Editorial

Lutz Döring
Do we need another magazine? - Yes,
because International Aquarium is more
than a magazine
From the earliest stages of develop-
ment it was clear that to be truly success-
fu l this journal would have to find a way to
bridge the continental gap and be presen-
ted to a truly international audience. We
are not just after a larger number of rea-
ders. lt is said that we live in a small
world, but the differences between hobby-
ists on different continents have kept us
all from learning from each other. Accom-
plishments in Europe, America, Asia, Afri-
ca and Australia are rarely reported trans-
globally... until now.
The mainstream aquarium publications
have done a good job of moving some
knowledge around the world, but the abili-
ty to do that in print formal is limited by
the time it takes to produce a copy, the
cost of production and cost of delivery
Everything changed with the advent of
the Internet. An explosion of information
expanded our hobby in directions few of
us would have predicted 20 years ago As
the on-line aquarium hobby flourished,
the paper periodicals suffered. The unfort-
unate reality is that, by relying only upon
the Internet for their information, many
hobbyists gave up quality information for
quantity. But the Iide is shifting Good in-
formation has become valuable again,
and the technology of today makes it pos-
sible to deliver that information in new
and exciting ways, to everyone, everyw-
here and immediately.
Lutz Döring, in Germany, is the true
creator of International Aquarium. This is
his dream, but one that I have shared for
some time.
 The fi rst ta lks of collaboration between us
on some kind of media project happened
over beers in Kribi, Cameroon two years ago
Then we were tal king about doing translati-
ons for each other, but the concept grew ..
SoWhyNot?
With this edition, which is free for you to
download onto your iPad, we want to give
you an idea of what you can expect when the
first full editions are published in 2012. You
will see original articles from some of the
best-known aquarists, scientists and industry
Ieaders, on topics ranging from expeditions of
discovery to how to build a fish room . Articles
on breeding, fish health, planted aquariums,
freshwater invertebrates, taxonomy and con-
servation .. . and that is just the first issuel
The aim of International Aquarium is to pro-
vide "infotainment"... valuable information in
an entertaining way. The digital format per-
mits an almost endless range of possibilities
You will see a Iot more photography than you
are used to seeing in a printed magazine
And you will see video, with audio. Same film
will support a written piece, and some will be
stand-alone documentaries. New Ieveis of in-
teraction will be added as our journal evolves.
We should all value good information from
every facet of the aquarium world. Scientists
offer new insights (and species), answer diffi-
cult questions and offer us an understanding
of fish in their habitats that most us will never
experience Hobbyists are in a unique positi-
on to add to the scientist's contributions by
reporting Observations that are more than a
snapshot of a moment in a stream. Aquarium
industry expends enormaus amounts of
money on research and product develop-
ment, without which the pace of technological
growth in our hobby would be painfully slow
Everyone has something to contribute to our
communal knowledge, and th is journal wil l
seek to present information from everyone
with something useful to share.
I have been a passionate aquarium hobby-
ist since I was a ch ild. At some point, I do not
really know when, the hobby itself became
my passion I dedicate more time to the
people in the hobby than I do to keeping fish.
That is why I am a part of this project I know
that International Aquarium can become a
truly international crossroads for aquarium
knowledge
Blah blah blah ... nice words. Now I will Iet
you get to the fish l
• Ted Judy • Lutz Döring
Aquanum International #0, 2011 Intern

Aquari1m
Iateraatioaal
Content lssue #0, 201 1

S ln Search of the Princess Bees

by Lutz Döring

~ 13 A Taste of Chocolate
l!!l.ll!!!:l by Mark Denaro
24 100 Bridges to Sarmi
by Gary Lange

34 Discus in a Planted Aquarium

by Klaus Schmitz

~ 40 Spawning Corydoras dup/icareus

~ byTedJudy

48 North African Haplochromine Cichlids

by Anton Lamboj

t~-~ 54 Beware! Hybrids!

C -:- by Roland Kipper

~ 64 Paradise Fish - More than a Beginners Fish! .

ISIII by Jorg V1erke ~r-:; w l.cl Bra:~dJJJ~

~ 70 Pelvicachromis puleher "Ndonga"

~ by Lutz Döring

74 Cichlids for the Nano-Aquarium!

by Wolfgang Staeck

94 Sewel/ia lineolata
von lngo Seidel
 ln Search of the Princess
Bees
As an Aquarist in Vietnam
by Lutz Döring
Andreas Karge reported a collection of
what he called the 'Princess Bee' shrimp
in Vietnam. I wanted to film these wild
shrimp in their natural habitat, so Frede-
rick Bitter and I booked flights on Vietnam
Airlines to fly to Danang in April 2010.
Exactly one day later lceland's Eyjafjal-
lajökull volcano, dormant for 200 years,
erupts. Thank God we plan to go in the
other direction! When air traffic in Europe
almost halts in mid April because of the
ash cloud, we fear the worst; but two days
before our departure on April 22, air traffic
from Frankfurt resumes and we can start
our joumey in search of the Princess
Be es.
We arrive in Danang where we check in to
a cheap, but very comfortable, hotel in Hoi
An • south of the one-million person metropo-
lis. This hotel would be the central starting
point for our expeditions to the nearby Hai
Van mountains and surrounding countryside.
This mountain range, with its curvy roads on
the eastern slope that climb up to the Cloud
Pass, has become weil known among shrimp
enthusiasts as a hot spot for new shrimp. Ha-
bitats of undescribed Paracaridina shrimp
species can be found here.
The day after our arrival we drive out on
the main highway, bypassing the center of
the city. lt is obvious that Danang is still not a
tourist town, but there is booming hotel buil-
ding on the ocean side of the city with miles
of sandy beaches. The road into the hills pas-
ses the Marble Mountains, which have lang
been mined for marble. During the war the
heavily eroded hills served as hospital and
shelter from bomb attacks.
From the outskirts of the city we could see
the misty mountains, and could also see that
the weather would not be good. A thick wall
of clouds covers the raute up to the pass; it
was easy to see how the Cloud Pass got its
name.
Aquanum International #0, 2011
The weather makes the 'c/oud mountains' glo-
rious' (Photo Iaken from a moving car.)
Finally, a stream with water' However, without
shrimp.
Exped1t1on
This road is an important route between
the north and south of the country. The
mountains extend between Hue and
Danang where they come close to the
South China Sea. The road climbs with
switchbacks up to almost 500 meters
above sea Ievei, crossing many dry creeks
choked with stones. These gullies must
have water in the rainy season - and that
is where we will find the Princess Bee. Our
frustration grows with every dry stream we
cross. We are here at the end of the dry
season, and every stream we find is redu-
ced to a triekle or worse.
Our mood is improves a little despite slo-
wing down for fog. Agai n and again we
stop to examine the small streams - one fi-
nally with water. What initially Iooks quite
promising turns out again to be just a trick-
le. The strenuous climb is unsuccessful. I
am slightly unnerved and find it hard to
even make Iandscape photographs and
enjoy the fantastic views over the South
China Sea. An unattended group of goats
appears by the roadside searching for any-
th ing edible. While not a Substitute for the
planned underwater shots, the novelty of
the flock of goats offers a briet interruption
of the climb.
As Fried rich Bitter explains to our dri-
vers, again, what we are looking for. One of
them points to the puddle in front of him
from the nearly waterless q uarry on the
uphill slopes we had just examined. The
1-meter wide ditch in front of our feet holds
water. And in there is lifel
We Have Found Them!
Between rocks and grass, a number of
brightly-dark dwarf shrimp scuttle through
the water just few inches deep. This small
dwarf biotope not only houses a fairly large
number of shrimp, it also is home water
striders and other aquatic.
Aquanum International #0, 20 11
Our first tocatity 1vim Paracaridma sp. 'Prmcess Bee'
The measured water parameters corre-
spond what we know we should see: pH
about 6 and hardness zero.
Only the water Iernparature was a surprise
at 26·c, significantly higher than previously
known. Sut this was not surprising in the bla-
zing sun and the low water Ievei.
The underwater camera reveals that the
shrimp are not uniformly colored . They are
not as rich in cantrast as some pictures we
had seen, but some among them have a
body color that is not the expected black, but
a red-brown. The main body band between
the darker heads and tails is weaker that the
etassie princess bee. ls the color depended
on the food? This we cannot say for certain,
but there are striking red-brown minerat de-
posits, possibly oxidized iron, in many places
on the surface of the rocks. How can so
many animals survive in a pool so small? De-
tritus and plants seem to be the only renewa-
ble food source in this habitat infested with
dwarf shrimps.
Filming this population is difficult, as the
smallest movement of the camera disturbs
Exped1t1on
The habitat is very narroiV IVilh no more man 30Cm
ofiVater.
the sediments in the ditch that is barely cove-
red in water. Again and again Vietnamese re-
peatedly stop their bikes to Iook at what we
are doing there. We soon continue towards
Hue in the hope that this micro-pool is not the
only water-bearing stream with Princess's
Sees.
We encounter the next stream only a few
hundred meters fu rther up the road. This time
there is plenty of water, but no Princess
Sees. Frederick does find a different, slightly
unassuming colared shrimp. We discussed
whether we should Iook further up in this
stream for the Paracaridina , but do not get
the chance to start because a dense cloud of
mist moves slowly downward. ln just a few
minutes these clouds cover us in deep fog -
too much of an obstacle to overcome when
searching for dwarf shrimps!
We break off the search on this day. Alt-
hough this was not what we sought, we did
have a small success. Our ultimate goal has
not been reached. Andreas Karge found Prin-
cess Sees in very small biotopes on this
mountain, so there must be something more
than what we have found so far.
Aquanum International #0, 2011
... but was fu/1 of shrimps in all size.
The climb beflveen the rocks was foggy and
damp.
Exped1t1on
Our first tocality, a small roadside ditch'
Next Attempt'
The next day we head out again on the
road towards Hai Van Pass. The morning is
gray, but the further we penetrate into the
outer districts of Danang, the more it clears
up. Although thick clouds hang like cream
above the clouds-mountains, our new dri-
ver says it will all be gone when we reach
the top He seems to be right, as we drive
out of Danang the weather welcomes us
with brilliant sunshine, the cloud-mountains
are covered only at the highest peaks At
least the weather is on our side!
Help comes to us from an unexpected
source; during one of our stops a Vietna-
mese man who speaks English weil ap-
proaches us and asks what we are doing
We explain our mission and what we are
looking for, and he teils us that we are loo-
king in the wrong place! The man Ieads us
to a military base and spoke with the sol-
diers on our behalf. We were given perm is-
sion to Iook for shrimps in an area th at we
had not been able to try before our new fri-
end came to our rescue.
We come to a place where a vent from a
highway tunnel has water crashing out of it
onto rocks. There is a small pond along the
access road that at first Iooks to only
muck-covered stones and rocks ; but there
are plenty of fish and tadpoles that are
easy to see.
Aquanum International #0, 2011
Die meisten der Bäche, die die Strasse kreuzten,
waren nahezu ausgetrocknet. Auch der Aufstieg
zwischen den riesigen Felsbrocken, brachte nur sel-
ten Erfolg. (Foto.· F Bitter)
Exped1t1on
There is no aquatic vegetation at all, only
some moss growing on a few rocks along
the shoreline. The water is clear, so long as
you do not move and stir up the dirt, and
there is plenty of water entering the pool
from a waterfall fed by runoft from the sum-
mit of the Hai Van mountains.
This ditch in the military zone is the habitat
of Paracaridina sp. 'Princess Bee'
The water temperatures here are much
cooler, 23·c, even th ough it is now lunchti-
me and the sun is directly overhead. The
pH is about 6. The fish we see isatype of
redtail botia (possibly Nemachelius bach-
meansis), which is present in large num-
bers and in all sizes. I think, "this is nothing
again!", but nol. .. a shrimp! Unfortunately it
is green and not a Princess See. But a
shrimp nonetheless, and where there is
one there are usually othersl
They live in company of Red-tailed loaches,
probably Nemacheilus bachmaensis.
Aquanum International #0, 2011 Exped1t1on

The habttat at lhe vent station of the tunnelwas the breakthrough'

Sure enough, after looking a little more .. .
there they arel The Princess See! Their
high-contrast body patterns stand out like a
beacon compared to the green shrimp, large
Iadpoies and botias !hat they are feeding
along side. They are far more contrastad in
color than the weakly banded shrimp we
found in yesterday's puddle.
stream is fine gravel, like that of the pond, but
here it is found only sporadically between
rocks.
There are no plants in the stream, which is
shaded only by a few bushed growing bet-
ween the rocks. The stream is no more than
three meters wide, but already we see shrimp
crawling over the creek bed. And there are
many of theml They are fearlessly searching
for food in full sun. which suggests !hat there
are no predators here.

...1
Olher than teaves and detntus, there 1s not-
hing edible in sight.

We climb along the edge of the waterfall to

the top, trying not to disturb the sediment and A Ceature from Another Worfd? - No, a may-
fouling the clear water. The bottom of the fly taNa'
Aquanum International #0, 2011
The Princess Bee also shows variability in the aqua-
rium.. (Photo: F Bitter)
Preclators?
Another creature on the rocks captures my
attention? What is it? A spider? Water scorpi-
on? Probably not, as they seem to be feeding
on the growing algae, not on the other ani-
mals forag ing along side them. They have
many legs and are many in number. I think of
the movie "Aiien" ... nonsensei Now I remem-
ber... they are mayfly larvae, but much larger
than the species from home, with their typical
th ree-pronged tail and scurrying movements.
Either there is enough food for all of these
creatures on the algae-covered cliff, or there
is no competition between shrimp and insect.
Analher species sold under the name of the
'Hai Van Shrimp'.
The redta il loaches we found in the pool
are also here, again in all sizes. Who is a
Exped1t1on
Plant food is the ideal food' (Photo: F Bitter)
hunter and who is the prey in this small com-
munity of organisms? Surely not the Princess
Sees, which have only been known to feed
on leaves and detritus. lf this is the case,
then feeding Princess Sees animal-based
commercial foods in the aquarium may be
why so many die after a short time.
Are the loaches eating the shrimp? That is,
in my opinion, unlikely. A shrimp hatchling
may occasionally disappear into the stomach
of a grazing loach, but the fish are not active-
ly searching for the crustaceans that sur-
reund them. The incidental ingestion of a
shrimp by a loach is likely a very infrequent
accident.
ln The Aquarium
Keeping the water very clean and the PO-
pulation density from becoming overcrowded
are necessary for successful maintenance of
Princess Sees in the aquarium A diet that is
rich in protein does not correspond to what
the shrimp eat naturally, so I recommend that
the animals be provided with plenty of dead
leaves, which provide the detritus they need,
and to feed commercial foods sparingly. Keep
the temperature between 17 and 24·c, and a
colony of Princess Sees should reproduce re-
gularly. This is important because not many
are being bred in the hobby.
Aquanum International #0, 2011 Exped1t1on

Princess Sees and redtail loaches are

not the only interesting organisms we find
in Vietnam. The country is rich in habitals
and diversity of fishes. We saw sucker fins,
mullets, gobies and many others... but
more about them later.
So we manage to complete or goal of fin-
ding the Princess See and making some vi-
deos of them in the wild. Sut !hat green
shrimp is very interesting too. I wonder if
there is another location with more of them.
We'll see... maybe next time!

