Apistos should be on their way!

[JRagg]

Well I finally found some apistos that I was interested in and could take care of, so I've ordered them.

A pair of Orange Flash Apistogramma Cacatuoides. I was going to go with the Agasizi, but decided that they probably weren't the best match for my tank.

Here's a link to a picture of their type.
http://www.apistogramma.com/cms/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=131&Itemid=44

They should show up Wednesday assuming he ships them out today.

I'll add in some pictures when I get the fish all settled in.

 

[rich311k]

Congrats very pretty fish. Good luck with them.

 

[JRagg]

Does anyone know if Apistodave (Dave Shoals) sends tracking numbers?

I guess I assumed they would ship out yesterday, but I don't have a tracking number. Maybe they'll ship today.

 

[justrelax]

that's a sweet looking fish. will you be attempting to breed them?

 

[plecoperson]

Beautiful choice; I bet you're feeling like your avatar right now!

 

[JRagg]

Ha, yeah. I'm dancing!

Breeding isn't at the top of my priority list as I only have one tank at the moment. If they do breed early on, I'll probably let nature take its course. Later on when I have the money for an extra tank, I'll set one up for fry (if they're breeding).

 

[JustOneMore20]

Orange flash apistos are very pretty. I hope to get some Triple reds for a new tank I'll be setting up soon. I know you are excited! Good luck with them!

 

[Guest]

Yes Ragg, I know Apistodave very very well. He will send tracking #. He ships throw DHL or USPS 2nd day. Now he's a great guy I got all my Apisto's from him and abcdoals. I know your really not wanting to bred them so here's the deal with dave. When you get your oeder make sure the female is a femle. I got 3 prs of Agssizi because when he sent them the frist time they where all males. I e-mailed him and he resent females. will when they showed up again all males. I had to have him resend females again and the 3rd time he got it right and sent females. So I know have 3prs of assizii's because of it and each time I had to pay shipping so he could sent females. He also did this on my Ap. trifascata's had to have him send me females twice. I was upset that he took twice to get me females again.
He also did that on my Ap. cockato triple reds. Now when he sends you the Ap. orange flash triple red check and make sure he sends you a true flash female and not a Ap. cockato double red female. when he sent mine he did just that and the fry cme out triple reds and not orange flash at all. Now I know the orange flash is a blood line breed to active the orange flash. But if you get a true orange flash female she will spawn orange flash. This is not just my dealings with Dave I can link you with 10 other people who has had the same trouble with Dave. 3 of those people are menbers of this site. 2 of the menbers I know of that will back me on this that i can give there names without there promision is Mematrax and durnunk. Both them has had the very same proplum with Dave. mematrix has been waitting for female Ap. njssizi also had to reorder females twice and Ap.borelli he finally had to buy some differnt spice before or pay for shipping again before Dave would sent more females.
So double check your females and if you have any trouble making sure it's a true orange flash female please let me know Apistogramma's are my specailtie and I keep 9 differnt spices of them.

 

[JRagg]

Hmm, well I'm definitely not good at sexing them, so I may post a picture. I just got the order, and it "looks" like I've got 1 male (definitely a male) and two smaller females. One of the "females" was DOA, but the other one is still doing ok. There is a horrible heat wave going on right now (100F +), and I really wish that I had shipped overnight.

I'm pretty excited, definitely going to try to acclimate them well. I'm currently floating the bag because the one they were in was VERY hot when I got it.

I've heard that orange flash won't always breed orange flash even if you have an orange flash pair. I've heard people say that they've gotten orange flash, double reds, and triple reds all in one spawning.

If you can post a pic of a real orange flash female that would be awesome. I haven't been able to find any good pics of them.


