Pseudepiplatys annulatus

      Pseudepiplatys annulatus, known as the Clown killie, Banded panchax or Rocket panchax, was once much more available in the Keystone Killie Group.  I have been trying to get them reestablished in my fish room, as it is such a beautiful little fish.  So when Lee Harper volunteered to bid on fish at the auction that he and Clay Crawford were attending out at the mini convention in Milwaukee, I asked Lee to try to buy me two pair of annulatus.  Lee was able to get me only a trio of a male and two females, as there were not a lot fish available and there were other bidders.  I set the trio up in a planted 2 and 1/2 gallon tank on November 8, 2012, and was disappointed when a few weeks later one of the young females matured enough to show his true finnage as a male.  A reverse trio.  Well I still had hopes with the one female.

Pseudepiplatys annulatus male, December 18, 2012

 

Female, December 18, 2012

       I was thrilled when on December 5th, I found three eggs while picking through some java moss from their tank.  Tiny, tiny little eggs, but one was dark, indicating a developing baby.  It should hatch real soon, as the literature suggests a two week incubation period.  In the meantime, I had been checking the aquarium for baby fish, as annulatus are known for tolerating their fry in the tank with them.  Yesterday, December 18th, I was delighted to count at least five very small fry in the tank.  At first, the very small fry stay at the very top of the tank, often right at the meniscus at the edges of the tank.

Spotted one

And another

      Yes, the babies start out tiny.  They feed on infusuria that they find naturally available in the tank.  I may suck up a few of the babies in a turkey baster to see if I can provide them with more food by keeping them in a separate container.  Or I might try to add more microscopic live food to the breeding tank.  In either case, I am happy to be getting babies.

      Update 12/31/2012:  Dipped 12 babies from the adult breeder tank, and separated them to three different starter containers.  None of the eggs that have been picked have hatched yet, many days passed the supposed hatching date.  Maybe letting them hatch in the parents tank is the way to go.

      Update 2/23/2013:  Dipped maybe eight babies from reverse trio tank.

      Update 3/23/2013:  Dipped eleven babies from reverse trio tank.     

      Update 4/15/2013:  Two pair of sex-able juveniles moved to a 5 1/2 gallon tank to establish another breeding tank.  Five very young babies and four decent sized babies dipped out of reverse trio breeding tank.  Those babies set up to containers with the five smallest together, and the little larger one split to two each per container.

      Update 5/8/2013:  Five very young babies and three decent sized babies dipped out of reverse trio breeding tank.  Put the 5 and 3 into two separate rearing containers.

      Update 5/28/2013:  Three very young babies and four decent sized babies dipped out of reverse trio tank.  Put them in two separate starter containers.  A lone juvenile female was put in with two adult males in a 5 1/2 gallon tank to hopefully start a reverse trio breeding tank.  No evidence of fry yet in the tank with three males and two females.

      Update 3/16/2014:  Had not spotted a baby in a very long time, and am down to a pair and a single male juvenile.  Two mornings ago before lights came on, I shined a flashlight into the parent tank and spotted one lone minuscule fry!  So the parents are fertile, and they are laying eggs.  Maybe they are eating the fry. This morning I moved the pair to a different well planted 2 1/2 gallon tank.  Hoping to find fry pop up in the newly vacated tank.

      Update 12/3/15:  The fish from the 3/16/14 update have bee long gone.  I purchased six juvies from Gary Haas on 9/12/15 and put them all in a 2 1/2 gallon. Turns out to be three pair! One pair left in the 2.5, one pair moved to a 10 gallon with three cherry shrimp, and one pair moved to a shallow sweater box. The fish look good and have been taking grindals heartily.

Aphyosemion australe schwartzflosse

      Quite a few fish keepers in the Keystone Killie Group maintain  Aphyosemion australe schwartzflosse.  This australe differs from the orange australe by being darker, and having black in the fins as the german word schwartzflosse implies.  Although it is supposed to be one of the easier killies to breed, I can not prove that premise.  I recently had three pair of adult fish, then lost one female.  I just moved the surviving male to a 15 gallon tank with a non productive pair, and the new male is showing lots of interest in the female.

New addition, December 7th,  2012

Note the black lines in the fins

       Before the one female died from the two younger pairs, I was getting some eggs.  This morning I moved seven babies from their little index card file box to a 2 and 1/2 gallon tank.  Maybe the new reverse trio will start to show some babies in the natural tank set up.

Baby australe moved December 7th,  2016

       December 7, 2012:  Female from young mated pair dead.  Male moved to 15 gallon to form reverse trio.  The five gallon breeder tank was used for juvenile dageti.

       December 20, 2012:  Noticed maybe six australe babies in with the dageti.  Obviously from egg hatch after both parents were removed.