I Lutz Oöring

Watertalls are a natural barrler to the movement of

predators in the shrimp habitat. (Photo: F.Bitter)
Aquanum International #0, 2011
The 'normal' chocolate gouramie, Sphae-
richthys osphromenoides (photo: F Bitter)
Formerly a subspecies of S. osphromeoides,
the very similar S. selatanensis.
Care and Breed1ng
r a::lcllng Cf10Wl~ la G<J!.JfOJH1l83
Before purchasing any Sphaerichthys,
preparations must be made for feeding
them. Offering a variety of live foods is one
of the most important steps to success with
these fish. There are many options in live
foods, and instructions for cu ltu ri ng them
are widely available, so 1'11 only Iist the
most desirable here. Daphnia are a fantas-
tic food and can be cultu red or col lected if
you're lucky enough to live near a daphnia
pond. Cyclops can also be cultured or
collected and are another excellent choice.
Polycultures of tropical red worms and
Grindal worms are fairly easy to establish
and maintain, and both of these are excel-
lent foods for the gouramies. I like to chop
both of these worms into smaller pieces
prior to feeding This is easily accomplis-
hed using a dedicated cutting board and an
herb mincer (readily available from any
cooking specialty store). White worms can
be fed as an occasional treat, but due to
their high fat content they should not be a
regular addition to the diet. Brine shrimp,
eilher nauplii or adult depending on the
size of your fish , can be fed regularly and
can constitute the daily staple of the diet,
with the other live foods being offered on a
rotating basis as the second daily feeding.
Many hobbyists like to feed live black
worms or tubifex worms. The downside to
these is the potential for introducing unde-
sirable bacteria to the tank. I do not sug-
gest using them as a staple in the diet, but
they can be offered occasionally. lf your
fish are not spawning, the addition of black
worms to the diet may trigger spawning.
Mosquito larvae should be offered when
they can be collected. You could try to cul-
ture mosquitoes in your home, but I sus-
pect the rest of your family may not appre-
ciate that! Live bloodworms can be collec-
ted (if you can find them) and are one of
the best live foods.
Aquanum International #0, 2011
Closed fins on thts ptcture at S vatllanll (Photo: F.
Bitter)
Glass worms can also be collected in some
areas, and can be fed to large adults, but
should not be offered to young fish.
Prepared foods should also be offered.
Very high quality tlakes ca n be fad a couple
of Iimes a week. High grade pellets, appro-
priately sized for the mouths of the fish you're
feeding, can also be offered a few Iimes a
week. Be sure to remove any uneaten dry
food that is not eaten within an hour or so of
feeding so that it do not rot in the tank. lf your
fish don't readily eat the flakes or pellets, try
a few more Iimes.
lf they still don't accept dry food, disconti-
nue its use, but offer 11 once every few weeks
to see if the fish w111 Iake 1t I beheve !hat fee-
ding a really good tlake or pellet w111 increase
the range of vitamins and minerals in the fis-
hes' die!, so don't g1ve up on dry food too
quickly.
Frozen foods can also be offered a few
Iimes a week. lf you can't collect live blood-
worms then frozen bloodworms are probably
'
the first choice. Frozen vers1ons of any of lhe
previously ment1oned live foods can also be
offered along with generahzed d1ets 1ntended
for smaller fish . A good rule of thumb is to
feed eilher live daphnia or live brine shrimp
once a day, sorne other live food once a day
and a prepared food once a day. Thai will
provide a well-rounded diet that should keep
- -- Care and BrecdlllfJ
Tnis s. ospnromenoides is also very dark, more Ob-
servation is necessary. (Pfloto: F. Bitter)
your fish in optimum condition and get them
spawning on a regular basis.
Bwylng H~e1m; Fl~i' J:; ~~~/
While all four Sphaerichthys species are
available to the hobbyist, obtaining healthy
and happy individuals may be a different
story altogether. lf purchasing your fish local-
ly, be sure to spend some ti me observing
them before making a buying decision.
Healthy fish will be breathing normally and
will be fairly active. Their unpaired !ins will ex-
tend and close as they move around lhe tank.
lf their breathing is rapid and uneven they
may be suffering from gill tlukes, a common
malady with this genus. lf their fins are exten-
ded or clamped all the time, they are under
stress and may be sick. Examina all indlvldu-
als closety for any signs of velvet, a parasrte
to which lhey are particularty vulnerable
Clamped fins can be evidence of velvet. 01-
seased or stressed fish should not be purcha-
sed. You will have another opportunrty to ob-
tain lhese fish, so wait for a group with wh1ch
your chances of success will be much grea-
ter. ln the Ideal situation, you should see the
fish eat prior to purchasing them. lf you're
buying from an online dealer, be sure to
purchase from a reputable company !hat has
the experience to keep and ship delicate fish
successfully.
Aquanum International #0, 2011 ------ Care and Breedlll<J

A young s. setatanens1s Find out what water parameters the fish

are being kept in and try to set up your tank
to match those as a starting point.

J.\ N<~rr<:.~'tl f<<~fl9"=' <:.~f IJV<~!&r C::andi!I<JriJ

All the species inhabit peat swamps or
blackwater streams, and will do best if aqua-
rium water conditions match the very soft
and acidic water of their natural habitat
When you first get chocolate gouramies it is
best to start your group out in water simllar
#headline#
to what the dealer is keeping them in. I keep
fish that are being held for ship-Out 1n water
of 6-6.5 pH, with moderate hardness, becau-
se that is fairty easy for most hobbylsts to
match and the fish will be safe in those con-
ditions. The tank should be decorated wlth
driftwood and a few almond, beech or oak
leaves and lit with dim lighting. I like to add
sorne plants !hat will do weil in these condlli-
ons, but this is not necessary. Cryptocoryne
sp. are probably lhe best choice if you want
to set up a biotope style tank, but Anubias
sp., Java Ferns and the smaller Nymphaea
sp., such as N. rubra or N. stellata, will also
workwell.
Aquanum International #0, 2011 - --
Sma/1 rasboras, such as these TngonostJgma hen-
geli, make good tank mates tor choeolate goura-
mies.(Photo: I. Seidel)
Chocolates do best in a species tank or in
a biotope setup with a school of peaceful, in-
offensive fish that will neilher intimidate them
nor out-compete them at Ieeding time. A
small, peaceful cyprin id such as one of the
Boraras or Trigonostigma species would be a
good choice. Adding the cyprinids will provide
the gouramies with an early warning system
in case dangar threatens, will make them
more comfortable in the tank and therefore
more active. Because the pH will be very low
biological filtration wi II not be particularly ef-
fective • because most bactena don't do weil
at low pH Ieveis. I prefer to use box filters.
Add a bit of gravel to the bottom of the box to
weigh it down and then cover !hat with filter
floss. I sandwich some peat moss between
layers of filter floss to further ac1d1fy and sof-
ten the water. Chem1cal filtratlon can be ac-
complished through the add1t1on of activated
carbon, Poly Filter or a filtratlon resin to the
box filter. Setting the tank up 1n th1s way will
result in the pH and hardness decreasmg to
the ideal Ievei for these spec1es gradually
over time. Adding aquarium salt at a ratlo of 1
teaspoon to 1 Iabiaspoon per 5 gallons is be-
Care and BrendlllfJ
Boraras brigittae, and other members of this genus,
are excellent tor keeping With choeolate gouram1es
because ot their small size. (Photo: I. Seidel)
neficial for these species and will help to
keep velvet in check.
EJr;~;~dlng C,;h!J<::<JJ~r;~ G<JI.Jr~rr i;~:;.
All four of the Sphaerichthys species are
mouthbrooders. When most hobbyists !hink
of mouthbrooding fish, the ones !hat come to
mind first are the matemal mouthbrooding
haplochromine cichlids of Lake Malawi. Unli-
ke cichlids, the mouthbrooding Iabyrinth fish
are all patemal mouthbrooders in other
words, the males brood the eggs and fry. This
makes for some interesting behavioral diffe-
rences when compared to cichlids. Fernales
tend to be the dominant individuals in a
group, and they initlate spawning. ln some
cases, the female will appear to guard the
brooding male. II is common in a commumty
situatlon for a male to release a brood and
then spawn again within a few days Gare
must be taken to ensure that males have time
to recover after releasing a brood before they
spawn again. Doing this several times in suc-
cession will result in a much weakened and
stressed male, which could eventually cause
hisdemise.
Aquanum International #0, 2011
S. acrostoma shoutd be kept at a temperature of 78
to 80 degrees.
Most males can be left in the
tank with the fry for a while to
recover, but some males may
eat their fry within a few days
of releasing them.
Care and Breed1ng
lf the brooding male is kept with a mixed
sex group it is also possible that he will eat
or spit out the eggs he is carrying in order
to spawn with another female. Wh ile I don't
advocate moving brooding males too soon,
I do recommend gently moving them to
their own tank approximately 5-7 days
post-spawning The brooding tank should
be set up with water from the original aqua-
rium and some small flowerpots or other
caves to give the male some places to
hide. Lighting should be very dim or only
from ambient room light. The more gently
the male is moved, the less likely he will be
to eat or spit out the eggs lf possible,
catch him in a specimen box or jar and
move him in water rather than netting him
out of the tank.
Depending on water temperature, males
will release their fry about 14 days after
spawning. When fry are observed swim-
ming in the tank, start adding some infuso-
rians and newly hatched (ie. within a few
hours of hatching) baby brine shrimp.
While not all the fry will be large enough to
accept the brine shrimp, those that do will
have a significant fin up in development.
Within a few days, all the fry should be able
to eat the brine shrimp and this should pro-
vide the primary part of their diet. Micre-
worms and vinegar eels can be fed alterna-
tely with the brine shrimp nauplii. Most
males can be left in the tank with the fry for
a while to recover, but some males may eat
their fry within a few days of releasing
them. lt is best to move the male to another
tank and feed it very weil for a couple of
weeks before returning it to the aquarium
housing the rest of the adults.
Aquanum International #0, 20 11
An a ttractrve S. vati/anti. (PIIOto· I 5eldel)
When kept in a group, it 1s not uncommon
for only the dominant female to display full
color. The subdominant females will often dis-
play male coloration, making thi s species ex-
tremely difficult to accurately sex. Dominant
females have alternating vertical bars of red
and a really uniqua shade of blue-green with
almost black somewhat sword-shaped bars in
between. The unpaired fins are red, edged in
black and tipped with wh ite. There are dark
horizontal stripes on the head and the eye is
red. Males and subdominant females are es-
sentially brown fish , although they sometimes
display a sharply delineated darker brown in
the rear half of the body There is a black stri-
pe from the snout to the eye, and a cream cO-
Iored stripe from the eye to the caudal pedun-
cle. A row of cream colored spots 1s along the
lower part of the body, and a small ocellus is
typically present on the caudal peduncle. The
unpaired fins are brown. w1th the dorsal and
anal fins edged in white and the caudal fin
having a clear edge. Th1s coloralion helps
them to blend 1n wrth the leaf lrtter !hat fills
their home. They will swim in all d1redions,
tuming somewhat on lheir s1des in addition to
swimming vertically, which helps to further
the illusion !hat they are small leaves. A defi-
nite pecking order will be estabhshed among
Care and BroPdi iHJ
s. a crostoma, the moonlight chocolate gouramte, ts
n ot as pretty as the o ther spectes m the genus.
(Ph oto.· I. 5eidel)
the females in any group, while the males all
seem to get along fairly weil. lnterestingly, se-
veral aquarists have reported that their tank-
raised F1 generation fish all show the domi-
nant female pattern regardless of sex.
Twa C.:ha~al~Jt~ GtJ!.JfOJml~" thOJt MOJy EJ:J
1·J ::~w ta YtJu
Sphaerichthys acrostoma, the moonlight
chocolate gourami, was described by Vierke
in 1979. lt inhabits streams in southern Bor-
neo and should be kept at a Iamperature of
78 to 80 degrees. This is the least colorful
species in the genus, sporfing a pale brown
body color !hat can sometimes have an over-
lying green sheen. lt will sometimes display a
clark horizontal mid-body stripe. The dark stn-
pe on the face and the reddish stripes that
run from the eye across the gill covers are
darker in females. This species can grow to 6
cm in length.
S. selatanensis, the cherry or cross banded
chocolate gourami, was also described by
Vierke in 1979. Prior to that time, it was
thought to be a subspecies of S . osphrome-
noides. II inhabits blackwater streams in sou-
theastem Borneo and should be maintained
at a Iamperature of 78 to 80 degrees F.
Aquanum International #0, 2011
s. setatanensis unterscneidet s1cn von S. os-
pnromenoides durcn das aufftJIIige scnacn-
brettmuster auf dem KOrper. (Foto: tngo Sei-
del)
Can you provide the right li-
ving conditions? They try it!
------ Care and Breedlll<J
This is the smallest species in the genus,
only reaching 5 cm in length The color pat-
tern is very similar to !hat of S. osphromeno-
ides, with the addition of a few more vertical
bars and a horizontal cream stripe !hat runs
from the eye to the caudal peduncle, giving it
an overall Checkerboard appearance and
making a rather attractive package. A red
color can suffuse the brown on the body and
the unpaired fins are somewhat reddish
when the fish are very weil settled in. leadmg
to the common name. Fernales are generally
more colorful than males.
lf you have the ability to raise lrve food ,
can provide the right water conditions and
just happen to have an empty tank ava1lable,
consider having a taste of chocolate by ad-
ding one of the chocolate gouramies to your
fish collection. Bon appetit!
Mari< Denara
Aquanum International #0, 2011 Advertising
 100 Bridges to Sarmi
Living Your Dream
by Gary Lange
Something is wrong when the air you
exhale is cooler and drier than the air you
inhale; but if you are in the jungles of New
Guinea (Papua West, formerly lrian Jaya),
th4ln it's just about par for the course. We
weht on a short two-kilometer hike to
Danau (Lake) Pianfon, which had never
been searched for rainbowfish before. We
were hoping that we might find a new
Glossolepis species here, since you often
find them in lakes or slow moving bodies
of water. This Iake is far enough away
from other bodies of water that it might
contain something new.
This particular adventure was actually our
trip, as we were following a
~rlrtrr.,.,i from Sentani around the edge of
the island northwest to Sarm i. Dan, my mis-
sionary triend and guide for the trip, is bles-
sed with a fantastic boss who allowed him to
borrow his 4-wheel drive diese! truck for three
days. lt has air conditioning and seating for
five inside Dan, Johannes Graf (my triend
from Germany), two rather ripe Papuans and
me. You really didn't notice too much when
the windows were down but when the rains
were pelting us, forcing the windows up
let's say it was a real experiencel At times
like this you tell that inner crabby voice to
shut up and remember that you' re on an ad-
venture of a lifetime; you're out chasing rain-
bowfishl We also had a couple of other Papu-
ans in the bed of the truck with the fishing
and camping equipment So instead of com-
plaining about the smell, I was thankful that I
wasn't in the back of the truck during those
torrential rains.
A Iot of the road is freshly paved "Papuan"
asphall That's about a o/. inch layer of
asphalt with a one or two inch layer of gravel
below it Not very much support in soggy
jungle conditions. lt Iooks nice for a season or
two, but then gives way and can produce pot-
holes of biblical proportions. lt was a long and
bumpy ride, as Dan would be able to accele-
rate to almost 40 miles per hour and then
have to quickly brake because we had arri-
ved at yet another bridge.
Aquan um International #0 2011
The Truck that Dan's Boss Iet him borr01v. The
downside, we had to Iake our wet c/othes and
muddy shoes oft every time we got back in atter
a creek survey
Some p/aces the road was great, other places
lhe road was gone.
Exped1t1on
Although they had fixed a Iot of this road,
the bridges haven't been touched and jley
are all made out of wood. Some are in de-
cent condition and can be easily crossed,
but with oth ers it was a wonder that they
are still standing! Every one of them gave
us a good jolt in the cabin. I would someti-
mes Iook out the back window expecting to
see the Papuans in the truck bed being ca-
tapu lted onto the road. Somehow they ma-
naged to hang on. lt is said that there are a
150 bridges on the road to Sarmi. I lost
count at about 50, probably when the con-
cussion headache started; or at least it
seemed like a strong possibility that I had a
concussion. When the Papuan asphalt
gave out the road looked more like a
moonscape pocked with axle-busting
holes. The guys over the back axle were
bouncing like ping pong balls with every
jolt
We wasted almost a whole day trying to
obtain permission to fish one of two lakes
in this region. The old chief listened, but in
the end decided we weren't going to offer
him enough money One of the Papuans
with us told us later that he had been char-
ged 850,000 Rupiah (about $100 dollars)
to hunt for crocodiles there. Crocsl Nobody
told me there were crocs there. I guess the
fishing gods were looking over me, and
that rejection was a good thing I think that
might have been true, because when we
reached the next Iake the next ch ief not
only agreed to Iet us fish, but also insisted
that we stay at their logging camp lt isn't a
Holiday lnn, or even a Motel 6, but it has a
wood floor, mattresses to sleep on, a hot
plate to cook our rice and sardines on and
even a window air cond itioner! lt really feit
like heaven.
Aquanum International #0, 20 11 Exped1t1on