**EDIT**
Oh, and I never got a tracking number.

 

[Guest]

Sure I can do that. There's a big differnts in OF females and Ap.Cockato either double red or triple reds. That is true that in a single fry you can get triple ,double, orange flash. Mustly orange flash males will be all you'll get it's really hard to get a flash female. Most all the females wil be the same triple , double reds. I have had 4 frys from my orange flash pr and I thank I've only gotten 5 true orange flash males and maybe 9 true females. Now if you get any white bodyed males. You've got some money in yur tank. I sell all my white or light bodyed males for $65 with no females with female $80. To me or IMO the white bodyed cockato triple red is a very beautiful fish and well wroth the money. If your looking for a center peace for your tank.
I have 4 white bodyed male prs. And everytime someone comes over and see him it's like where did you get that and can you get me one.

Here's a picture of a true orange flash female: Notice the orange tent on the side.

A female triple red:

Now it's really hard to tell in the pictures but the triple red female has the traded mark red black { flame coloring } in the dorsal tail and anual fins. Not a lot but some on the tips of her fins. Now the orange flash female will have a orange tent to her sides and light light flame coloring in the tail fin only. With red in orange in the dorsal and anual fins. Remenber it like this { orange flash female has the flame coloring in the tail only/ triple or double red females has the flame coloring in all three.} it's that easy. LOL

Here's my orange flash male he's 3 1/2'' in size and has 7 frys under him.

Is Dave going to replace the female you lost in shipping or did he " Say it was a free one and I can't replace free ones." That's what he told me on my Ap.borelli . Then when i ordered the Ap. Bitaeniata the female was DOA and he says " I'll replace her you just pay shipping." That's how he makes his money. He sents the fish if ones DOA are there's no females in the pr. He says I'll replace if you'll send $10 bucks for the shipping." Now i sent him $10 to replace females for the Ap. agssizii's he sent and none of the 4 pr's he sent had femles in the pr. Then the last time he sent replace females . the whole order was females. I know of 5 other people he did the same thing to and they did the samething. Sent the $10 for shipping and it took him 3 to 4 trys to get it right.
My $275.00 order ended up costing me $385.00 because of no females being shiped. i ordered 11 differnt spices of Apistogrammas and you'd thank he'd throw in shipping for that much but no he made me pay for the extra shipping on each spices that didn't have females witch ended up being 6 of the 11. Good luck with yours and hope you get some nice white bodyed male. I have some pictures of some if you want to see what they look like? If you want to ever order some more Apisto's go throw abcboals on aquabid or me and mematrix. Abcboals has most of the harder to find pistos in the USA. The luck ones is the people who live in the UK or hong kong { hong kong is the best place for rare and hard to find.}

 

[JRagg]

Well I'm a bit frustrated now. It's pretty obvious that he's sent me three males. The dead one was a male too. Upon closer inspection they all look the same, except for the size difference. I'll let you tell me for sure, and i guess it may be possible that since the smallest one isn't sexually mature that it doesn't really look female yet (I'm just guessing). Here are some pictures. My camera is absolutely terrible, but at least the pic of the smallest one turned out good.

I'm kind of nervous that two males won't be able to co-exist. I've read they become pretty aggressive towards one another.

**EDIT**
If you click on that first picture it will give you a large enough shot to where you can see the smaller one. I shouldve cropped the picture.

 

[Guest]

Yes it's a male. I don't even have to make it larger to see that. The give away is the legs fin. there colored and not black all female Apistogramma's will have black leg fins. also there's to much color in the dorsal fin to be a female. Personally I know him and Uwe Romer has done more reserch on the Apistogramma's then anybody. Dave was the frist person in The USA to spawn over 50 differnt spice with Romers help. IMO Daves eyes are shot. LOL He's done this very samething he did to you to alot of people over the last 6m. I personally know 10 of them and 2 are menbers of this site.

But anyway { Yes that's a male Orange flash not a female} To much color in the fins and { No black in the leg fins or the Ventral fins } Have you e-mailed him and told him. If this is your frist order he'll replace them. If not let me know. I'll trade you a female true female orange flash for the smaller male.. If he doe and just sends you another femle. I'll still trade you for your spare male.

