The Cockatoo Dwarf Cichlid is one of the most popular members of the genus Apistogramma and found in petshops all over the World. Almost exclusively bred specimens of very colourful sports are traded. These do not appear in the wild.
However, “the” wild form of A. cacatuoides does not exist at all. Like so many other Apistogramma, this one is polychromatic in males. This means that even within one population males can look very different. The biological sense of the phenomenon is not understood at all. But the polychromatism is without any doubt the reason why in so many cases Apistogramma sports can be developed after only a few generations of breeding the fish.
Maybe the phenomenon is comparable to the situation found in guppys. Here the females always select the most colourful male for mating. On the other hand, the most colourful males will be always the first victims of predators. This is the reason why males in guppy populations with a low predatory pressure are very colourful even in the wild. In the aquarium no predators exist. This, in combination with the selection by the breeder, form very fast very colourful sports – it takes only a few generations.
Currently we have wild collected Apistogramma cacatuoides in stock, which most probably originate from the surroundings of Pucallpa, at least for sure from the Rio Ucayali basin.
For our customers: the animals have code 617203 on our stocklist. Please note that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
| Angaben zum Tier | |
|---|---|
| Herkunft | Peru |
| Verfügbare Größe in cm | 4-5 |