~ - -~-
.. •~
.:J

jf •
••
.- •· •
--·-·
•
Aquanum International #0, 20 11
We wasted a Iot of time getting the nat rrxed, but at
least we werenf out eollecting m the to"ential raln.
So we spent the next hour pulling off the
tire and putting on the spare. After collecting
we would have to backtrack down the road
for several miles to get our tire fixed. We
were less than halfway to Sarmi, and we
could only hope we wouldn't get analher flat
and then become stranded. Thai flat Iire
would eventually cost us a day of travel.
You get an 1dea from th1s photo just hOiv
light they can hang on!
Mer we finally got the tire changed the
chiefs right hand man led us to Lake Pianfon.
1 smiled at his very unstylish green nubber
boots that come up almost to his knees. I was
hoping the boots weren't for deep mud, but
we had seen worse and that wasn't going to
stop us. They were such goofy and awkward
looking boots! II wasn't long before I realized
why he was wearing them when I saw
streaks of blood running from my ankles.
Exped111on
Leeches seem to sense where you are and move
quici<Jy to take adVantage.
Land leeches!
Here in the States the leeches have en-
ough decency to only attack when we're
collecting in the water. Not so in Papua. ln my
head 1was screaming like a little girl as I was
pulling off the attached leeches as quickly as
possibte. "Shut up Lange, you are living your
dream and collecting rainbowfishes", I kept
reminding myself. There were so many of
them that we started a leech contest to see
how many leeches we found attached or
about to be attached to our bodies. Like mos-
quitoes, you can start feel ing the leeches be·
fore they take a bite and flick them off. After
they dig in they perform some amazing bio.
chemistry. Thanks to some of the proteins in
their saliva, which doesn't allow your blood to
coagulate, when you pull them off you bleed
like a stuck pig.
Leeches are quite sticky, and there is a
certain art to flicking them off. Sort of like a
small earthworm thafs been out of the soil for
some time and has that very sticky layer of
goo on them. Hearken back to your grade
school days and the art of flicking off a boo-
ger. One of the Papuans that were with us
briefly had a leech stuck on his eyeball! l'm
really happy to have my steamed up "safety"
glasses.
Aquan um International #0 2011
Once a leech digs in their enzymes make the
bite mark bleed for a lang time.
Dan and the gang arriving back atter checking
out the other side of the Iake for rainbowfish.
Nothing but more of the same dark algae colo-
tecl water and gudgeons.
Exped1t1on
Finally we arrived at the Iake. This one is
!arger than other lakes that Dan and I IJpve
fished in the past, but it is similar. Trees
come up right next to the water's edge and
grow into the Iake. Five or six feet out from
shore the water is over our heads. The only
access is an area that has been chopped
away, probably so a canoe can land there.
The local guides assured us that the dark
algae-covered water does not conta in any
crocs - but then they didn't offer to help us
seine either. lnto the muck we wen!..
we're living the dream! Hau! after hau!, only
ugly looking gudgeons were caught in our
seine. Ok, maybe it's really a nightmare;
hope I wake up soon. Dan, Johannes and
the tribal elder waved over a local fisher-
man for a ride to the other side of the Iake.
Perhaps there might be some rainbowfish
were there isn't so much algae There isn't
enough room for all of us in the dugout so I
stayed behind with several of the other Pa-
puans fighting off the leeches. I guess that,
like mosquitoes, they smell the carbon di-
oxide in your breath and inch straight for
you. Unfortunately, all of this effort at the
Iake didn't yield a single rainbowfish, much
less a new species
'Chili' Out... There Are Rain-
bows Here!
We headed back to the truck going in a
slightly different direction th is time. I guess
our guide wanted to feed the leeches on
that trail too! We were following a clay-bot-
tomed creek that meanders through the flat
swampy land. All of a sudden we saw so-
mething swimming in the clear shallow
water. Yes, a rainbowfish at last! We quick-
ly got out the small scoop nets for the very
shallow areas and used our seine to block
their escape The water quickly became
cloudy and we had to herd imaginary fish in
one direction and hopefully into the seine.
Aquan um International #0 2011
When we first pulled this fish out of the tiny
creek for this field photo we thought it was a
"pretty" Chilatherina /orentzi. Only /ater did we
find out that it was a new species.
fish is a "morning" rainbowfish and f/ashes
decent color even in a bare tank when chasing
other ma/es or courfing the females.
Exped1t1on
After a wh ile we had caught some pretty
nice 3-inch adults, and now it was up btfne
to document them in our field photo tank.
So there I was on the side of the now
muddy creek kneeling in the mud, wiping
the sweat off my face, and the condensati-
on off of the photo tank. Our "prize" was a
fish that we were pretty sure was Chi/athe-
nna /orentzii. The "Chili" lorentzi photos
that I have seen before are not very excit-
ing That's rainbowfish geek speak for "bo-
ring and silver". Johannes, who is a "Chili"
specialist, was all excited though, because
this species has never been in the hobby
You know how some of the ki llifish nuts go
crazy over the ugliest brown Rivu/us?
Yeah, kind of like that; but I was happy that
Johannes was happy and we were living
the dream! Actually, th is fish has a Iot more
stripes than the photos we had seen, and
they display a decent amount of color. lt
isn't a Melanotaenia boesemani, but it isn't
all silver either. They showed promise on
the streamside, and hopefully would show
even more color in a nicely planted tank.
After a wh ile we had enough fish for our-
selves, and we also preserved a few in
ethanol for our DNA loving ichthyologist
doctor friend, Peter Unmack. He would
compare our collection with other known
samples of wild caught C. /orentzii. This ul-
timately turned out to be a very smart thing
to do, but at the time we were convinced
that we had some very "colorful" C. /orent-
zii. lf you're wondering, I won the leech
contest that day with 34 leeches. Dan was
a close second, but it was all of that knee-
ling in the mud for those field photos that
put me over the top I still have nightmares
about itl
We continued on our long and bumpy
trip collecti ng what seemed like the same
two rainbowfish over and over again. A C.
cf. /orentzii and a C. fasciata were in al-
most every creek we checked.
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Aquan um International #0 2011 Exped1t1on

I should make a comment about two

The women and chi/dren werenf allowed into the
mee(jng room but crowded the back doorway
Chilatherina species being in the SIIJile
creek together; it might not sound right ID a
rainbowfish person as two rainbowfish from
the same genus could cause a cross. Re-
cent DNA studies are REALLY suggesting
that C. /orentzii is really a Melanotaenia sp
and not Chilatherina. Some of those physi-
cal features that are used to pul C. lorentzii
into the Chilatherina category are really red
herrings and will have to eventually be
worked out and the fish renamed .
When we got close to Sarmi we made
one last stop again for permission to fish in
one of the upland creeks. This trip Iook us
several miles inland so perhaps we would
be able to find something different. We all
filed into the meeti ng house and sat down
with the chief's aid and his friends. Our Pa-
puan guides explained to him !hat we were
looking for new fish !hat science perhaps
hadn't found yet, and why it would be a
good reason for the world to know Hey,
they could have been talking about base-
ball scores for all I know, but they were
quite interested. The women and the child-
ren were not permitted in the meeting
room, but huddled around the doorway
drinki ng in every word. The chief's aid was
impressed enough !hat when the chief fi-
nally arrived he gave him the Cliff's Notes
version and we had an agreement.

Mouth Almighty1
Twenty miles or so inland we arrived at a
clear and rocky stream. Most of the
streams near the coast have a mud bottom
and are sometimes clear sometimes not.
With all of the rains it is difficult to tel! what
the norm is. We seined and ... . caught the
same two species of rainbowfish againl

The Chief listened quite intently to what our guides

were telling him. Jt may have Iaken Ionger to ask
permission to fish, but it was the right thing to do.
Aquan um International #0 2011 Exped1t1on

C/ose-up of a/most hatched eggs of G/ossamia gjelle'll:lfiii did get a surprise catch though, a
Mouth Almighty, G/ossamia gjellerupi lt was
a male with a mouth full of eggs that were
shortly going to hatch.
Even to a rainbowfish nut this was a pretty
fish, and we were planning to take it back for
all of our cich lid friends who might apprecia-
te such a beast Unfortunately, in the pro-
cess of posing him for the camera he slipped
out of our hands and back into the safety of
the stream. Maybe next time.
At the last place we stopped, Johannes
collected a bunch of small young C. cf. fasci-
ata. We had found what looked like a nice
color variety in this stream from one small
lone male that we had captured Again, we
pickled a few for futu re DNA analysis Finally
it was time to start the long road back to
Dan's place in Sentani and soon this leg of
adventure was over. At the time it seemed
like a long three-day trip up the coast j ust for
an ok C. cf. /orentzii and another color varie-
ty of C. fasciata.
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Aquan um International #0 2011 Exped1t1on

Beat up sma/1 male of Chilatherina sp from the Upper Tor RiVer. Only atter arri-
ving harne and submitfing samples for DNA anatysis did we realize that it was a
new species.

When we got back to the States we sent

our samples to the DNA wizard Peter Un-
mack. Some of our other adventures during
our fortnight in Papua yielded new and excit-
ing specimens like the golden rainbowfish
from the southern coast (but that's a fish for
another story). Soon Peter had confirmed
that fish and another one retrieved from the
Bird's Head part of the island were indeed
new species.
Later I started describing our "Chili lorent-
zi" on one of the ra inbowfish forums, and
Peter quickly added to it and said, "Oh, I for-
got to tel! you about that one, it's not lorentzii
but rather a new species Oh, and that "fa-
sciata" from the Upper Tor river that is a new
species too."
Being the purist that I am, I had declined
to take home yet another variety of "fasci-
ata", so Johannes was the only one to take
home this fish. As it grew up he quickly reali-
zed that it was not a C. fasciata anyway, but
the start of a very beautiful and new species
of rainbowfish.
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Aquan um International #0 2011 Exped1t1on

Not submitted yet - Aquarium shot of Upper Tor Chilatherina species. They are
still growing and becoming more co/orful by the day Perhaps they will be the
most co/orful Chilatherina of a/1.
He claims it might be the prettiest
Chilatherina ever. Myself, I find it hard to be-
lieve. I th ink the fish that I had a bit of a hand
in naming, C. afleni, is the prettiest Chi/athe-
nna out there (yet another story).
So for our entire two week journey we
came back with five new species of rainbow-
fish, plus three other fish that have never
been in the hobby. Two of those rainbowfish
came from this long trip to Sarmi, which at
the time seemed like a long way to nowhere.
Sometimes you just have to stick it out, en-
dure the leeches and concussion and see
where it Ieads. l'm glad we didl

• by Gary Lange
Aquanum International #0. 2011 r=a e a r"~! Breoeodncr

Above all, discus are the fish that inspi-

O~ SLLJS Jf) B re the aquarist. Majestic, with a most im-
posing appearance, these fish leave a

PlBn'tecl Iasting impression on the viewer. Funda-

mental things have recently improved in
the care of discus cichlids. Not new tech-
J- quadurn nology, but well-known annoyances,
which make the keepers fail , should not
occur again if you maintain discus with a
S:u~als~r!.llly ~(E?alping Di:mus
certain discipline. Discus fish can be held
by Klaus Schmitz in aquariums with plants along with
co-inhabitants. The animals, with proper
care, will grow up to be handsome fish
and reach an old age.
Aq!.l~rlum ~qu]pmant ~n!ll Dae~Jr~tl~Jn

lt is advisable to establish a large aquari-

um if you plan to keep discus. Adults need,
as a rule of thumb, a water volume of about
75L for each individual A 300L aquarium
has room for no more than four adult ani-
mals. Most of the aquatic plants for sale can
be grown without problems at the 27-29·c
temperatures that the discus need to thrive.
 Aquatic ferns and sword plants (Echinoda-
ras sp ) are weil suited for the planted discus
aquarium, as are floating plants, especially
Pistia stratoites which is ideal with its lang
roots that provide shelter. Only use a few
plant species to achieve a pleasing and natu-
ral appearance. Plants growing on wood or
stones do not impede he swimming area of
the fish too much, and after a short time the
plants will grow their roots onto the chosen
substrate.
Artificial wood covered with Anubias.
I have been successful with a 2 cm layer of
coarse silica sand as a substrate, which ac-
commodates the natural feeding behavior of
the discus. The fish stir up their food by bio-
wing water into the substrate when they eat
The bright color of the sandy bottarn does not
disturb the animals; anyone who has seen
pictures or movies from the natural habitat of
the fish will know that the bottarn is bright,
and is only stained a bit by tannins in the
water. The sand is also ideal for armored cat-
fish, which are often maintained in the same
aquarium, when they scan the ground with
their sensitive barbels to forage
Lava rock should be avoided because of
the rough surface, and also calcareous rock
which will harden of the water and raise the
pH Clean fist-sized river pebbles loosen the
sand and Iook perfectly natural. Discus aqua-
riums are often seen decorated with drift-
wood. I would dissuade aquarists from using
wood, because roots are organic material
that can release substances into the water
that may cause discomfort for the fish. Very
good alternatives are the commercially made
replicas that are not made from wood. Bran-
ches made of ceramic or other non-toxic ma-
terial will Iook real in the aquarium, without
the water pollution problems of real wood.
Decorating the sand with sinki ng peat fibers
will provide a natural Iook of deliberate messi-
ness as weil as acidify the water slightly.
Aquanum International #0. 2011
Discus and angels can be kept tagether in an aqua-
rium. Sword plants in the background and peat fi-
bers on the substrate.
r=a e a r"~! Breoeodncr
l acr1flt>l9gy
The type of lighting depends largely on
your taste and the financial resources, as
weil as the plants used in the aquarium.
Sword plants, ferns, Anubias sp and Cryp-
tocoryne sp. do not need powerful lighting
Full spectrum florescent bulbs or LED light-
ing will promote satisfactory plant growth.
Filters usually have a Ionger life than the
aquarist has patience That's why you
should clean your filter only when the water
flow rate decreases significantly Matten fil-
ters in the most diverse varieties offer ex-
cellent performance Use only materials re-
commended for the aquarium No foam or
foreign plastics! Managing the organic was-
tes in the aquarium (ammonia, nilrite and
nitrate) is very important Water with a ni-
trate Ievei of less than 50mg N03/L should
be the goal. Algae growth, poor plant
growth, and the occurrence of parasites on
the fish are usually directly associated with
a high nitrate Ieveis and a high bacterial
Ioad in the aquarium water.
The easiest way to maintain a low nitrate
Ievei is to keep the fish density of the aqua-
rium relatively low, and feed the animals
with high-quality food . Each feeding affects
the water quality and imposes a burden.
You are not j ust feeding the animals, but
the aquarium system as a whole. Healthy,
parasite-free discus fish (more on that
later) are not picky and eat almost any food
offered; and they can withstand several
days of fasting without any problems. Two
feedings per day are sufficient for adult dis-
cus.
Aquanum International #0. 2011
This turquise discus is 14 month o/d.
Newly purchased fish and
plants belong in quarantine
tanks.
r=a e a r"~! Breoeodncr
QlJ~rMllnEll
Any peaceful fish that can be kept in the
same water param eters as the discus are
suitable at tank mates. One aspect often
forgotten in the euphoria of the new acqui-
sition is the uncontrolled introduction of di-
sease with new fish . lt is imperative with
newly acquired animals be quarantined!
Keep in mind that the turnever of ornamen-
tal fish in retail stores is very high, and
when you buy new stock an infection may
exist in the new fish that has not progres-
sed to the point where you can see it Her-
ein lies great danger! Newly purchased fish
and plants should go first into a quarantine
tank.
There is absolutely no harm at all for
healthy discus fish to fast for up to two
weeks, so do not worry about thei r care du-
ring your vacation. Make a water change
just before you leave, and lower the tempe-
rature a few degrees to slow down the me-
tabolism of the discus. Check all electrical
equipment, and turn off the C02 supply for
the holidays, the plants can survive with a
'fast' as weil .
... tobe continuedl
• by Klaus Schmitz
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by TedJudy

