Apisto ID

[Elser]

I saw these apisto at a LFS and they were labeled as apisto cacatuoides red pair for 64.99. Attached you can see a photo of the male and female for sale. I believe that they were mislabeled so can anyone give me a solid ID on these guys? I really want to breed them as I love the color on both. Thanks! 

[Pete]

Apistogramma agassizii "fire red" by the looks of it.

Edited June 14, 2021 by Pete

[Elser]

@Pete looks like that’s it! Thank you! Would you say the $65 for the pair is a good price? 

[Pete]

It's hard to comment on the price.  If you purchased online you'd probably pay $12-$15 per fish plus shipping, and there's a risk and expenses that come with that. Your local stores may price them higher or lower based on the market and their expenses. But considering how pretty the ones you have are, I wouldn't sweat it. They're gorgeous and I hope they breed well for ya.  

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Pairs are charged a premium especially online if they’ve already bred. I’ve bought pairs online between 20-50$ usd. Pairs of angels or discuss can go from $50-300. The nice thing about LFS fish is they’re in your water typically. If they’re thriving with that kind of color you should do well. I’d still quarantine them and give them the trio. 

[anewbie]

price seems pretty high - also they don't quite look like fire red but a similar colour or colour mix (which isn't a bad thing). To be honest these names that describe the colours are quite arbitrary so i'll just say that other fire red i've seen look a bit different. 

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While the price is pretty high if mail order is the only other option than as noted by @pete you have to factor in shipping. If you do order on line i'd go for 4 or 6 young ones instead of a pair - besides as harem breeders it works out well if you end up with multiple females; though you'd want to remove the extra males unless your tank is fairly large.