Apisto females

[NiaCas]

The only kind of apistos I've owned so far are cockatoo cichlids. The male is fine, very colorful, but the female just has so much personality! My female is also very unusually colorful. I've moved my male and female cockatoo to their own tank, but I'm considering getting more, but maybe JUST females. I'm thinking maybe not just cockatoo this time though. There's probably not a very good chance that I'll get lucky again and end up with a very colorful female. Are there apisto varieties where the females are more colorful? And are apistos all generally the same except for color?
I just love watching my female cockatoo find the weirdest things to burrow into and then wiggle in and out on her side. Wondering if all apisto females do that. Is the difference between apistos just color? Any suggestions on what kind I should get would be great

 

[Brookster123]

Cacs are fun, the female will go canary yellow when spawning, my juvies stay pretty yellow all the time while the older girl goes almost gray most of the time. There are many different types of apistos, cacatoides, which you have, are one of the less demanding varieties. Some require very specific water parameters. I would not recommend mixing, if you do add any? A couple more females, makes will fight with each other unless there are 4-5+ .

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[dalto]

Generally speaking the females are brown but turn bright yellow during spawning and fry care.

However, some of the deeply selectively bred strains do have some color in the females. A. cacatuoides and A. macmasteri come to mind off the top of my head.