       January 2, 2013:  Moved male from breeding set up to 15 gallon tank with the original female and one or two other males.  Female noticed to be dead 12/31/12.  Maybe will get babies to show up.  Now have reverse quad in the 15 gallon tank.  No babies observed to date.


       March 6, 2014: Finally found three fry in with parents in planted 15 gallon tank.  The mother was the only surviving baby in the tank with the father, and he allowed her to grow over the last few months.  She is my last surviving female of this species, so I am delighted to see the babies this morning.  Should try to net some out to rear them in a different tank. 

       May 2, 2016:  Lone remaining pair in 20 gallon long have produced only four nice boys.  Two have been raised in separate jars.  Took the female and one the the young males from the twenty, and put that pair in breeder Box A with java moss.  Figure the young male will be a little less aggressive with the female.  Left the larger male and second young male in the twenty long.  Will try to feed the breeder pair heavily with daphnia.

      May 11,2016:  Found first egg in Box A!  Removed to 3X5 filebox with hair algae to hatch.

Aphyosemion bitaeniatum Ijebu Ode

                               

       The photo above is of a male Aphyosemion bitaeniatum Ijebu Ode, courtesy of aquaticquotient.com.  I had acquired a pair from Lee Harper, and breeding attempts resulted in only three fish, all female.  The female of my pair had died about six weeks ago, and the three female babies have now reached a size that I put all four fish together today.  One female looks a little small, but I figure she will be okay with two other females in the tank.  Hopefully, I will start getting new eggs.

Sheepshead Minnows

      My wife and I were fortunate to visit with some good friends at their vacation home on the Nassawadox Creek on the Eastern Shore of Virginia over the extended week-end of November 9th through November 12th.  The weather was spectacular, cold in the mornings though hitting the sixties in the afternoon.  Great weather for what could have been at that time.

Rick's fishin boat, November 10th, 2012

      The first morning of fishing, we caught four just legal rockfish, and took them back to the house for breakfast.

Couldn't be any fresher

      Rick filleted the fish, and we baited two crab pots with fish heads, and the minnow trap with fish innards.  We only saw two undersized crabs in the pots.  They were put back to grow bigger and fatter for next year.  The minnow trap had quite a lot of minnows, mostly mummichogs, but also a few sheepshead minnows, Cyprinodon variegatus.  I had seen sheepshead minnows in breeding color maybe 15 years ago, and will never forget the brilliant blue and orange colors on the courting males.  I let all of the mummichogs go free on Sunday, removed the bait, and returned the trap to the creek with seven sheepshead minnows, two of which appeared to be females.  On Monday when I pulled the trap to get ready for an early return trip on Tuesday, I was surprised to find the non baited trap with nearly fifty fish!  All of the new fish being mummichogs.  If they were so insistent upon being caught, I decided I should keep a few.  Unfortunately one of the female sheepshead minnows had found her way out of the trap.  So six sheepshead minnows and five mummichogs spent the night in a five gallon bucket, then survived the 3 and 1/2 hour drive home the next day.
      I mixed up water with aquarium sea salt at 1/2 strength.  The sheepshead minnows all did fine, and have settled into their new digs quite nicely.

Female on the left with black spot on her dorsal fin

      The fish are actually prettier than I expected, with a couple of the males showing some faint blue and orange coloration.  They are sometimes known as pupfish, and they remind me of littles puppies as they rush to the front of the tank hoping for some food.  They apparently will eat anything, and days ago wiped out the persistent growth of hair algae in this tank.  I have since been gathering more of this dreaded algae from other tanks, and will soon exhaust my supply.  I am thinking about acclimating a couple of the males to fresh water to see if they can clean up some of my other tanks.  I will be researching and experimenting with trying to get the fish to spawn.  I will also look forward to my next collection trip to acquire some additional females.  They have been a lot of fun so far.

George's Bio Lab

      I have been keeping tropical fish, plants, and many things biological for 50 years now.  Man, that makes me sound old.  Looking in the mirror kind of backs up that idea.  But I still have my love of keeping fish, crayfish, shrimp, killifish, and live food cultures.  This blog will help me to keep better records of my little guests, as it is much easier to keep records and pictures in this blog format.  So here we go....

George's Fishroom,  11/29/2012

      My fishroom is in the basement, and I end up spending a lot of my time down in my cave.  I built in a false wall that holds the larger tanks on the left.  That section contains tanks ranging in size from twenty gallons to 100 gallons.  Behind that wall is my working section of the fishroom or my lab.  There I have many smaller tanks, as well as lots of different live food cultures going.  Some sort of experiment is always going on, trying to find better ways to start fry or to try some new live food culture.

Behind the big tanks

      So now I have finally taken the plunge to start my second blog, having blogged about my gardening experiences for nearly two years.  Please visit my gardening blog if you have some time:

http://fromseedtoscrumptious.blogspot.com/