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Re: A. joergenscheeli
Peter, Thanks for adding this information. I agree completely with what you
said. My fish are the GBG93-21, which came from Mogens Juhl. He had entered
the three pair in the breeders class at the KFN show. I have never met him,
but would be honored to. He raises many fabulous fish. Brad
-----Original Message-----
From: Uhlmann, Peter {PTCB~Basel} <PETER.UHLMANN at roche_com>
To: 'KillieTalk at AKA_Org' <KillieTalk at aka_org>
Date: Monday, January 25, 1999 9:18 AM
Subject: Re: A. joergenscheeli
It is good to hear, that the A. joergenscheeli are bread successfully in
the US as well! I suppose it is the GBG 93/21 strain that is also in
Europe widely distributed at the moment. After most joergenscheeli
strains in the past were often very difficult to breed (and to keep
alive...) this population seems to be rather robust and relatively easy
to breed. Mogens Juhl from Denmark has been breeding several hundreds
(!) in the past two years and due to his generosity many other people
got a chance - and success - with these marvelous fish.
My own experiences are so far in general good and my second generation
of joergenscheeli has reached maturity by now. Nevertheless problems may
still occur when the fish are kept under inappropriate conditions.
According to my experiences, the following points must be considered:
1. Temperature: probably the most important factor for all failures!
Brad mentioned already that his success occurred when he kept the fish
at low temperatures. This is really a 'must'. I think between 18 and 20
°C is optimal, bellow (till 16 °) is no problem, above 22 ° they stop
spawning, and above 24 ° their health suffers. According to Mogens Juhl,
the worst is when they are fed generously at elevated temperatures.
During summer I always give my 'Gabon fish' to a friend of mine who has
his aquariums in a cool cellar where temperatures practically never go
over 22 °. Last summer I kept a few joergenscheeli that I could not
catch out of a big tank. They died without any exception after some
weeks in the hot period. So if you cannot keep the fish at low
temperatures in your aquarium, don't keep them at all.
2. Water chemistry: soft and acidic like all fish from this area, but
usually not the reason for failures.
3. Water quality: much more important! The fish need a good water
quality and like frequent water exchange which may even stimulate the
spawning (which is not the case for all species from that region!).
Adult fish may survive also with a more moderate quality of water but
for fry it is deadly. Fry are very sensitive to bacterial infections. If
kept in a 'empty' tank without gravel, fed with brine shrimp, and kept
in too large numbers, complete loss at a size of about 1 cm (or
earlier...) is predictable. In the beginning I was to greedy and I
collected and hatched about 100 eggs over a short period of time (which
is no problem from a fully grown up pair). The resulting fry I kept to
dense and lost most of them. Now I just 'produce' what I can bring up. I
rise the fry in aquariums with undergravel filters, which proved to be
most useful to maintain a good water quality (a hint I got from Mogens
some years ago). The most simple and convenient way to breed the
joergenscheeli is in fact really the 'method' that brad used. Just let
the fry come up in the parents tank! The adult fish - at least when fed
well - never eat them and you have no problems to bring the fry over
their most critical period.
4. Food: good food is certainly helpful for a successful keeping of
these fish. I usually feed drosophila and different kinds of aquatic
insects.
5. Aggressivity: Like brad mentioned, the fish are aggressive. They are
certainly capable to kill each other but this should not occur when kept
under normal conditions. Their are also individual differences! I kept a
male that damaged all females that were put together with him, but
others under the same conditions lived in perfect harmony with their
partners.
I hope, that these points may be useful for all breeders that will keep
these beautiful fish in the future - and I hope there will be many of
them!
Peter