Every serious fish breeder has an

Achilles heel and, until recently, mine
was the genus Corydoras. I have tried
working with these catfish on several
occasions over the past 30 years. My
first real effort was is the early 1980's.
David Sands had just published his
book Catfishes of the World: Cat-
lichthyidae - Corydoras and Related
Species (1 983), and after reading it
cover to cover there was not a cory cat
I could find that I did not buy. No mean
feat for an unemployed 17-year-old
fish geek. I mowed a Iot of lawns to
earn those catfish. I probably should
have invested in a book on how to ma-
nage water quality or how to raise live
foods, because my investment in the
fish was lost, one cory at a time, over a
period of a few months. I never saw an
egg.
A decade later the book Colored Atlas
of Miniature Catfish Every Species of Ca-
rydoras, Brochis & Aspidoras (1992) by
Warren Burgess was released. That was
the year that I was working full time ma-
naging an aquarium store, breeding a Iot
of fish in my spare time and got married.
lt was also a time when new and exciting
varieties of catfish were arriving on every
plane from South America, or so it see-
med. I dedicated a Iot of resources into
becoming a cory cat breeder that yea r,
but in the end the only successes I could
claim were what I call the 'easy three' C.
aeneus, C. paleatus and C. panda .
Aquanum International #0, 20 11 r~ ,., .111r! f\r•, rln1

Corydoras adolfoi fins are smooth IVhlle ... (PhOto: I. ... the fins of C. duplicareus are not. (Photo: I. Sei-
Seidel) del)

My new bride and I relocated to a new city fall into this group include C. arcuatus (the
in the summer of 1992, and I put the cory ad- skunk cory), C. panda, C. adolphoi and C.
diction behind me... both figuratively and duplicareus.
physically
I had been beaten. Obviously I was not
meant to be able to reproduce Corydoras cat-
fish, but I still liked them. I always had a few
swimming about in various community aqua-
riums and fry tanks. I found a signed copy of
lan Fuller's ldentifying Corydoradinae Catfish
- Corydoras (2005) at a hobbyist show,
where I also met the gentleman, so I purcha-
sed the book. To be perfectly honest, I pul the
book on a shelf and forgot I even had it, until
2009 when I decided to give the genus ana- Corydoras duplicareus (Photo: I. Seidel)
lher go. Had I actually read lan's book in
2006, I would have started trying to breed the The last two are very similar, and about the
fish right away. lan's book was a revelation. only way to teil them apart easily is to Iook for
serration on the edges of the pectoral !ins. C.
My favorite group of cory cats are what I adolphoi !ins are smooth while the !ins of C.
call the 'saddled' or ·masked' cories. These duplicareus are not. I found a group of wild
species share a similar color pattem in that 'adolphoi' for sale in 2010 and snapped them
the base color is uniformly light tan, brown or up. Rumor had it that true C. adolphoi were
gray with some very distinct black markings. hard to come by, so I looked at all the fish
Some have black bands through the eyed under a stereoscope and, sure enough, they
(what I call 'masked'), others have black stri- were all C. duplicareus. I was happy to have
pes on their back (a ·saddle') and many have eilher species.
combinations of these markings. Species that
Aquanum International #0. 2011 Cace anc! Breoeod r'lcl

Duplicareus cories are actiVe a/1 the time.

There is a Iot of information available
about how to breed this, and other, Corydo-
ras species. Much of that information is con-
tradictory, but assuming that the aquarists
writing the reports are not lying, all that diffe-
rent information means that C. duplicareus
has various methods of breeding (or that
they are j ust plain easy to spawn). Some re-
ports state that C. duplicareus only lay their
eggs at the base of Echinodoras sp plants,
other reports insist that the breeders need
access to free floating, leafy plants like wa-
tersprite. Two accounts I read stated that the
eggs were laid on the glass behind dense
plants, and a few breeders reported success
with using yarn mops. I chose to go the easy
route and gave the catfish some mops
My spawning tank is pretty simple. I use a
20-gallon high aquarium that faces end out
on a bottom rack of my fish room. The tem-
peratures are slightly cooler near the floor.
The tank is filtered with a matten filter in
front of the back wall.
Aquanum International #0. 2011
Healthy btackworms are the author's food of choice
for condiüoning cory cats for spawning.
A matten filter is a wall of open cell foam
that fits into the tank snuggly from side to
side and top to bottom. A Iift tube draws water
from behind the foam wall over the top and
into the tank. The size of the fi lter provides a
very Iarge surface area for biological filtration,
which is important for keeping fish that need
to eat a Iot and not get a Iot of water changes
(I will explain the Iack of water changes later)
I do have a heater in the aquarium, but it is
set to its lowest setting so that the temperatu-
re rarely climbs above 76°F, which is about
as cool as I can keep my fish room in the
summer. I use a very thin layer of silica sand
as a substrate, and the only structures in the
tank are three large spawning mops that
hang from top to bottom. Two of the mops are
anchored in each of the front corners of the
aquarium while the third floats freely around
the tank.
Conditioning cories for spawning is the key
to success. Fernales that do not have eggs to
lay cannot lay any eggs. That may seem too
simple, but I have come to the conclusion
that my Iack of success with breeding catfish
in my early years was because I did not un-
derstand what it really takes to condition
them. I now feed my cory cats a wide variety
Care a nc! BreoC!dlllcl
Mate cory cats are more stender than femates.
of prepared, frozen and live foods; but the
food that has been the best for conditioning
fish to spawn in my fish room is live black
worm. When I have these worms available I
can predict the days that I will fi nd eggs in the
spawning mops. When I do not have worms I
do not find many eggs, regardless of how
much food the breeders get. I do not have to
feed black worms every day, which is not a
very good idea. Two feedings of worms per
week is enough keep the females producing
lots of eggs My colony of breeders has eight
males and six females, which produce about
50 - 80 eggs in an average week.
My fish ra rely require a trigger to get them
to spawn; but when spawning tapers off
(which happens after a few months of regular
spawning), I have found that giving them a
few weeks of rest will revitalize the colony.
The resting period starts with a big (80%)
water change using my local tap water (pH
7.6, KH 12, cond uctivity 250 ppm) I feed the
colony only flake food and live Artemia nauplii
(baby brine shrimp) for two weeks (no worms
at all), after which I do not feed the fish at all
for a week. Ouring th is time I am not doing
any water changes.
Aquanum International #0. 2011
Corydoras duplicareus in action.
#headline#
Cace anc! Breoeodr'lcl
The fish go back onto the flake and brine
shrimp diet for weeks four and five (still no
water changes), and then I start feeding
the fish worms again starting in week six. I
feed worms every other day, and for the
first week I give them just a few, no more
than a couple worms per fish (you should
see how the cories fight for them). During
the last week of the rest and conditioning
cycle I feed a regular amount of worms (a
teaspoon full ) every other day, but I still
deny the catfish water changes. I am wait-
ing for the weather to push a Iew-pressure
system, a stormy or rainy day, through the
area. The night before a low pressure sys-
tem comes through I do another 80% water
change with water that is a mix of Y. aged
tap water and Y. reverse osmosis water.
The value of the matten filter is proven by
its ability handle the fish waste of 14 adults
cories for two months without a water
change; especially when you take into ac-
count the Iarge amounts of food the catfish
are getting during the last two weeks of
that time period
Fernale cories seem to have a prefe-
rence about where they like to lay their
eggs. Once colony is weil conditioned at
least one female will breed every day. I
check the mops for eggs each morning,
and there is a pattern as to when they ap-
pear. One day there will be a Iot of eggs
(30+) in the mop that is floating free in the
aquarium. A couple days later there will be
slightly smaller spawn in the mop that
hangs in the front left side of the tank, and
two to three days after that there will be
eggs in the mop anchored in the front right
corner and in the free floating mop A day
or two after that the sequence is repeated
I believe that the females are spawning on
a cycle, and that each female has a speci-
fic place she likes to lay her eggs I could
test this hypothesis by removing a female
and seeing what part of the cycle changes,
but I do not see a need to mess with suc-
cess.
 Cory eggs are large (about 2mm) and
sticky. They are easy to see and remove
from the mops. I pick allthe eggs out of the
mops each day and place them into a
one-quart plastic dish with water from the
breeding tank. I add a drop of methylene
blue to the water, a slowly percolafing air
stone and cover the dish with an opaque
Iid. There is a theory that light harms eggs,
so the dye, Iid and sitting the dish out of di-
rect light should help prevent problems. I
add new eggs to this dish every day for a
week, do a 50% water change to the dish
each day and add another drop of dye As
the eggs mature they turn very dark. Eggs
lhat do not get dark, or turn clear, are not
viable and are removed.

Eggs are !arge and tough.

The eggs start to hatch on day 8 or 9
after being picked. Soma of the larvae
have a hard time escaping their casings.
Drawing them in and out of a dropper pi-
pette can help them get out. Not all of the
eggs in the dish hatch on the same day
(because I harvest eggs for a week into the
dish). Newly hatched cory larvae will not
eat for a few days while they fi nish absor-
bing their yolk By the time the last eggs
are haiehing the older fry can start eating,
and I start them oft with a mixture of micro-
worms, dead baby brine and Sera micron
fOOd. I leave the fry in the dish (still doing
daily water changes) for three days after
the last eggs hatch, and then I move the fry
to their first nursery aquarium.
Aquanum International #0. 2011
HATCHING DAY
{---------------------------}
4 mm
Larvae are born with a /arge yolk.
The adUlt color pattern begins to appear at
about 40 days old.
The nursery is a 2.5-gallon aquarium with a
small sponge filter and a Y.-inch layer of
long-fiber sphagnum moss on the bottom.
The moss is not peat and it will not cause the
pH of the water to drop; the moss provides
cover for the shy fry to hide in, as weil as trap
food particles for the fry to feed upon. Once
the fry are in the nursery tank the amount of
food is increased to three feedings per day
Water changes of 50% are performed every
other day using aged tap water. The fry grow
very quickly, and reach W in two to three
weeks. At that point they are transferred to a
10-gallon fry tank that is set up the same as
the nursery.
The baby catfish in the fry tank are fed a
wider variety of foods, including everything I
feed the adults but in smaller quantities, more
frequently (at least twice a day) and in smal-
ler sizes. I do feed them black worms, but I
Cace a nc! Breoeodl'lcl
...
DA Y 4 A FTER HATC H
·~
{-------------------------------------·-}
Smm
After four days the yolk is absorbed and the fry
needs to eat.
After 50 days the juveniles Iook like miniature
adUits.
chop them up into very small pieces. When
worms are cut up they release a liquid (call it
blood) that needs to be rinsed away before
feeding them to the fish. That liquid will just
add unneeded nutrients to the water, which
may result in an ammonia spike. The best
way to rinse chopped worms is to Iet them
rest in a cup of water for five minutes, stir
them up and then pour them into a brine
shrimp net.
The juvenile catfish will continue to grow
quickly until they are o/."-1" long and start to
show the adult C. duplicareus color pattern,
after which the rate of growth slows down. ln
my fish room the next few weeks seem to be
the most critical for survivaL The first few
spawns did very weil until they changed over
to adult color, and then I lost half or more of
the brood.
Aquanum International #0. 2011
C. duplicareus is a beautiful and easy to work with
catfish.
Cace anc! Breoeod r'lcl
After experimenting I figured out that
young cories have a problern with space
they do not like too much of it This pres-
ents a problem. Fifty o/."-long juvenile cat-
fish in a small aquarium is an ammonia
crash waiting to happen; but put those fifty
fry into a 30-gallon aquarium and they
seem lost, have a hard time finding food,
get skinny and start to die. They are hap-
pier in the smaller tank, so I divide the
spawn into two 10-gallon aquariums, cut
back on the feeding and keep up with the
water changes. Growth slows, but the fish
are healthier and happier. I do not try mo-
ving them to larger aquariums until they are
six months old, a solid inch long, fat and
happy.
The strategies I use for spawning C. du-
plicareus have also worked for a few other
Corydoras species I am working with. This
time around I am taking the breeding of co-
ries slow. No more than a half dozen spe-
cies in the fish room at a time, which is re-
ally hard to do. Cory cats are like candy ...
• TedJudy
 Astatotllapta aesrontatn/1

When most beginning aquarists !hink of

J\J orth J- frjc ar~ Hap/ochromine cichlids from East Africa,

they !hink of the cichlids from the great lakes

I-Ja pJochrornjn~ of the rift: Lake Malawi, Lake Tanganyika

and the largest (though not a rift Iake) Lake
Victoria. Few people know !hat in the nort-

