Apisto Injured?

HI team. We had what we thought was a m/f pair in 65L QT for 3 weeks before adding as our feature fish to our 165L tank.

As I was catching them to acclimate them to their home tank, I noticed what we believe is the female ("Mahuika") to be hiding behind a filter bag of oyster grit in the QT. She swam on her side to get away from the net, but it wasn't until I got her in the acclimation bag I noticed she was on her side unable to right herself. colour good, no other symptoms.

We took the risk of adding the other fish (8 cardinals & the other male cockatoo "Ahi") to the 165L. because they're perfectly fine. we'll see if that was a mistake.

I put mahuika into our 21L QT (acclimated her of course). she's not eating & staying on her side. I have no idea what's wrong.



here's a 5 second video so you can see her breathing:

parameters perfect in all tanks. her 65L QT before our weekly water change was 0, 0, 15, pH 7.4, temp 25-26ºc.

I'm wondering if the male attacked her? what should I be looking for and how do I look without moving her & stressing her out?

I'm also wondering is she's actually a male. . and that's why there might have been aggression.

in 23 days of QT, I've only ever seen slight aggression twice but it could have been spawning behaviour?

last possibility is that they are from weak stock. another from the same batch at our lfs had an issue with it's mouth & didn't survive treatment.

 

Update (also bumping my own post sorry mods)

she's now on the bottom but has righted herself. no longer on her side but not swimming & still on the bottom. I think she tried to eat too?

 

Stay on top of water changes matching temp. and ph, are you sure she is not a he?
How is it today?

 

I agree with yukondog that that looks like a male to me. Sounds like you have two males. The dominant one probably harassed this one severely.

 

Stay on top of water changes matching temp. and ph, are you sure she is not a he?
How is it today?

thank you for responding! no. .. it's quite possible she is a he which was part of my question

here's a photo when we first got them... both male?

 

thank you for responding! no. .. it's quite possible she is a he which was part of my question

here's a photo when we first got them... both male?

Yes, those are two males.

 

Yes, those are two males.

thanks. I need to learn not to rely on supplier sexing...

can a trio work and if so how many need to be female? two?

 

thanks. I need to learn not to rely on supplier sexing...

can a trio work and if so how many need to be female? two?

Yes, Apistogramma cacatuoides does well in trios as they are harem breeders. However, you will need a higher ratio of females to males. I suggest that if your sick male survives that you either rehome him or keep him in another tank and start looking for some females if you want to try breeding them.
Cacatuoides are probably the most common of the apistos in the hobby so you should have no trouble researching online how to differentiate between the sexes. As a general rule, females will be smaller, have less or no color in the fins, black borders in the two ventral fins, little to no dorsal crest with the first few spines being black, and they will turn a pretty bright yellow color when spawning or tending to eggs/fry.