by Michael C. Biel, MAS

I purchased these fish at the last spring auction. I was looking for some Apisto’s to fill a couple of heavily planted 55-gallon tanks. Two bags were offered at auction and I acquired both. I put each breeding group in their own 55-gallon tank. When I heard the name "Apisto Viejita" I knew I had heard the name before. I researched through my Apisto-Grams, the Apistogramma study group Newsletter and was delighted to find out it was this fish that took "Best in Show" at the 1999 ACA Convention.
The groups were a little different in their size, which proved to be a younger and older group. Each had about six fish in a bag. The older/larger group went in to the tank that had two tiered areas at the sides, heavily planted with a large Amazon Sword on one side, and various forms of Hygrophillia on the other. A large piece of driftwood sits in the center lower section. This offered some caves underneath the driftwood. There was some Limia Perugiae that proved to be too aggressive for dither fish so they were removed. The second tank was furnished with some half-coconut shells, various Cryptocornes and some floating Naja grass.
The younger/smaller group was placed this tank. They had some Endlers live bearers, pencil fish and pygmy cories for company. This tank’s females promptly killed the only know male. I never saw any spawning prior to this. I would have sworn there was only one male in this tank, but low and behold one of the "females" started to color up, the dorsal and anal fins started to elongate and since has become a male.
In the mean time the older/larger breeding group in the tank would start some spawning shows every time I did a water change. To my surprise when a female did decide to spawn, she did not use the many caves formed by the driftwood, but the side of the slate used to form the terrace. I did not see the actual spawning but the female was guarding the eggs she laid in plain view on the side of the slate. She was all dressed up in her bright yellow spawning/guarding colors that she keeps while vigorously defending the eggs and fry. The male which is twice the size of the female has blue and silver spangles on it’s head and body with red on the edges of it’s dorsal and ventral fins. His tail has red on its edges fading the more it extends into the body. The male was tolerated in the vicinity of the eggs and fry but was always greeted by the female, just to let him know that he was being watched. The female or the male allowed none of the other fish near the fry. This female raised only three fry to maturity. So the next time she spawned I removed the slate and hatched them artificially the same way I do my Angelfish.
I wouldn’t really call these Apistos harem spawners in which a male spawns with a number of females guarding the whole tank. It’s been observed by me that the male tends to spawn with only one female at a time and defends the area with the chosen female until the fry disperse.
I would recommend this fish for the first time Apisto spawner. They seem to spawn readily and to be fairly good parents. I don’t believe strict water parameters have to be kept as far as pH and hardness as long as the water is changed by 20% every couple of weeks. All in all, I consider it an interesting fish to breed.