C1chJJds hern deserts of the continent, even exten-

ding into the Middle East, there are also
Hap/ochromine cichlids, most of which be-
r~~(~ ~rd Wr:f!ft'J Df Pr'Ji~C!iDn lang to the genus Astatotilapia.
by Anton Lamboj The type species of the genus, A. desfon-
tainii (Lacepede 1802), is found at the far
end of this transcontinental range in the
weslern countries of Algeria and Tunesia. At
the far eastern end of the range, in Israel,
one can find A. flaviijosephi (Lortet 1883).
Both species are typical representatives of
this small group of cichlids. The colorful
males, at 10 cm, are slightly !arger than fe-
males. Males also exhibit distinct eggspots
on their anal fins. The historical references
to both species indicate that males should
be able to grow to 15 cm, but I have never
seen males of this size.
Semi-adult male of A. desfontainii
A desfontainii was known to be found in
some desert oases in Algeria and Tunisia,
butthat may no Ionger be the case (see de-
tails below) Erwin Sehrami made two collec-
tions in 2006, near the city of Touzeur from a
small, polluted canal. chraml returned to Ger-
many with some live specimens in hopes of
breeding them and establishing a captive po-
pulation, but to my knowledge he was unsuc-
cessfu l and all the animals were lost
The Spanish ichthyologists Barles and
Campo Fort went to Touzeur in 2007 and
found A desfontainii in a very small thermal
spring. The scientists were able to get se-
veral specimens back to Spain, where they
were given to some Spanish aquarists to
work with. Those hobbyists were successful,
and a few juven iles were able to distributed to
other aquarium fish breeders. I was able to
get some from friends in Spain, and managed
a single spawn from a pair that I raised in my
aquariums. I took some of my fry to a
Fernale of A. desfontainii
Hap/ochromine specialist in the U. S. A ,
Greg Steeves, who was able to establish a
population in his fish room in Texas. This is
fortunate, because all of the captive populati-
ons that I knew of in Europe, including my
own, were eventually lost
Greg sent a few fry back to me in 2009,
which fought themselves down to a pair I
have been able to breed them and now have
a good number of fry to sustain a small popu-
lation here in Austria. Hopefully they will grow
into a colony that will permit me to distribute
them back into the hobby in Europe.
These numbers may sound bleak, but the
fact that we still have the fish at all is a suc-
cess. A desfontainii, despite its small size, is
not an easy animal to keep in captivity The
intraspecific aggression is extremely high and
requires a Iot of space to manage effectively
The adult pair that I have lives in an aquarium
that measures approximately 48" x 14" (base
dimensions)
 aquarium as
the aggression of
Keeping two males in a tank of this size
would be impossible, and even the females
are incompatible with each other as they
grow larger Fernales that are not spawning
will fall victim to the aggression of the male.
Large aquariums, even bigger than what I
". ,.,_" ct A desfontainii in standard co/oration with have available for my single pair, are ne-
nice fins. cessary to maintain a breeding colony of
these very nasty cichlids. Greg has the
space he needs to breed these cichlids in
good numbers. He keeps them in big aqua-
riums (even !arger than he uses for colo-
nies oof Lake Victoria cich lids with many
more fish) and in low densities.
A desfontainii is not overly sensitive to
varying water parameters, so long as the
water is not too soft or at all acidic. I keep
mine in water that has a conductivity of
about 650 IJS at 20° GH. The pH is about 8
and the temperature is maintained in a
range from about 24° C in the winter up to
2r C in the summer According to
Schram!, the natural habitat in the winter is
cool enough that the water will ice over at
night, so the species can talerate signifi-
Water parameters: cantly lower temperatures than they see in
my fish room/
hard, 15-20 GH
S~iling Up lih~ Atl!UE~rium,
pH > pH 7,5
Ct>uli~flip Gllld Sp~wnin9
The aquarium that houses by pair has a
substrate of fi ne sand that is planted with
water ferns and grasses (Sagittaria sp.)
Piles of stones and bog wood provide
structure and hiding places Feeding is re-
latively easy, as A desfontainii will accept
any kind of food, be it flake, live or frozen.
Courtship and spawning take place in
the usual Hap/ochromine cichlid way. The
male occupies a (relatively !arge) territory
and builds a shallow pit in the sand.

Adult Male ot A. desfontainii with good co/orati-
on
The swollen genital papillae can be c/ear/y
seen in these spawning female A. desfontainii.
(Foto: Greg Stevens)
This female of A. desfontainii is taking her fry
being in danger back in her mouth.(Foto: Greg
Stevens)
His coloration ~ and becomes
rather pretly, and. -;11 aclively court
every passing femalri. Alrf female not
ready to mate is violently chased away,
and is ollen persecuted for several minutes
(this is why large aquariums are a benefit).
lf a female is ready to spawn, then both
partners circle several times over the
males spawning pit
The female releases her eggs over the
sand pit and then turns around quickly to
gather them into her mouth. The chance
that the eggs were fertilized in the pit is
poor The male then presents the female
with his anal fin egg dummy, which the fe-
male attempts to grab (thinking the spots
are eggs) while the male releases his
sperm Some of the sperm is taken into the
mouth of the female to fertilize the eggs. lt
is possible that during a prolonged period
of spawning enough sperm accumulates in
the bottom of the pit to consistently fertilize
the eggs as they are laid, but the system
that brings the eggs and sperm together in
the enclosed space of the female's mouth
is more of a sure thing
After the female has finished spawning
she goes away (or is driven away) to incu-
bate the eggs on her own. Egg gestation is
almost two weeks, and after the free swim-
ming fry are released the female will conti-
nue to occasionally mouth brood them for a
few days before she abandons them to
their fate . Loose fry are prey items to the
male and other females in the tank, so it is
best to strip the female of her brood a few
days before they are released. The fry are
easy to grow on any type of food, and wil l
become sexually mature at 6 cm and about
a year in age
4" juvenile A. naviijosepn;,· the sex can not be deter-
mined yet.
Ast01toillapia rlaviijosephi
Husbandry, care and breeding of the rela-
tively inconspicuous A. flaviijosephi is no dif-
ferent than that of its weslern cousin, except
that its natural habitat in Israel (and possible
Syria and Jordan) is very different. Whereas
A. desfontainii is found in the still waters of
canals and oases, the smaller A. flaviijosephi
is found in small flowing streams. I was told
that the parents of my fish come from the Ha-
kibbutzim Stream in Israel, and that the water
there is clear and easy flowing - but I recei-
ved no further information on the habitat. A.
flaviijosephi is also a very mean species that
needs !arger aquariums, but with sufficient
hiding places it is possible to keep a higher
population Iogether
Männchen von A. naviijosephi in Balzfär-
bung
A. flaviijosephi has turned out to be more
Normal coloration for a male A. naviijosephi. Not
very impressive for a male haplochromine cichlid.
produclive and easier to breed that A. des-
fontainii, and I have been able to produce
more than enough of the Israeli cichl id to dis-
tribute. Now there are other colonies in Euro-
pe and the U.S.A.
Neither of the species I have described are
as pretty, friendly (relatively} or as easy to
keep and breed as the Hap/ochromine cich-
lids found in the lakes south of the Sahara.
So why is it important to keep them? Both
species are extremely rare in the wild and in
the hobby, and if we do not provide a place
for them in our aquariums they may be lost to
us forever There are no guarantees that their
wild populations will exist for much Ionger lt
may even be possible, especially in the case
of A. desfontainii, that they are already extinct
in the wild.
The 250 A. desfontainii (give or take) that
swim in the U.SA and in my aquariums may
be the last of their kind. The responsibility for
their survival has fallen to us. Greg Steeves
has already succeeded in bringing some hob-
byists tagether to work with the species The
CAR.E.S. program, an initiative that was
launched by Claudia Dickinson, has defined
the species as one of special concern and
seeks to educate aquarists about the spe-
cies, and others from around the world that
are also highly threatened.

Female atA nawi)Osepnt
The European Aquarium and
Terrarium Association (EATA)
is currently building a databa-
se of rare fish inventory and
breeding history.
A Iot more stil done in Euro-
pa, but I hope colony wiR grow to
the point whele 1 disb ibuting more
offspring to othar axperi8nced Md respon-
sllle fish breeders. The Europaan Aquari-
~n and Terrarium Association (EATA), the
head organization for European aquariums
and terrariums clubs, is about to build an
inventory and breeding data bank in order
to better control and document the captive
production of threatened and endangered
species. These two Astatotilapia species
are likely to be the first fish species in the
program.
II would be better for the survival of the
species if we could recover their natural
habitals so that sufficient populations could
be restored in the wild. But this will not be
possible, so we must provide the last refu-
ge in captivity. Each population that beco-
mes established in our aquariums is a brick
in the foundation that is the only future
these species can hope to have .
• Anton Lamboj
 So far the intentional hybridization of
Hypancistrus catfish for commercial
purposes has not become wide spread,
even though we know that these catfish
will create hybrids if given the chance.
The drive for " diversity" in an aquarium
has not yet hit this popular catfish
genus; but if the trend of creating new
tank strains through hybridization ex-
tends to this special group of catfish,
then we will be risking the loss of the
species forever.
Hybrids are very common in other types
of aquarium fish. Some are controversial
(such as flowerhorn cichlids, large pimelo-
did catfish and synodontis catfish}, while
others are accepted (such as most of the
colorful swordtails and platies} Most of the
fish we recognize as hybrids are weil docu-
mented as being crossbreeds, but there
are still a Iot of fish that appear on the mar-
ket under a fancy name !hat are not known
to be hybrids until they have been distribu-
ted into thousands of hobbyist aquariums
Genus Hypancistrus around the world. When there are a Iot of
new and exciting wild imports coming in re-
gularly, there is a real risk ! hat a hybrid will
be mistaken as one of those new species;
this is the situation we face when conside-
ring the risks of produci ng Hypancistrus hy-
brids.
Catfish, especially th e small and most
beautiful species of the genus Hypancis-
trus (lsbrucker & Nijssen, 1991 } have en-
joyed a steadily rising popularity in recent
years because they are a great asset to a
community tank.

•
Aquanum International #0 2011
The male part: H. debilittera from Columbia.
Most species come to us come from the
Amazon River tributaries in Brazil. Export re-
strictions by the Brazilian environmental
agency IBAMA, and tighter controls on ex-
porters, will probably Iead to significantly
fewer imports in the future, and the biodiver-
sity of this genus in our aquariums will decli-
ne dramatically. Captive breeding of the spe-
cies we already have has become a priority
to ensure that we do not lose them from the
hobby The working group "L catfish" was
founded within the international community
BSSW (characins barbs loaches catfish) to
facilitate the captive breeding efforts of the
species affected by the Brazilian export bans.
Almost all known Hypancistrus species
have been successfu lly bred in the aquarium,
so the technical aspects of breeding the fish
is not an insurmountable obstacle. Preventi ng
hybridization is a much more important issue,
because this problern is still often misunders-
tood and underestimated.
A Oocumented Hybridization
The proliferation of hybrids is a bad thing,
but in order to assess the risk we need to
know more about how hybrid spawns occur
and what we can expect to see in the
offspring This information will help us identify
': a e ew~! E r eo~c!ncr
The female part: L 28 from Rio Guama in Brazil.
hybrids that appear in the hobby, and educa-
te aquarists about the risks of keeping certain
species together. When the first hybridization
between my catfish happened in 2001, the
existence of hybrids within the genus Hypan-
cistrus was still unknown among experts I re-
cognized that this accident in my community
aquarium might portend a !arger problern in
the hobby, so I decided to allow the hybridiza-
tions to continue and carefully document
what I saw.
The crossing that occurred in my 240 Iiter
community aquarium involved a H debilittera
(L-129) male breeding with a H sp "L-28" fe-
male. The aquarium held various catfish spe-
cies living together with some dwarf cichlids
of the genus Apistogramma L-28 is a spe-
cies with fine white dots on a black body from
the Rio Guama in Brazil. H. debilittera is a
catfish of the upper Orinoco river in Colombia
which shows white to yellowish, irregularly si-
nuous, narrow lines on a dark body. The
spawning itself went unnoticed, because I do
not try to spawn catfish in community aquari-
ums. The only catfish which would regularly
spawn that aquarium was a breeding pair of
Peckoltia sp "L-134".
Fry which differed from L 134-fry suddenly
appeared in !arge numbers in the aquarium.
Aquanum International #0 2011
Hybrids of H. debilittera and L 28 all have a si-
milar appearance. The adult animal is about
9cm lang.
A lucky snapshot: L 28 and H. debilittera during
courtship.
·: a c "' ~: E · ~~' 1•_1
Not only did these new juvenile catfish
Iook very different, but within a few days
the plants in the aquarium had been eaten.
lt only took the fry 2 weeks to reduce the
!arge Echinodorus plants to a brown resi-
due, a behavior that is not unusual for
young Hypancistrus.
Raising the hybrid fry did not differ from
rearing other Hypancistrus species Once
the juveniles were only a few centimeters
long you could see the mix of features from
both parent species The patterns in the
young fish were highly variable, but overall
they had a very similar appearance, with
bright spots on a dark background (like
their L-28 mother), and short line segments
(like their L-129 father). The Iransverse
band which runs behind the eyes on the
head, which is typica l in many other spe-
cies of Hypancistrus, was pronounced in
most of the fry The caudal fin of the
offspring showed a horizontal stripe pattern
which dissolved as the fry grew older.
Not an lsolated Case
I was surprised by this unusual event in
my aquarium, but I was not alone in seeing
an incidental hybridization My colleague
and triend Peter Heblinski informed me that
he also had hyb rids appear in his aquari-
ums. ln his case it was the cross-breeding
of two Brazilian species, Hypancistrus sp.
"L-262" from the Rio Tapajos and Hypan-
cistrus sp. "L-270" from the Rio Curuna. As
in my case, one species is spotted (L-262)
and the other shows a striped pattern
(L270) L-262 is much more spotted com-
pared to my L-28, and L-270 shows much
wider and less sinuous lines as my H debi-
littera do. Peter's crossover fry showed a
pattern of mostly fine dots with isolated line
segments The striations in the caudal fin
were pronounced and were still present in
adult specimens.
Aquanum International #0 2011
Two different hybrids ..
The most surprising thing about Peter's
case is that the he was keeping both sexes of
both species in the aquarium when the hybri-
dization occurred, and they had previously
been breeding with in their respective species
What Combinations Are Possible?
After hearing of Peter's experiences I rese-
arched Hypancistrus hybrids some more. lf
this phenomenon occurred within my circle of
acquaintances, it probably has happened
more often in the hobby at !arge I was parti-
cularly interested in what combinations were
possible.
~ ;(
''
A hybrid of L 262 and L 270.· The pat-
tern is much finer.
According to Ya nn Fullquet (personal com-
munication), hybrids of L-66 and L-136 have
': a e ew~! E r eo~c!ncr
... ot L333 and L260. (Photos:Ratf Heidemann)
appeared, which also showed the "typical"
appearance of points and line segments in
combination with caudal and dorsal stripes
L-66 can be significantly !arger than L-136.
Even more striking is the difference in size
when combining L-333 x L-260, which was
reported to me by Ralf Heidemann. L-333
(the "Queen Arabesque" from the lower re-
aches of the Rio Xingu) can grow to 15 cm
long, while L-260 (from the Rio Tapajos) rare-
ly reaches more than 10 cm. These cases in-
dicate that being different sizes is not an
issue for the parents.
The most surprising cases to me are the
hybridizations that involve the zebra catfish
Hypancistrus zebra (L-46). This species falls
a little out of line within the genus by its color
pattern, unusually small size and the somew-
hat different larval development it exhibits
compared to other Hypancistrus species W.
Heinrich told me of crosses between H zebra
and L-260 observed by an aquarist known to
him. I also learned from Heidemann of a
crossbreeding between H. zebra x L-66
Choi (personal com munication) reported that
his Hypancistrus zebra crossbred with L-400.
Unfortunately, nothing is known about the ap-
pearance of 46-L hybrids from Choi, because
his few pups died very early.
Aquanum International #0 2011
Hypancistrus zebra is also crossbreeding (L
46) ... (Bild.· I. Seidel)
with L 400 I (Bild.· I. Seidel}
,: a c "' ~: E · ~~' 1,_1
Seeing the evidence of cross-breeding
between a spotted and a striped species in
the color pattern of the offspring is notice-
able. This is not the case when the parents
are two striped species Even if the parents
are striped as differently as the above-
mentioned L 260, H. zebra or L 333, the
spring have only striped patterns, which
could be mistakenly be identified as a dis-
tinct species The same is true for crosses
between two spotted species All of the
cases of hybridization I found records for
involve one dotted and one striped species,
or two strongly different striped species lt
is very possible that hybrids of similar loo-
king species simply were not recogn ized as
such. lt is very possible assume that these
hard to see hybrids have been distributed
unknowingly, and are widespread in the
hobby
With no apparent restrictions for crossing
combinations, all of our captive populations
of Hypancistrus species are potentially at
risk. Trying to identify a pattern of what will
and will not cross has not been possible,
and we should assume that there are no
impossible combinations. When in doubt,
assume that two species will hybridize
Are the Hybrid Offspring Fertile?
The conventional wisdom about hybrids
is that the offspring exhibit deformations
and are not fertile, or that ferti lity collapses
after a few generations This may be true
for mules (the hybrid offspring of a donkey
and a horse), but most other hybrids have
proven that convention wrong This is es-
pecially true in the case of fish hybrids.
Physical defects in the F1 generation of
Hypancistrus hybrids did not occur. Regar-
ding the fertil ity, the data is weak; but in my
L-28 x H. debilittera hybrids the F1-fertility
is strong The offspring have proven to be
quite productive, so it is expected that ferti-
lity continues in future generations, but this
is pure speculation at this time.
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Aquan um International #0 2011
A 4-way hybrid at 7 cm in length. Noüce combi-
naüon of lines and dots.
Not even 4-way hybrid siblings Iook alike.
Quadruple Hybrids
When my original hybrids reached maturity
they did not immediately start to spawn, and I
thought that maybe they were not able to
breed. When they were fou r years old (in
2005), they did spawn, but the fry did not sur-
vive. A few weeks later I discovered a clutch
again, but to my surprise, it was not guarded
by one of my hybrids, but rather by a single
animal from the hybrids already mentioned by
Heblinski (from L-262 x L-270), which I obtai-
ned for Observation and photographic purpo-
ses. Obviously the j uvenile fish I noticed were
quadruple hybrids (four different species as
grandparents).
While the F1 hybrids showed a fairly uni-
form appearance, the quad-hybrids of the F2
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
': a c- c; r"~: E r ~~' 'rl•J
Two typical 4-way hybrids. No flvo Iook alikel
This 4-way hybrid is almost completely dotted.
generation were enormously va riable, which
should be expected after mixing four species
The patterns in the offspring included an al-
most a pure spotted pattern, a fine line
worm-pattern and coarse fringe patterns of
every possible appearance, including the
combinations of spots and lines.
The extremes of pure point, worm lines or
stripe patterns were represented less fre-
quently, the majority showed combinations of
dots and lines in each varying intensity
However, the very fine dot pattern of the
L-262 did not occur, but rather the somewhat
coarser spotted pattern like that of L-28. A
striped pattern like the L-270 was seen, but
significantly less than the line worm-pattern of
H. debilittera .
Aquanum International #0 2011
L270 siblings showing their stripes.
The specific characteristics of the parents
are not passed on to their young, but certain
features from all four species can be obser-
ved in the F2 offspring For the descendants
of sibling hybrids that were the result of cros-
sing only two species, the F2 generation
should also show a range of phenotypes that
represent the patterns found in only the two
original species
Are All Hypane~trus One Species?
Should we now assume that all the repre-
sentatives of the genus Hypancistrus are only
different colors and forms populations of a
single species, because the hybrids are fertile
even in higher generations? Nol An essential
component of a biological species concept is
that some sort of a "natural" barrier to hybridi-
zation in the wild exists. These barriers can
be physical (such as being from separate ri-
vers) or behavioral (as must be the case for
species that share a natural habitat). Bringing
the different species together in the aquarium
breaks all these barriers. The only conclusion
one can draw from these Observations is that
the genus Hypancistrus is evolutionarily very
young, currently going through a species-ra-
': a e ew~! E r eo~c!ncr
A 3.5 cm 4-way hybrid with both lines and dots.
diation and are thus more genetically compa-
tible than older genera
What ls the Risk?
Hybridization between different Hypancis-
trus species has been demonstrated on multi-
ple occasions, so this is fact... no Ionger spe-
culation. The fact that only a few number of
cases have been reported should not be in-
terpreted as an indication that hybridization in
captivity is rare. Most catfish breeders are ca-
reful to keep their colonies separate from
each other, but even in those cases the high
variability in some species may cause a hy-
brid to not be recognized and added to a co-
lony of pure species. Aquarists who are not
trying to breed their fish may still get spawns
in a community tank, and if those hybrids clo-
sely resemble one parent or the other the
aquarist may unintentionally pass the fry on
as a pure species
Serious aquarists who ca re about the fu-
ture of pure species in the hobby will not in-
tentionally perpetuate hybrid fish. Mistakes
will happen unless steps are taken to prevent
them.
Aquanum International #0 , 20 11
A 4-way hybnd of the same age wtth only dots.
11 is very important that we all leam how to
recognize when a hybrid spawn has occur-
red , and take steps to ensure that those fry
are never distributed in the hobby. You may
be very careful to Iabei your hybrids for what
they are, but once they are out of your control
there is no guarantee that the person who
gets them will be as responsible. Once hybrid
fish get into the breeding colanies of pure
species the genetic integrity of !hat group of
fish is lost. The pure species and varieties
that are currently available could be irretriev-
ably mixed if hybrids get into their gene
pools.
When you consider the restrictions on wild
fish that are already in place, and with prO-
jects like the Belo Monte Oam on the Xingu
River in Brazil threatening availability even
more, we need to protect the valid species
we have in the hobby as though they are the
last remaining fish of these species on the
planet The reality is that they may weil be all
we have in the not too distant future. Preven-
tion in the eure.
' I ' ·' I ·' I I ' ' ' ·' I I' I
The male hybrid of L 262 ana L 270.
Different Hypancistrus species should not
be mixed Iogether in an aquarium, especially
if you intend to breed them. Once a colony of
positively identified fish is established, even
from wild fish, do not add new specimens to
the group unless you are absolutely sure !hat
they are the same (preferably from the same
source) Misidentifying a Hypancistrus spe-
cies is too easy. lf you are not sure of a fish's
genetic purity, err on the side of caution and
keep it out of your breeding tanks.
The potential for catfish hybrids to become
a problern is so high that we should not even
be mixing closely related species in a com-
munity aquarium. ln reality, we can assume
that most aquarists ignore the risk and will
keep multiple species Iogether in community
tanks. The minimum you can do in this Situa-
tion is to keep species that are significantly
different in appearance Iogether (such as a
spotted with a striped), so when they do hy-
bridize you will be able to teil the hybrid
offspring apart from their parents. Those hy-
brids should never leave the building they
were bom in.
Aqu anum International #0 2011 ·: a c c; • ~: E · ~~' 1•_1