 

[JRagg]

Argh, I'm going to email him now. What kind of BS is this. Why should I have to pay shipping when he screwed up? I'm not talking about a DOA screw up (which can easily be blamed on me for doing 2nd day), I'm talking about sexing fish.

Weasel, I may take you up on that offer. We'll see what Dave says. I'd almost rather just not deal with him anymore and go with someone I know can sex the fish. I don't want to have to pay shipping for a couple more sets of replacements.

 

[Guest]

I will treat youright I'll have aone of the guys that also had to deal with him on the same thing back me up on this. I'll have him post on his trouble with Dave.

 

[mematrix]

Hi JRagg I am mematrix. what Leslie has told you is true you have a 50/50 chance of getting what you ordered right first time i have been sent 4 shipments of nijssenii I ended up with 7 male 2 females just got the last 3 today 2 females 1 male 1 female is doing good 1 is looking poorly and the other is a male he has sent me 6 already and I know it is a male.I also got 1 pr of supposed wild A.incas look too small for wilds at least my gut says they are TR. I also got an awesome male tri from him so it is hit or mis with him mostly miss LOL you can check out my pics of my fish in my photobucket likk them click apistos when you get there I have 14 dif species some avail.

Curtis

 

[JRagg]

I appreciate the response.

I'm a little confused as to why his feedback is so good if he does this all the time. I know that priority mail doesn't cost $20. It just doesn't. Is he making money off of the shipping, and that's how he sells these?

I appreciate the feedback. I probably won't buy from him again, though the ones he did send are absolutely gorgeous. He's also a reputable breeder, so I'm not quite as scared of line-breeding. I've seen some of the results of that, and they're quite disturbing. Anyhow, thanks again for the responses.

 

[mematrix]

Hi JRagg I am not saying his stock is bad it is actually good. I useually pleased with the fish. Just the L. dorsengeras and anfd I am pleased with them all have bred for me. I just feel like he some times is in a hurry to move and dosent really make sure they are sexable as he claims so thast is my real beef.

Curtis

 

[Guest]

I agree with that. He has by far the best stock you'll find with out adout, His stock is sone of th best you'll find in the USA. He's dose some super work with the Apistogramma spice he was the frist in not only breeding them but the frist to get them. But hs stock is some of the best in the US right now and less you go throw a pravite party or a importer and order your own. But the bad part about going throw the inporter is you have to order 200 hundred or more.
The proplum with Dave is like we said He will send out either all males the frist time or he'll send sick females and they dyi in transit. Then he takes two or three time for him to get it right. By the time he get's it right your out of space from the fish he send. or Then you get your order and it takes aweek or two to notice the mistake and then your having to pay for shippig in order to replace them.
He's making money right and left he made a extra $40 bucks,and the sme off another two people I know. Then a ladie hs spent $60 to replace 5 differnt time but she lost the overnight shipping price not once but 3 times. An afew other where out $40 to $100 on this over night 2 time or more.

 

[JRagg]

Apparently there is a local store here that sometimes gets in apistos. I'm going to give them a call this weekend and see if I can get some sort of trade for my smaller male. I don't mind paying another $5-10. It's cheaper than having Dave resend fish.

I found a fish society in the area, which is pretty neat. The leader of the group said that he had gotten some orange flash from a guy who runs a store locally, so we'll see where that goes.

I think we're all agreeing on the same thing. He and Uwe definitely have made a name for themselves in the apisto community, and the fish he sends are gorgeous. But really, there is no excuse at all to send out 3 males when I ordered a pair (defined by him as a male and a female). I understand the extra fish, but two males will just beat each other to death... not spawn.

 

[Guest]

Yes they will hurt ech other, Dave and Uwe have done amazing work with the Apisto spieces. So much work that he should beable to tell sex of fish by now. I would thank. That's good you found some one in your area if not my offer still stands.