Congo Killies - PageSuite

HUSBANDRY
& BREEDING
Using a trick to rear
Apistogramma playayacu
Male Playayacu
Dwarf Cichlid.
article and images by Hans-Georg Evers In recent years things have been rather quiet in the
dwarf cichlid arena, once so popular with aquarists. Back in the day, new species were always
arriving and were enthusiastically snapped up, but now it seems that interest in newcomers is at
a low ebb. In the summer of 2012 a newly described species, Apistogramma playayacu, found its
way into my aquariums for the first time and my excitement was restored.
AMAZONAS
Martin Mortenthaler of Aquarium Rio Momon in
Iquitos, Peru, frequently sends me photos of new
species he has obtained. When he presented me
with photos of an unknown Apistogramma in May
2012, I was really excited. To date, Apistogramma
playayacu Römer et al., 2011 is known almost exclusively
from preserved museum material. Kästner
(2005) reported on an import going by the name of
Apistogramma sp. “Caquetá,” but the species actually
comes from the drainage of the Río Napo in the
border zone between Ecuador and Peru. And that is
exactly where Martin had obtained these fish.
I subsequently acquired a pair of this species
at the end of June 2012 from OF-Aquaristik in
Butzbach, Germany. The two fish were immediately
housed in a tank of their own that was decorated
with a number of caves, pieces of bogwood, and
dense stands of plants. The female, who measured
around 2.3 inches (6 cm) total length, was the
boss of the tank right from the start and kept the
male, almost twice her size, in his place.
I used reverse-osmosis water, alder cones, and
black peat to establish the water parameters: a
conductivity of around 200 μS/cm and a pH of
80