek out a cave or small cave-like structure (terracotta pots with holes drilled in them or seed pods are popular.) You want to ensure the hole is large enough for the female to enter but small enough to cover with your thumb.

The male will usually guide the female to the cave he’s selected for her and coax her to enter. Once inside, she’ll lay her eggs on the roof, and he’ll release his sperm and waft it inside with his tail. The eggs will hatch in 3 – 5 days depending on the temperature. Fry will be free-swimming in another 3 – 5 days. Once the fry are free-swimming, mom will guide them around the tank to forage for food, though they likely won’t venture far from their shelter for at least a week.

You can feed them microworms, vinegar eels, and baby brine shrimp. They will likely find infusoria for their first few days – especially if you have plants like java moss in your tank. Most breeders report that the mothers seem to know where the microscopic food is, perhaps instinctively. The more probable theory is that they learned this skill from their mothers when they were fry.

Since they’re harem breeders, the male’s job amounts to brute force and fertilization (not unlike a like a male lion.) The female will vigorously guard the fry against the male. She will often bully him to the point of death if he has nowhere to escape to where she can’t spot him. Occasionally, the male will “snap” and retaliate against the female and kill her in the process. For this reason, unless you have a large enough tank, the male should be removed once they’re done spawning.

Around two weeks after the eggs hatch, the female will be ready to spawn again, and both parents will often bully the fry in an attempt to clear out their territory. If not taken out at this point, it’s highly likely they will be killed or eaten by the parents before they spawn again.

Color Variants

Like we talked about briefly above (I’ll fill you in if you skipped down,) the color can vary widely depending on the collection location of the species. There is also a handful of color morphs that (as far as we know) you can’t get in wild-caught apistos. It’s worth noting that many Apistogramma are mislabeled and many color variants are hybrids.

Nevertheless, for ease of compiling the information, I’ll only cover a handful of colors below:

Further Reading & Resources

Animal World – Apistogramma Agassizii

Seriously Fish – Apistogramma Agassizii

FishBase.org – Apistogramma Agassizii

TFH Magazine – Apistogramma Agassizii