Taking precautions to prevent hybrids is

the only way to guarantee that the many
beautiful Hypancistrus species we have will
remain in the hobby. We all need to work
Iogether to protect the future of these va-
luable species. Do not permit cross-bree-
ding in your tanks. Do not purchase hy-
brids. Do not distribute hybrids Once the
Hypancistrus catfish we have are gone, we
may never be able to get them back.

A femate H. debilittera x L 28 hybrid surrounded by

her numerous 4-way hybrid offspring. • by Roland Kipper

Bl bllography

When two Hypancistrus spe-

cies are kept together they
may hybridize.

The female is under the nest during the entire
spawn. She will usually be chased away by the male
atter spawning; but sometimes she will be permitted
to stay to collect the scattered eggs.
The king of the paradise fish in the
hobby is Macropodus opercularis, the fi rst
of the genus to become established nearly
a century ago. lt is truly a great beginner's
fish. lt is not picky about water quality or
types of food, colorful and of medium size.
lt is hardy, active and intelligent. lt is also a
good species for the beginning breeder,
because it is easy to spawn and puts on a
great show in the process
Macropodus opercu/aris is native to the
waters of the East Asian lowlands. He
comes from as far south as Vietnam, and
as far north as Korea. We offen th ink of the
paradise fish as a typica l tropical fish. We
forget that the average winter temperatures
in the north of its range are much lower
than in Germany The average January
temperatures in the South Korean capital
of Seoul are lower than in Oslol The ances-
tors of our aquarium paradise fish, howe-
ver, come from more southern climes. They
were first collected for export to Germany
in 1869 from near the south eastern Chine-
se port city of Ningpo, where the average
January temperature is not particula rly
high, no higher than that of London.
Regardless of how low a temperature the
fish can survive, the strain we keep in
aquariums is happier at warmer temperatu-
res.
Some populations of Macropodus live far
enough north that the water freezes over at
night in the winter. This is a bigger problern
for paradise fish than for other fish from
those habitats.
The paradise fish is a Iabyrinth breather,
meaning that they have a primitive lung in
addition to the ir gills. Under normal cond iti-
ons, the fish are at least partially depen-
dent upon air in their Iabyrinth, and must
periodically come to the surface to trade
stale air for fresh.
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Aquan um International #0 2011 ': a c- c; r"~: E r ~~' 'rl•J

But how is it possible for these fish to live

under the ice? Reinhard Schwabe, an
aquarist from Warnemünde, showed that
the paradise fish can survive over Winter in
garden ponds. When the pond freezes over
the temperature in the bottom of the pond
is about 4 degrees Celsius, and the oxygen
requirement of the fish is greatly reduced.
The fish become very inactive and can sit
on the bottom in a state of torpor, using
only the oxygen they get from the passage
water through the gills
lntroducing the male and female to each other. But even under the ice of frozen ponds
there are small pockets of air, so perhaps
the fish are using those to regenerate their
Iabyrinth Of course, I do not recommend
this type of over-wintering. Possibly, the
animals in nature leave the frozen ponds
for open streams and rivers. Regardless, I
!hink this is interesting an Observation of
Schwabe.

Breeding

The process is simple ln a small aquari-

Immer wieder umschlingt das Männchen seine
Partnerin unter dem Schaumnest (rote Form)
bis der Laichvorrat erschöpft ist.
A pair laying eggs.
um with floating plants and slow filtration,
place a ripe (round) female and a healthy
male. The female needs some places to
hide from the aggressions of the male until
his bubble nest is built and she is ready to
spawn lncrease the temperature, stop fee-
ding and wait. With in a few days the male
will be guarding a !arge bubble nest full of
eggs. The male will care for the nest until
the fry are free swimming, so the female
can be removed. Once the fry are free of
the nest, the male may also be Iaken out of
the breeding tank. Start the fry on infusoria,
and a week later they can eat live baby
brine. From then on the fry grow fast.
Some care must be taken to reduce preda-
tion of smaller fry by their older siblings, but
other than that the process is easy to do.
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Aquan um International #0 2011 ': a c- c; r"~: E r ~~' 'rl•J

The instructions for breeding Macropo-

dus are simple Place a female with a
round, ripe belly into a small aquarium with
floating plants and very gentle filtration. Put
a male in with her after a day of letting her
become acclimated to the space The male
will build a !arge bubble nest and cou rt the
female, who will allow herself to be push to
the nest if she is ready to spawn The
buoyant eggs are laid under the nest and
permitted to float up into it. Any eggs that
do not end up in the nest are gathered by
the parents The female will not approach
the nest, so she will transfer the eggs to
the male who will place them in the bub-
bles. The pair will spawn several times
over a period of a few hours, and the fema-
le will go hide in between rounds of egg
laying in order to avoid the aggression of
the male.
Anyone who has ever observed the
spawning of gouramies will be surprised
that breeding female paradise fish are oc-
casionally not brutalized by the male during
the guarding of the nest. Some females
may also participate in collecting the eggs
The pair shifts position atter the eggs are /aid. and returning them to the nest. The male
(red variety)
will not telerate the female actually tendi ng
the nest, however, but is some cases the
female will collect the eggs in here mouth
and spit them at the male for him to collect
and place in the nest. These behaviors are
usually possible only in !arger aquariums
where there is plenty of space for the fema-
le to avoid the male if she must.

Macropodus larvae shortly before they

become free-swimming fry.
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Aquan um International #0 2011 ': a c- c; r"~: E r ~~' 'rl•J

Spawning Paradise Fish

Paradise fish are reported to be bullies. lf

Mate beneath his foam nest.
the pair is spawned in a small aquarium, it
is best that the exhausted females be re-
moved from the breeding tank as soon as
they are finished spawning Letting the pair
breed in a !arger aquarium, however, will
permit the aquarist to see some interesting
behaviors between the parents. When
there is enough space for the female to get
away from the dominant male, she will play
a small role in the care of the nest
Sometimes a male will not Iet the female
near the nest at all. Some females have
been observed building their own bubble
nest out of sight from the male and stealing
eggs from him to raise on her own.
Newly free-swimming paradise fish fry
need food right away They are so small
that they can not eat normal fish food. lnfu-
soria or Paramecium are the best fi rst
foods. After a week they can be fed live
baby brine shrimp These are salt shrimp
(Artemia salina), which you can get at the
pet shop as resting eggs. Follow the directs
for hatching them and harvesting this very
Young female of the striped variety. (Photo: L.
Döring) nutritious food.
Once the fry are eating brine shrimp they
grow rapidly, and after a few weeks they
will start to take finely ground flake foods
from the surface. But feed the flakes=food
sparingly, because what the fish do not eat
will rot and spoil the tank.
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Aquan um International #0 2011 •: a c- c; r"~: E r ~~· 'rl•J

As the juveniles grow they will be a bale

to take !arger live and prepared foods and
grow even faster.
Fast growth also requires regular partial
water changes, at least a th ird of the tank
every three or four days. Be careful siphon-
ing water form the aquarium. lt is easy to
suck out the very small fish. One trick is to
place a piece of sponge over the end of the
siphon in the tank. This will stop the unin-
tentional removal of fry.
lf the breeding tank is very small, it is
Fighting Ma/es(Foto T Judy) also a good idea to either reduce the num-
ber of fry by moving some to a different
tank, or transfer the whole spawn to a !ar-
ger aquarium
One trick is to place a piece of sponge
over the end of the siphon in the tank. Tis
will stop the unintentional removal of fry. lf
the breeding tank is very small, it is also a
good idea to eilher reduce the number of
fry by moving some to a different tank, or
transfer the whole spawn to a !arger aqua-
rium .

