Apistogramma cinilabra

By Pet Zone SD Team • October 2026

Overview

Apistogramma cinilabra is one of the most range-restricted dwarf cichlids covered on this site, known with certainty from a single forest lake under one hectare in size, south of Iquitos in Peru's Loreto Region. Local aquarium-trade fishermen first found it there in 2010; an international team led by dwarf-cichlid specialist Uwe Römer formally described it the following year in the journal Vertebrate Zoology. The lake itself is unusually isolated — it has no inflowing or outflowing streams connecting it to other waters, and its water level varies only about 20cm (8") between wet and dry seasons. At the time of description, the surrounding forest was being offered for sale for timber felling, which is part of why the describing authors titled their own paper around the phrase "potentially endangered."

Before it had a scientific name, German specialists traded it informally as A. sp. "Roterpunkt" (German for "red spot"), with SeriouslyFish also recording the aliases "Schwarzbrust," "Rote," and "Rotter." That kind of pre-description trade-name history isn't unique on this site — see norberti's "großmaul" or eremnopyge's four competing names — but cinilabra's case is unusual in a different way: aquarium reference site practicalfishkeeping.co.uk states plainly that it's unclear whether the species was ever actually exported commercially for the hobby at all, before or after its description.

Color & Identification

The species' name and most distinctive feature are the same thing: cinilabra comes from Latin cinis ("ash") and labrum ("lip"), describing the ash-grey lips adult males display during aggression and courtship — a marking found on no other species covered on this site. Males also show red pectoral-fin bases and red spots on the chest, a disproportionately deep body, and an unusually short caudal peduncle. As with most apistos, sexual dimorphism is pronounced: males grow noticeably larger with more color and longer fins, while females turn a bright yellow with black markings — most visible along the front edge of the ventral fins — once they're guarding eggs or fry.

Tank Setup

Cinilabra's known habitat is a shallow, heavily shaded blackwater lake with a leaf-litter bottom over fine white sand, and the tank should echo that rather than a bare, bright setup.

• Tank size: SeriouslyFish lists a minimum footprint of 60×30cm (24×12in), about 14 US gallons, as workable for a breeding pair. A larger tank suits a group, and a single male kept with several females needs roughly 200 liters (~53 gallons) or more.
• Substrate & décor: Fine sand is functionally important here, not just decorative — see Feeding below. Add dried leaf litter and alder cones for cover, spawning sites, and the microbial growth fry feed on, plus driftwood roots and branches. Dim lighting matches the shaded habitat; Microsorum, Taxiphyllum (Java moss), Cryptocoryne, and floating Ceratopteris all suit the low-light, soft-water setup. Avoid peat, which SeriouslyFish notes is both unsustainable and environmentally destructive to harvest.
• Filtration & flow: Gentle is sufficient — SeriouslyFish suggests a turnover of roughly four to five times the tank volume per hour, and notes an air-powered sponge filter works fine.
• Tank maturity: Don't add this species to a biologically immature tank. See our water parameters guide for building and holding soft, acidic water reliably before stocking.

Feeding

Like the rest of the genus, cinilabra is chiefly carnivorous, feeding mainly on small benthic invertebrates in the wild — but it leans more heavily than most apistos on sifting fine sand for food, which SeriouslyFish calls "vital" to the species' health, making a fine (not coarse) substrate a functional requirement rather than just an aesthetic choice. Offer live or frozen Artemia, Daphnia, Moina, and bloodworm regularly as the diet's backbone; most individuals also learn to accept dried foods, with sinking pellets generally taken better than flakes. See our general feeding guide for conditioning diets that apply across the genus.

Temperament & Compatibility

Cinilabra is generally peaceful, and SeriouslyFish lists small characins, rasboras, and Otocinclus species as suitable tankmates in a community setup. In confined quarters, though, males can turn bullying toward other males — plan tank size with that in mind if keeping more than one. Wild-caught fish do best kept alone or with small, calm dither fish such as Nannostomus; as with every species on this site, don't house cinilabra with other Apistogramma.

Breeding

Cinilabra is a substrate spawner that lays eggs in crevices or cavities among décor rather than in the open, and SeriouslyFish describes it as "quite picky" about mate choice. Rather than forcing a single pair together, the recommended approach is to start with a small group and let natural pairs form on their own. Males are territorial and aggressive toward other males but generally tolerate several females. After spawning, the male typically guards his territory and courts other females while the female alone guards and tends the eggs; in a single-pair setup, the male may help guard fry once they're mobile. Eggs hatch in 36–72 hours depending on temperature, with fry becoming free-swimming a few days after that. Condition the breeding group on live and frozen foods beforehand — see our general breeding guide for the broader conditioning-to-fry-rearing process.

