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This beautiful newly discovered dwarf cichlid hails from the small Reserva Nacional Allpahuayo Mishana in Peru. It is a relative of the Cuckoo cichlid, with which its shares the "Apsitogramma headdress," of extremely elongated front dorsal spines, often strikingly colored. It has relatively large jaws, a black chin and orange mouth. The headdress may be gold or orange with or without black, and many specimens are predominantly gold, with a horizontal line from eye to tail, a large black caudal peduncle spot, and a black stripe from eye to bottom of gill cover.The pectoral and **** fins are often orange, but some variants are luminescent green. There may be a row of spots at the border of the dorsal fin and upper body, and 7 indistinct vertical bars. The tail may be pearly.

This species is still poorly known as it is rare and just recently described. the males are about 1.75 inches, the females 1.25 and less colorful. They live in very acid water, pH 4.5 to 6, 79-83 degrees, in backwater slow moving streams with lots of leaf litter. They are bottom feeders. They lay 50-60 eggs and are good parents. Pictures available at "Images of Apistogramma allpahuayo."