• Jörg Vierke

Fighting Males (Foto T Judy)

Aquanum International #0. 2011 S1lec1e' Prof le

VVes'!-J-\frJc8 ~®Dvö~&Jt:hrtttJmö~
ff!J~JO~!JJ~Y oJN!©'J@n~~oJ
1 Jdonga~Krib
For many years it was assumed
that the only place to fi nd wild Pel-
vieaehromis puleher is in the Niger
River delta of Nigeria A few decades
ago, however, travelling aquarists dis-
covered a unique population in Ca-
meroon..
<
. the Ndonga population.
This beautiful krib is uncommon in
the wild and the hobby II is infre-
quently imported, and probably the
bet way to get them is to travel to Ca-
meroon . to collect them first hand.
, The editors of this magazine, Lutz
and Ted, met on an expedition to Ca-
meroon where the first stop was a
stream holding this species. Several
pairs were collected, and what fol-
lows is a combination of our Observa-
tions of the P. puleher 'Ndonga' in the
field and aquarium

Dascnp11on:
P. puleher 'Ndonga' is a typical Pel-
vieaehromis in body~orm, but its colo-
ration differs from its well-known Ni-
gerian cousin. The Cameroon popu-
lation is browner with yellow high-
lights, and the spots on the tail of the
male are more similar to those on
some varieties on P. taeniatus. The
aggressive colors of the ltemales in-
clude an beautiful purpl~ 'belly, unlike
the bright cherry red Iof'the typical P.
pulcher. ·
.-'
Habitat:
i
The habitat pf P. puleher from
Ndonga, Camerqon, is a tributary of
the Dibamba R!Ver located on the
southern side ot, the estuary region
adjacent to the large city of Douala.
·. ...
Aquanum International #0. 2011
VVes'!-J-\frJc8
i1ö!l'llUn~li3S:
Depending on tank size, P puleher
'Ndonga' will telerate medium to Iarge
sized open-water swimming species
that are not a threat to their territory.
livet>earers, fetras, barbs and larger
danios are all app_ropriate. Bottom fish
should t>e avol ded unless the aquarium
has plenty of room to share t>etween
them and the cichlids.
Ein zunuss des Dibamba-RiVers ist das Biotop
dieser hübschen Standortvariante von P pul-
eher. Es könnte sich allerdings auch um eine
Übergangsform zwischen P pucher und P tae-
niatus halten, da die Tiere Merkmale beider
Arten aufweisen.
Fundort P puleher 'Ndonga'.
S1lec1e' Prof le
~®Dvö~&Jt:hrtttJmö~
ff!J~JO~!JJ~Y oJN!©'J@n~~oJ
1 Jdonga~Krib
The stream is shallow, swift and
about 20 meters wide. Marginal
plants are abundant, but the only true
aquatic plants present are a few
Nympheae sp. in the quiet, sunny
shallows. The water is cool (less than
. - 76' F),< pH 7 and very soft (less than
~
20 iJS conductivity) The bottom is
sandy with small to large rocks. The
P. puleher are not at edge-oriented as
one would expect, but are instead
found mostly in the center of the
stream around large, sheltering
rocks.
Other species of fish that share the
stream include killifish (Epip/atys sp.,
Chromaphyosemion sp.), Chromidoti-
/apia guen(heri guentheri, Hemichre-
mis e/ongatus, Tilapia sp., Brycinus
sp. telras and various small barbs.
Aqu!!lrlum:
An aquarium witt't_ plenty of room,
subdued lighti ng and a moderate to
strong current is ideaL Live plants are
not necessary (there are few in their
natural habitat), but the fish will not
bother plants, so adding vegetation is
not a problem. Structure should inclu-
de plenty of bogwood, coconut halves
or other caves and hiding,places The
species will telerate a wide range of
hardness and pH, butm oderately soft
and neutral conditiolls are most suita-
ble. ·
,'
}
'f
\
Aquanum International #0, 20 11
F;.:.a1r 9
, opening, one that is just large enough
P. puleher is primarily a plant detri1us
feeder, so a die! with plenty of vegeta-
ble matter is key to maintaining their
good health. Flake foods are perfectty
acceptable as a base diet, which can
be supplemented with occasional fee-
dings of meatier foods like mosquito
larvae or bloodworm.
Broadlng:
The Ndonga variety breeds in the ly-
pical P. puleher fashion, but most re-
ports indicate that getting the the fish
to spawn at all can be difficult. Pati-
ence is key. A pair may not spawn for
many months, or even years; but so
long as th ey are healthy and mature
there is always a chance !hat they will
breed. Spawning takes place in a cave,
c, l" ' ,, · 11 ' f I·
~~Ovöcmchromis
fPJM]t:JJ~J' l nOJt)n~~JJ
Ndonga~Krib
preferably a roomy space with a small
for the male to squeeze through. The
female deposits the eggs on the roof of
the cavity, and then she becomes the
primary' care giver for the eggs and lar-
vae while the male defends the larger
territory outside of the spawning site.
The fry will be free-swimming about 8
days after spawning, and the pair will
Iead the riy out of the cave and around
the aquarium to forage . First foods can
be fresh-hatched Artemia, microworm
or even finely crushed ftake foods.
With good nutrition and clean water the
fry will grow quickly.
• Lutz Döring
Aquanum International #0 2011 Advert1s1ng

Quality Tropical Fish

Direct From the Breeder

Aquanum International #0. 2011
CJchJJds 'for ·tha
~\Ja rJo-J--\ cJUB rj urr
Neolamprologus similis and
Neo/amprologus multifasciatus
by Wolfgang Staeck
Cace a nc! Breoeodl'lcl
Who is not afraid of doing large water
changes on a nano-aquarium, an act
made necessary by the minimal volume
of the tank? ls it possible to maintain
cichlids in such a small container?
There are some cichlid species small
enough to keep in a nano-aquarium.
Among the smallest are Neolamprologus
similis (BÜSCHER 1992) and N. multifa-
sciatus (BOULENGER, 1906), two shell-
dwelling species from Lake Tanganyika.
The males of these species grow to only
4 cm in total length, and the females to
only halfof that size.
Llvlng ln a Shell
The group of Lake Tanganyika cichlids
collectively referred to as shell-dwellers live
over sandy areas, without any rock structure
for hiding, because they make use of empty
snail shells for protection from predators and
as a place to spawn
Aquanum International #0. 2011
Neo/amprologus brevis is one of the first she/1-dwel-
lers being imported to Germany (Foto: L. Döring)
Shell-dwelling cichlids only
swim forward into their shells.
Cace anc! Breoeod r'lcl
Empty snail shells are all that remains
after the deaths of the mollusks that origi-
nally lived in them. The hard alkaline water
of the Iake supports the growth of strong
shells, and when the snail dies its shell will
last, without dissolving, for centuries. The
discovery of shell-dwelling cich lids was not
made until the 1970's, when fish collectors
on the hunt for new aquarium species
began exploring Lake Tanganyika. Two
dozen of these shell-dwelling species have
been described so far.
I first learned of these cichlids and their
remarkable Iifestyie when I visited Lake
Tanganyika fi rsttime in 1979, where I met
Misha Fainzilber, an exporter of Iake cich-
lids from the Tanzanian shore to Europe.
Misha told me that one of his fish collectors
had discovered, by accident, small cichlids
that lived in shells in areas of sandy bot-
toms. Later that year the first shell-dwellers
were introduced to German aquarium
hobby for the first time.
Naolamprologus muJliiEiscietus
and Naolamprologus similis
N. multifasciatus was originally described
in 1906 by the ichthyologist Boulenger. The
few colletion sites of this species are loca-
ted mainly along the eastern coast (Tanza-
nia) and southern coast (Zambia) of the
Lake. Neolamprologus similis, however,
was not discovered until 1989, when it fi rst
became possible to explore the Iake on the
weslern coast (Democratic Republic of
Congo) Heinz Buescher, who conducted
the first ichthyologic investigation on the
southwestern coast of the Iake, what was
at that tme an unknown species of shell-
dweller. The distribution of N. similis seems
to be limited to the southwestern shore of
Lake Tanganyika, and only two localities
(Zongwe and Tembwe) have been found to
have populations of the species
Aquanum International #0. 2011 Cace anc! Breoeod r'lcl

in N. similis, the dark stripes are wider than the light. /n N. multifasciatus, the dark stripes are wider than
the light and the head has no patterns.

Both snail cich lids live in the transitional

zone between the lower gravel and the lower
sandy littoral zone, where they are often
found in clusters of empty snail shells. Where
these snails-cemeteries are missing, the fish
can inhabit rock crevices.
Buescher did not find N. similis in the pre-
sence of shells, and did not describe it origi-
nally as a shell-dweller. Buescher (1992) de-
scribes the habitat of N. similis as the lower
section of the rocky littoral zone up to cliffs N similis (Foto: L. Döring)
and rock walls in a water depth of 30-45 me-
There is no sexual dimorphism in eilher
ters. Ad Konings (1999) corrected this mista-
species, so determining gender is difficult
ke, expanding the habitat of the species to in-
The males of both species grow considerably
clude snail shell beds.
larger than the females, but this is only usefu l
The fish do not have a specialized food when comparing fully adult fish.
preference ln addition to small crustaceans
(Cyclops, ostracods) and insect larvae, they Behavtour Related to the ShQII
also feed upon green algae and diatoms .
Although snails cichlids Iack of the flashy
N similis and N multifasciatus are very si- and bold colors of many other cichlids, they
milar in that they exhibit a pattern of up to 14 are still very popular as aquarium fish becau-
alternating, narrow dark and light vertical bars se they show very interesting behavior. Their
on the sides of the body between the gill behavioral biology is strongly infl uenced by
cover and the caudal fin. Neo/ampro/ogus Si- their intense attachment to an empty shell. All
milis' dark vertical bars are wider than its shell-dwelling cichlids swim only forward into
white bars, and in this way differs from N their house. Since a snail shell is generally
multifasciatus. The bars of N. similis also ex- selected by the fish so that it fits just barely,
tend farther up onto the back of the head, the adults of most species cannot turn around
whereas in N. multifasciatus the dark bars inside, and must leave it by floating back-
are narrewer than the light bars, and the back wards.
of the head is devoid of markings.
Aquanum International #0. 2011
A pair of N. similis
The females of N. multifasciatus and N. si-
milis, because of thei r small size, are the only
adult shell-dwellers of any species that can
turn around in the shell. When a fish is res-
ting outside of its shell, it will lie facing the
opening in order to escape danger in a flash.
Unlike the obligate snail-shell breeders that
spawn ra ise their broods exclusively in shells,
N. multifasciatus and N. similis are not limited
to th is single method of reproduction, and
they will also breed in crevices in rocks.
N. similis has stripes an the back of the
head.
Despite their tiny size these small cichlids
are capable of great amounts of activity They
are so focused upon excavating the sand
from around thei r chosen home that they wil l
often remove all the substrate until the shell
is lying on the bare glass of the aquarium bot-
Care am! Br8C!dlllcl
N. multifasciatus guarding the few days o/d
offspring.
tom. A deep substrate may become sculpted
into huge craters and ridges in the aquarium.
The animals instinctively digging to crate
more hiding places for themselves and their
offspring, so that the young fish are not only
hiding in the snail shell refuge , but also bet-
ween and among several shells that combi-
ned will make an elaborate crevice-fi lled refu-
ge.
The fish can also move the position of a
specific shell to meet their needs. ln general,
the fish will grab the opening of the shell with
their mouth and push violently until the shell
changes position. This behavior is rarely ob-
served. The more frequent method of home
relocation is to excavate the sand from under
the shell on the side towards which the fish
wants the shell to move. Once enough of the
shell's support has been moved, gravity will
do the heavy work. Once the shell is in positi-
on the fish will replace sand around the shell
to stabilize it A third behavior is performed to
cover the shell with sand so that only its
opening is visible. The fish will start at the
opening of the shell and swim quickly away
from it while physically plowing through the
sand, which is th rown backwards over the
shell. Any grains that end up in the shell are
cleaned out
Aquanum International #0. 2011
N. similis lives in a /arge family group
A !arge family group of N. multifasciatus.
The o/der juveniles of N. multifasciatus are weil
camounaged against the substrate.
Care am! Br8C!dlllcl
Soclal Behavtor
Another interesting aspect of keeping N.
similis and N. multifasciatus is being able
to see their interesting social behaviors and
parental ca re. Both species live Iogether in
a large fam ily, with members defending
their territory together. Young fish take part
in caring for their younger siblings, relieving
the parent fish of the task so they can
breed again. A strong male will also mate
with multiple females, creating a harem,
which adds to the overall productivity of the
colony.
The reproductive rate of either species is
not very high. Small fish have few fry, and
broods of only half a dozen babies are nor-
mal. Both species can spawn repeatedly
over a short period of time, however
(usually less than three weeks between
spawns), thanks to the cooperative
brood-care system of the colony. Freshly
hatched nauplii of brine shrimp are recom-
mended for feed ing the colony, as they are
readily accepted by all ages
These tiny dwarf cichlids are tenacious in
defending their fry and territory, and can
drive off much larger fish with lightning-fast
attacks. Tank mates learn very quickly to
respect the shell-dweller's temper. Both N
multifasciatus and N. simi/is differ from
other shell-dwelling species (such as Lam-
pro/ogus ocellatus and L ornatipinnis) by
having a significantly lower Ievei of intras-
pecific aggression, a characteristic that
makes both species suitable for keeping
groups of more than fam ily in a single
aquarium.
The offspring are tolerated in the area of
the parents unti l they reach sexual maturity
and a size of about 15 millimeters, after
which the young adults will leave to start
their own colonies; but they do not have to
move far to escape any negative attention
from the older fish.
Aquanum International #0. 2011
Benavioral elements of N. similis.
Br bhography
Cace anc! Breoeod r'lcl
Aquarium caro
Keeping small family group in a small
aquarium, starting with a single pair or
breeding trio, is possible in as small a
space as a 10-gallon aquarium. The sur-
face area of the floor is more critical than
the height, and a tank with less than 200
sq. inches of bottom space is probably ina-
dequate.
Keeping large groups in a nano-aquari-
um is not a good idea, but the fish do very
weil in large aquariums One extended fa-
mily of thee dwarfs only needs an area of
about 400 sq. inches (an area of 20" x 20")
There is enough room in a tank with the
base dimensions of 48" x 12" to accommo-
date at least three colonies. The borders
between the adjacent colonies are defen-
ded by the offspring of the colony's par-
ents, but the ski rmishes are highly rituali-
zed and fish are rarely hurt.
A layer of sand two inches deep and a
shell density of about one dozen shells per
family group is sufficient. The shells of the
Lake Tanganyika snail genus Neothauma,
the natural shell that these eichIids use, are
usually difficult to obtain. The fish are not
picky, however, and will accept shells from
various species of snail. lf plants are desi-
red it is important to not cover too much of
the surface area of the substrate. Valisne-
ria sp. grass is a good choice for planti ng in
a shell-dweller aquarium.
8oth N similis and N. multifasciatus are
excellent choices for a cichlid nano-aquari-
um. Their very small size combined with
their relatively small space requirements
make them uniquely suitable compared to
other rift Iake eichIids.
• Wolfgang Staeck
Aquanum International #0, 2011
Travelling is easily done by plane. The main
routes are serviced by small planes wiht appro-
ximately 20 seats.
Smaller night routes are served by small Cess-
nas which can- theoretically - carry four per-
sons. Theoretically - in one case we were fiying
with six people including luggage.
Exped1t1on
A view of the Mamore riVer. 1 can image that
there are some species of fish still unknown to
science and the hobby.
Solivia has a relatively large number of
lakes in the middle of its Amazon ian Iew-
Iands. These lakes, which are very shallow
and clear, are very attractive destinations
for divers and snorkelers. The lakes boast
a huge variety of aquatic plants and fish, as
weil as a rich bird fauna. Unfortunately,
they are not easily reached by land.
lf you want to move around in the Ama-
zonian lowlands, you have to rely mainly
on airplanes Smaller jets with just 20 seats
serve the main routes , while the unpaved
runways are served only by smaller Ces-
nas. I traveled to Solivia with a small group
(only 4) of enthusiastic aquarists from Ser-
lin in September of 2007 (the dry season).
After we arrived in Santa Cruz, the capital
city in the Amazon ian lowlands, we made
our way by plane to the three places we
had chosen to visit. The best way to travel
in the lowlands of Solivia is to start in the
city of Trinidad (state of Seni) This cute litt-
le town has a relatively large airport, from
wh ich there are flights to all the other areas
of the cou ntry.
Oühija
Our firsttripwas to the town of Cobija in
the north of Solivia. I was sitting by the win-
dow during the flight to Cobija, and wat-
ched the river systems that we flew over
and imagined what fish wou ld probably be
there.
Aquanum International #0, 2011 Expedition

Unfortunately, the visibility was very bad

because of a heavy smoke from the
burning of pastures

Three small brooks crossmg the road rrom Co-

bija to the south. ThOugh the brooks were
The Rio Acre is the border to Brazll lvtthm
small, they mhablted a bunch or f!Sh spec1es.
the city of Cobija. lt is a typical muddy nver
betonging to the whitewater type. The bridge
is the border crossing from Bolivia to Brazil.

Cobija is located on the Rio Acre, which

is a slightly less sediment-laden white
water river !hat forms the northern border
between Solivia and Srazil. The Rio Acre
has a confl uence with the Rio Purus, one
of the southerly tributaries of the Amazon.
There is a bridge over the river at Cobija
which will take you to Srazil. I was familiar
with the Rio Acre before the trip because of
the dwarf cich lid species Apistog ramma
acrensis (named after the Rio Acre by
Wolfgang Staeck, one of my companions)
in 2003). There are many characins and
catfish known from the Rio Acre, as weil as
the dwarf cichlids that I am especially inte-
rested in. There are many reports of fish
collections in this river, which make it clear
that the area of Solivia is a hotspol of biodi-
versity.
Apistogramma acrenSis was descnbed by Sta-
eck in 2003. Th1s species mamty occurred m
brooks and small rrvers wh/Ch dramed mto the
Rio Acre system.

