Re: [Killietalk] Aplocheilichthys normani

[Wright Huntley <whuntley at verizon_net>]

Jeff,

Jeff Ludwig wrote:

> > > I just had five Aplocheilichthys normani (fairly certain on ID, are
> > > there similar looking species?) donated to me, very cool fish.
> >
> > There are many similar-looking species. Don't ID by appearance alone.
>
>
> I've had troubling finding information on Lampeyes in general, what would be
> a good reference for speciation?

Your source of the fish is usually the best. Did you get them from an 
AKA member or Affiliate Club?

If from a commercial source, you can assume the name is wrong about 50% 
of the time on any unusual killifish. Unfortunately many stores do 
exactly what I would do -- check the Baensch Atlas Series, first. If an 
exact-looking match is found, that is it. :-( They have little chance or 
incentive to do further research.

I have an advantage over the stores, in that I at least have Radda and 
Purzl and the Scheel Atlas among other killifish books. I don't have 
(yet) the Wildekamp series, but it is excellent for the genera covered 
so far. No color pics, but accurate line drawings and good descriptions.

[I never bought the Widekamp books, because our local club library had 
them. "Local" is now a hard 9-hour drive across a winter-tough range of 
mountains, so I may have to rethink that strategy. :-)]

I also rely a lot on KilliData 2000 and the KilliData site for 
nomenclature and location info, not to mention the AKA site. Lots of 
info in some of the Affiliates web sites, too. Alf and Anita Perrson, of 
Sweden, have a very useful web site. Anita is an excellent Lampeye breeder.

That said, I contact Brian Watters and/or Brian Perkins as a couple of 
authoritative folks on Lampeyes. Brian 1 is a collector (East Africa) 
and breeder, and Brian 2 is an active Lampeye breeder. For the West 
African Lampeyes, I might contact Andre Schonewille in the Netherlands. 
All four are, including e-mail addys, in the AKA roster. [Join up, if 
you haven't already.]

> > Mop spawning can be done with floating mops. I wrap the mop into a
> > tight
> > ball with a couple of rubber bands, which gives them a structure for
> > "crevice spawning." The mop(s) should be in a current from the air
> > stones or a filter, as the eggs seem to need a lot of oxygen, too. I
> > have also gestated eggs from similar species in a pilsner glass with a
> > rigid airline providing bubbles to keep the eggs in supension, much
> > like
> > hatching bbs.
>
>
> Just a quick update for entertainment and the archives... three days and I
> have eggs, these guys breed like rats :)  As suggested, the 5 are setup in a
> 10 gallon aquarium, 1 in of silica blasting grit as substrate, two small
> rocks with Christmas moss and upward growing moss.  Filtration via sponge
> filter, single NO lamp as light, water pH around 7.4, general hardness
> 120ppm, 78 degrees.  I simply tied a cork to a mop very similar to a Fp.
> gardneri mop, green acrylic.  The eggs are currently incubating in water.

There is a tendency among some Lampeyes for a second female to follow a 
spawning pair and gobble up the eggs as they are laid. This, of course 
happens with other types, too, but seems worse among the crevice 
spawners. Bunching the mop into a loose ball with a rubber band may save 
a few more eggs, as she will inject them deep enough to be harder to find.

Egg yield is often almost obscene when a good egg trap is used!

That incubation water may need to be kept moving. IDK about your 
*normani* but I have found that still water didn't work well with some 
Lampeyes. Best guess is that they didn't get enough oxygen, as really, 
really shallow water worked a little better. Tumbling the eggs in a 
pilsner glass with big air bubbles worked even better, as mentioned 
above. Another trick I have used was to put the eggs in a plastic mesh 
seive, and set it right over a slowly-running airstone. The bubbles ran 
around the outside of the seive, but kept a fresh flow of moving water 
on the eggs, anyway.

Wright

--
Wright Huntley -- 760 872-3995 -- Rt. 001 Box K36, Bishop CA 93514

"If people are basically evil, the last thing you'd want is a big
government staffed by those evil folks exercising control over you."
  -- David Bergland


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