Sourcing Notes

This is among the hardest apistos on this site to source, and arguably the hardest to source with any certainty at all. Aquarium reference site practicalfishkeeping.co.uk states it's unclear whether cinilabra has ever been commercially exported for the aquarium hobby, before or after its 2011 description. What trade history does exist runs through specialist hobbyist forums under its old alias names — searches of the main Apistogramma hobbyist community turn up members asking after "cinilabra / rotterpunkt / schwarzbrust" rather than anyone listing it for sale. If you want to keep this species, a dedicated apisto breeder network or a specialist importer with direct Peru contacts is the realistic path, not a general retailer or even most specialist shops. See our general sourcing guide for what to ask a seller on an uncommon species — doubly so here, where even basic trade data is thin.

Final Thoughts

Cinilabra sits at the far edge of what's realistic to keep: a single-lake endemic whose entire known wild population lives in less than a hectare of water, discovered only in 2010 and already flagged as potentially endangered by the scientists who named it. It's not a fish to go looking for expecting to find one easily — and if you do track it down, it's worth treating the opportunity, and any breeding success, as more than just adding another species to a fish room. Keepers drawn to the genus's rarer, harder-to-source corners — pantalone, gibbiceps, norberti — will recognize the pattern, just taken a step further here.

Frequently Asked Questions

What makes Apistogramma cinilabra different from most other Apistogramma species?

It's one of the narrowest-range apistos in the hobby: the 2011 description paper and planetcatfish both trace it to a single forest lake under one hectare in size, roughly 78km south of Iquitos, Peru, with no known inflow or outflow connecting it to other waters. At the time of description, the forest around that one lake was being offered for sale for timber felling, which is part of why the describing team called it "potentially endangered" in their own paper's title. Before Uwe Römer's team formally described it in 2011, German hobbyists traded it informally as A. sp. "Roterpunkt" ("red spot"); SeriouslyFish also lists "Schwarzbrust," "Rote," and "Rotter" as earlier aliases — a trade-name history similar to norberti's "großmaul" and eremnopyge's four names, but attached to a far smaller and more fragile wild population. Males also carry a genus-unique identifying trait: ash-grey lips, visible only during aggression and courtship displays, which is where the species gets its name (Latin cinis, "ash," plus labrum, "lip").

What water parameters does Apistogramma cinilabra need?

In the wild, extremely acidic and nearly mineral-free: SeriouslyFish records pH as low as 3.8 and never above 5.0, with conductivity under 50 μS/cm, while FishBase's field data separately confirms pH from 4.1 up at a similar very acidic range. In captive conditions, though, SeriouslyFish reports the species "acclimatises well" to a notably wider range — pH 4.5–7.0, hardness 0–4 dGH, 70–81°F (21–27°C) — which is unusually forgiving for a fish from such an extreme wild habitat. A separate hobbyist database lists a higher pH 6.0–7.8, but that range sits well above both the species' documented wild chemistry and SeriouslyFish's own captive figures, so we treat it as an outlier and recommend building toward the SeriouslyFish range rather than assuming cinilabra tolerates ordinary tap-water chemistry.

How big does Apistogramma cinilabra get?

SeriouslyFish's aquarium-trade reference lists males at 70mm (2.8") standard length and females at 40mm (1.6"). FishBase's ichthyological record gives a smaller maximum of 5.4cm (2.1") SL without separating males from females — in line with the pattern seen elsewhere on this site (norberti, for instance) where FishBase's field-collected maximums run smaller than SeriouslyFish's aquarium-trade figures. Either way, this is a small apisto even by genus standards, comfortably suited to the same modest tank sizes as nijsseni or pantalone.

Is Apistogramma cinilabra endangered?

There's real cause for concern, though formal sourcing on the exact status is inconsistent. The species' own 2011 description paper calls it "potentially endangered" because its only known population lives in a single lake under one hectare whose surrounding forest was, at the time, being offered for sale for logging. FishBase references an IUCN Red List entry for the species but doesn't state the category; two secondary cichlid databases separately report a Vulnerable (VU) rating, though they disagree on the assessment year (2014 versus 2016) — a discrepancy we're flagging rather than picking one arbitrarily. Whatever the precise paperwork, every source agrees this is a genuinely restricted-range fish, which is exactly the kind of species the describing authors hoped captive-bred lines might someday back up.

Where can you buy Apistogramma cinilabra?

Essentially nowhere in general retail, and aquarium reference site practicalfishkeeping.co.uk states plainly that it's unclear whether the species has ever been commercially exported for the hobby at all. What little trade history exists runs through specialist forums under its old alias names rather than any storefront — a search of the main Apistogramma hobbyist forum turns up members asking after "cinilabra / rotterpunkt / schwarzbrust" by name rather than anyone offering it for sale. If you want to keep this one, a dedicated apisto breeder network or specialist importer with direct contacts in Peru is the only realistic path, and given how little verified information even exists about it, confirming identity and collection history matters more than usual.