Habitat of Apistogramma acrensis.

quanum n ernat1ona 0, 2011
This characin reminded me of Hyphessobrycon her-
bertaxetrodi.
We stayed in the best hotel in town (the
owner's words, but we agreed} After we had
recru ited a driver with an SUV, we were on
our way to inspect the town.
A well-constructed asphalt road Ieads
south from the city, and another road runs
north, across the bridge over the Rio Acre,
into neighboring Brazil. Our first trip, after
packing our extensive equipment, went to the
south to various water bodies, rivers and
streams.
We made a stop at a small, swampy bioto-
pe formed from water than drained from
under the road into a small creek, and there
we found our first interesting catches.
A similar species from a ptace some 10 kilo-
meters away but from a total different catch-
ment basin.
Everywhere the waters drained north to the
river system of the Rio Acre we found A
acrensis. Where the vegetation was inunda-
Exped1t1on
This glandutocaudine species was caught in a brook
nowing into the Tahuamanu riVer. This group of aha-
raeins uses internal insemination.
ted by a very shallow water, I caught some
Rivulus, which Florian (my second compani-
on} took home successfully and was able to
breed in the aquarium. For myself, complete-
ly unexpectedly, I caught several nice Creni-
cichla that I could not take home because of
their size. Juergen (my thi rd compan ion} tried
to take some juveniles of th is species to Ger-
many, but did not succeed because he could
not provide the appropriate food during the
next three weeks.
We also caught some nice characins,
which rem inded us of the black Neon Fish
Hyphessobrycon herbertaxelrodi. Unfortuna-'
tely, it lost the lovely yellow color it shows in
the photo tank the day it was captured. We
initially thought we were catching that same
kind of tetra everywhere, but after comparing
them later I am not so sure. Another characin
belonged to the subfamily Glandulocaudinae.
These fish are characterized by internal inse-
mination, but are often not represented in the
aquarium. We also netted darter tetras of the
genus Characidium, as weil as representati-
ves of the genus Pyrrhulina, which we would
find several times later. These species lie re-
latively motionless on the bottom of the
stream and wait for prey
lt was clear to us that these fish also have
predators. We caught several smaller preda-
tor-characins of the genus Hoplias.
Aquanum International #0, 2011
---
.
We found many varielies of A. rubrolineala. II was
lhe mosl common dwarf cichlid in lhis area of BoliVia.
They are widespread in South America,
and have the ability to breathe atmospheric
air to survive in different habitats. We also
fou nd a catfish of the little-known fam ily of
Trichomycteridae, named because of his ap-
pearance right as a "loach-catfish", which
lives hidden and partially buried in the sedi-
ment of the bottom.
A young wolf fish.
Another nice habitat was located about 20
kilometers south of Cobija near the small
town of Porvenir, where the road crossed in
the south a small river. At first glance, this
looked very unattractive from fishing grounds.
There was a large area for above the bridge
where several women were washing her
children's clothes, and underneath the bridge
was used for washing cars. We doubted that
we wou ld find much at all in this river, since
all of this polluting activity was occurring wi-
Exped1t1on
Florian collecled a few specimens of A. luelingi lo
Iake home. Here is an image of a male.
thout the benefit of useful facilities to separa-
te bad chemieals from the effluent going into
the stream.
Where the people bathe....
We were therefore surprised when, in this
small, heavily used river that drained sou-
thward into the Rio Tahuamanu, we were
able to catch Apistogramma. There were
many of A rubrolineata, a species that was
described several years before our visit by a
group of biologists associated with the Dres-
den inhabitant Axel Zarske. The type speci-
mens came from the catchment area of the
Rio Manuripi, a tributary of the Tahuamanu.
We also found two other species of Apisto-
gramma, though only a few of each A luelin-
gi and A linkei. Whi le the occurrence of A
luelingi was not very surprising, Wolfgang
Staeck was surprised to find A linkei so far
north in Bolivia.
Aquanum International #0, 20 11 Expedition

The shower rom was used to keep the fishes. The fish were checked twice a
day and water was changed dally.

A acrensis female in breeding color.

Florian Iook home the A luelingi and A

rubrolineata, and I returned with some young
fish of A. acrensis. The animals developed
relatively weil in my aquarium, and I had no
A acrens1s male. problern getting them to breed. Unfortunate-
ly, they were lost after just one generation.
After arriving back at the hotel in Cobija,
we sorted and stored our fish in the shower
of the room and made the first photos.
Aquanum International #0, 2011
We saw many cattfe pastures as we traveled by on hard dirt roads.
Uke on every riVer and brook 1 was afmost
eaten up by bfackflies which Jett me with do-
zens of smafl blood fifled pustufes.
Exped1t1on
Luckily the hotel had air cond itioning, so
that we could adjust the room temperature to
about 25 ·c. The air temperature in Cobija
was up to 35 degrees, and that wou ld kill the
fish that come from the relatively cool
shaded streams of the forest.
G!:>ifll&J :=~sl
The next day we drove to the east. Over
long stretches we passed extensive pastu-
res with little native vegetation and a Iot of
eroded soil Half-way towards Riberalta we
came upon a small forest of Mauritia flexuo-
sa palms, a sure sign of slightly acidic soft
water or even black water. Seeing those
palms from a distance gave us the clue that
there might be something interesting there.
ln fact, there was a small stream that flowed
under the road. Even from the car we saw
large schools of small telras in a pool on the
downstream side of the road. A quick draw
with the net brought around 200 of these
small telras and compensated for the bites
of little stubborn fl ies.
Aquanum International #0, 20 11
Tnis small cflaracm arter arrMng m my tank.
My first impression was that these letras
were juveniles of an Astyanax species, and I
wanted to Iet them go (because species of
that gnus grow large and aggressive). Wolf-
gang Staeck advised me to keep some,
however, because the presence of both thick
and thin fish indicated that adults of both
sexes were present, and they were probably
already fully grown.
A group of l/Je small telras m my tank.
The 20 small letras (only about 15mm
long) proved to be very robust. I kept them for
three weeks in relatively small vessels as we
traveled across Bolivia, and not a single tetra
died. They were also good inhabitants of my
aquariums, but were very sensitive in bree-
ding I still do not know what the species is. I
Exped1t1on
Sebasüan our driver nad brougflt fl1s msulated coo-
ling bag to pick up l/Je /arger fisfies wf11cfl would
make a nice evening meat.
only hope to be able to maintain a small PO-
pulation. They are very attractive, small
(20-24mm) and hide a Iot. They are a good
fish for a nano-aquarium
Tflis species is not a color wonder but 11 turned
out to be a nice species. in lfle tank 11/tves very
flidden and does not use many space. So 11 may
atos be used for small tanks.
Later in the trip we crossed rivers, which
had their origins in the small forests, some of
them in swampy areas with a Iot of ferns. The
vast majority of these waters were easily ac-
cessible. Our driver, Sebastian (who often
smiled, shaking his head in wonder about our
activities) had now brought out a container to
collect the "big" fish to keep for dinner with
his family. This mix1ure of Astyanax, Creni-
cichla, and catfish should be very interesting
for a fish soup
Aquanum International #0, 2011 Exped1t1on

Wolfgang is demonstrating his way of fishing Placing the net carefully some meter trom the
for Apistogramma. waters · edge, he carefully chases the fish into
the deeper water by trampfing into the shallow

The fish nee into the deeper water and are lf you are lucky and experienced befiVeen 5
trapped in the net. and 30 fishes are caught with each attempt.

Smaller streams were dammed by the con- annoyed (I am not alone in th is feeling) that
struction of the road, creating ponds on the we stayed so long in th is area of smaller
upstream side. Wolfgang Staeck again show- streams where all the fish were the same as
ed us his proven fishing tactics to fish the what we could find in the larger streams clo-
shoreline for Apistogramma. He placed his ser to the town.
net a few feet from the bank with the opening
facing the shore, and into the shallow water
to chase the fish fleeing into deeper water. .
directly into the netl A very effective fishing
method.
The area we were exploring sat directly on
the watershed divide between the Rio Acre
(which ultimately empties into the Rio Purus)
and the Madre de Dios River (which drains
into the Rio Madeira) The creeks draining to
the north (Rio Acre) held mostly A acrensis.
Creeks that drained to the south contained
mostly A rubrolineata. ln hindsight, I am a bit
Aquanum International #0, 2011
Late atternoon we arriVed at this nice place. There
was onty a few minutes time Jett for fishing.
ln the last habitat we found in-
teresting catfish, but there
was no time left to catch them .
Field photo of Corydoras sp. aff. aeneus.
Exped1t1on
We took a break near a village where
many butterflies were taking in minerals
from the wet ash of a fire pit I was able to
get a Iot of pictures
Araund communities and also on special
swampy areas you can someümes find a tot of
insects on special places. They are tooking for
a source of minerats. Here they found what
they were tooking for in a moist fire place.
During the afternoon we reached some
major rivers, their tributaries dehydrated,
which probably flowed from a larger forest
area near the Peruvian border. ln the larger
streams we found Farlowella, Rineloricaria
and also Corydoras, of which we were able
to catch only two animals. They were simi-
lar to our C. aeneus. Unfortunately, there
were two males, so there was no chance of
breeding them and we did not bring them
home.
Looks like the common Corydoras aeneus.
But this is probabty a species comptex with this
species betonging to it.
Aquanum International #0, 20 11 Expedition

A tew spectmens of this mce ltttle suckermouth cat- A last view back to Cobija trom the plane on the way
fish was caught m this mce small rtver. to our second /ocation in Bo/ivia.

By late afternoon, our driver was getting The next day, after we had packed the cap-
nervous, about the time, but we made a briet tured animals for travel, we headed oft to the
stop at a pond where we were able to catch airfield. With one last glance over the hazy
some small Ancistrus catfish. I picked up pie- Cobija and the Rio Acre, we Iook leave to tra-
ces of wood quickly and shook them over my vel via Trinidad to Los Lagos, where the
net, and managed to capture a total of five of collecting of fish should be much better
the relatively small (8-9cm} plecos.
Tobe continued .. .
Due to the tentacles on the head of some I
suspected I had both sexes. Unfortunately,
these animals didn't survive the Iransport • by Siefan K. Hetz
home, because my Iuggage arrived a day late
and damaged in Berlin. Another heavy piece
of baggage must have had the case com-
pressed, so the five animals died in transit.
 W'r1ara eJfc trua::;a Jo~c'rlas frmn?
Sewellia lineolata's home is in northern and
central Vietnam. According to Freyhof, the
species is found in almost all the rivers of the
rapidly flowing rivers in central Vietnam. The
distribution of this species ranges from the
Huong River in Hue (Perfume River) and
south to the An Lao River in the province of
Binh Dinh. The animals mainly inhabit the
rocky sections of clear-water streams. The
animals are diurnal and search at the rocks
for food, especially small insect larvae.
VV'rl~l :o~re l'rlB tlam~rJds &J Sawai-
JiOJ?
Small aquariums are perfectly suitable for
these loaches, because their maximum size
of 6-7 cm does not require a Iot of swimming
space, and are they very sociable fish. A
small group may weil be kept in aquariums as
small as 60 Iiters. The decor for these ani-
mals should have numerous stones, under
which the animals like to hide.
Sewellia ca n talerate a range of conditions
from soft to medium hard water, and a pH
from slightly acidic to slightly alkali ne. Harder
water is not a problern either. The most im-
portant factor, in my experience, is to ensure
an adequate oxygen Ievel. These are rapids-
loving fish !hat need the water to weil aera-
ted. Very regular water changes are also ne-
cessary to ensure good water quality A mat-
ten filter wall with an airlift works weil. A
strong current makes the animals happy,
however, it is not mandatory The water tem-
perature should be at best between 22 and
25·c .
These loaches are not algae eaters, as one
might expect because of their catfish-like ap-
pearance, and they need protein in their die!
I feed my Sewellia with tablet, frozen and live
foods, all of which they eat very weil.
When I feed a tablet food, many individuals
with gather araund the tablet all at once.
They distribute food particles from the tablet
with wave-like motion of their fins, and then
feed on these particles greedily I also feed
live mosquito larvae, which are sucked to the
surface of the matten filter where the loaches
scurry over to find. But mostly I feed them fro-
zen red mosquito larvae, brine shrimp and
Cyclops.
 - - - - - - - -
Aquan um International #0 2011
J-Jow C~fll 'tYB dis:iiru ~!.JisfiJ l:Je b YBBrl
- v~ ......
...rr'J::) :=:.i"A' ......
=-- ':J
-: _.,. ".)
The distinction between the sexes of adult
Sewellia is quite simple to see. The females
show a wider body and a wider head portion.
At the starting point of the pectoral fins they
form a !arger angle (see illustrations) from the
body in the female. The front rays of the
males usually show marked elevations, which
are absent in females.
The breeding of Sewellia lineolata in the
aquarium is easy to accomplish with enough
hiding places and the Iack of predators that
would eat the eggs and fry. Because these
loaches scatter their small and crystal clear
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
': a c- c; r"~: E r ~~' 'rl'J
eggs, I pile a bunch of 1-2 cm diameter peb-
bles in a corner of the aquarium The eggs
fall between the pebbles and the resulting lar-
vae and young fish, being under cover, can
develop safely Your first sign that a spawn
has occurred will be when the first small juve-
niles venture out to Iook for food .
I initially feed the fry with a crushed tablet
distributed on the water surface so that the
particles gradually sink and are distributed
throughout the aquarium. I also feed live Ar-
temia nauplii When the young fish are more
numerous and !arger I feed them whole food
tablets, frozen Cyclops and grindal worms.
The young fish are initially very thin and dark
banded, and they do not have the typical su-
cker-disk Iook that they will have as adults.
 S. lineo/ata needs many rocks to fee/ com-
fortab/e.
lf the Sewe/lia absolutely do not procrea-
te in the aquarium, there can be a number
of reasons. lf the water is very hard, the
eggs may no hatch, and softening the
water with reverse osmosis or rainwater is
recommended. My animals have stopped
spawning in the summer months when
temperatures in my aquarium rise above
25·c.

A 112inch /ong juvenile.

Eggs and young fish may also become

victims to predators. Planaria, flatworms
that are often introduced to the tank with
• live foods such as wild tubifex worms, can
... ,., '
proliferate under the rocks where you wil l
never see them; but they will eat the loach
.. eggs and larvae also hiding under the sto-
nes. I had no initial breeding success due
to the presence of bladder (pond) snails,
which apparently had eaten all the eggs
Only when I killed them completely did the
first loach fry start to appear
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Aquan um International #0 2011 ': a c- c; r"~: E r ~~' 'rl'J

The parent loaches do not feed on the fi rst aquarium. lt is indescribable to observe an
free-swimming fry, but you should make that aquarium fi lled with reticulated hill stream loa-
there are no egg or fry predators in the aqua- ches of various sizes.
rium.
Sewellia lineo/ata can proliferate under ap- • by lngo Seidel
propriate cond itions so that the bottom is litte-
red at feed ing time with juvenile fish. When
that happens it is important to do more fre-
quent water changes to account for the
added number of fish in the tank. ln my expe-
rience, the parents will stop breeding at some Literature
point when there are too many fry in the
Impressum AquIateraatiepl
Ausgabe #0, 201 1

Aquarium International Advisory Board

The Freshwater Magazine lngo Seidel
Dr. Jörg Vierke
Mag Dr. Anton Lamboj
Owner
Lutz Döring
Buchenhöhe 26
Frequency
D-37589 Kaiefeld
six issue per year
l.doering@aquariuminternational.de

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