Aphyolebias peruensis

[RonWill]

Hi folks,
It's a much awaited and anxious moment to dunk the peat containing eggs of Aphyolebias peruensis, to be exact, a 20-week incubation! I'm very pleased to announce the hatching of 7 bouncing babies*.

As received 'uncoded' from a friend in Media, Pennsylvania, it is believed to be the "Yarina Cocha" population but since the code didn't accompany the eggs, I'll leave it as is.





According to "[cynolebias] Digest", these Aphyolebias will mature in about 3 months and are deep peat divers, requiring 3cm of peat in a tall container. Being an annual, lifespan is about a year, possibly longer in an aquarium. [Let's just hope I reach that stage]

BTW, who else is maintaining this particular species?

* Jian Yang, I think it's another update for the Census :wink:

[turaco]

Good to know they are free swimming

[Svein]

Congratiolation Ron with an exellent species.
I have 2 pair in a 80 l. tank, my strain is "Santa Anna.

My males is about 7 cm, and they ar huge .
I see that the males are fighting quite heavily, the same with the females, but they are breeding a lot, I have collected peat 4 times now, and it's a lot of eggs.

I have a "tank" wirh peat, and the hight is about 10 cm, and I see that they are diving very deep, but I'm not sure if it's necessary.
Good luck with the youngsters.
Here is one of my male:

Regards
Svein

[hwchoy]

wow nice fish. I am sooooo tempted to conduct a raid on Ronnie's jungle hideout.

[RonWill]

Hi Svein, nice to know I won't be alone with this species but do have more questions.

For the fry, what sort of growth rate can I expect if they're given a varied diet of live foods and adequate space? Is cannibalism expected amongst the larger siblings? At what size (in cm.) will they start courting?

In your 80L tank (which houses the pair), what can you do to minimize damage between warring males? Are the females equally aggressive?

I have a "tank" wirh peat, and the hight is about 10 cm, and I see that they are diving very deep...

Is 10cm the height of the 'peat tank' or the depth of the peat? What's the purpose of this 'peat tank' within the 80L tank? Won't a regular breeding bowl serve the same purpose? [unless you want to observe how deep they dive into]

[RonWill]

wow nice fish. I am sooooo tempted to conduct a raid on Ronnie's jungle hideout.

Perimeter alarm - activated
Motion sensor - activated
Surveillance cams - activated
Anti-theft homing rounds - armed

Choy, now you can come over :wink: Bring along your gears as well.

[Svein]

For the fry, what sort of growth rate can I expect if they're given a varied diet of live foods and adequate space? Is cannibalism expected amongst the larger siblings? At what size (in cm.) will they start courting?

Ron, I bought these 2 pairs in September, then they were about3,5 cm, so I cannot answer you how the growth rate is it's the first time I keep this species.

I started to breed them at once, and I got eggs, but haven't hatch them yet, as you probably can understand.

Killi data online tells that they are mature when they are about 3 months.

In your 80L tank (which houses the pair), what can you do to minimize damage between warring males? Are the females equally aggressive?

I have lots of plants, but i don't finding the picking dangerous for the fish, because they mostly chasing each other. The same with the females.

Is 10cm the height of the 'peat tank' or the depth of the peat? What's the purpose of this 'peat tank' within the 80L tank? Won't a regular breeding bowl serve the same purpose? [unless you want to observe how deep they dive into]

I'm not sure if I understand your question, but I have about 10 cm with peat, and I have been told that they need it. The fish is quite big :wink:
When i come home from work, I will enclose a picture from my tank.

Regards
Svein

[Svein]

Here is my tank for A. peruensis. This is not a "plant tank" in fact just a "mess tank, but the peruensis loves it :wink:



Regards
Svein

[stormhawk]

Not quite big but rather quite long in body length. That explains why this species and the rest of the larger and longer SAAs like the other Aphyolebias, Moema and even Trigonectes, require a deeper spawning container. They're all deep peat divers if I recall correctly.

A friend of mine told me he bred Micromoema xiphophora quite successfully using a plastic cup with a deep layer of peat. These should be somewhat similar to the A. peruensis.

Svein, thanks for the pictures.

[timebomb]

Here is my tank for A. peruensis.

Svein, I must say it's either your fish are very smart or I don't know fish very well. Breeding containers made of transparent glass have never worked for me. My fish are just too dumb to understand they can't swim through glass. They try to enter and leave the containers by banging their heads against the sides.

Don't your fish do the same thing too?

Loh K L

[keehoe]

Wow, nice fish. Hwchoy, count me in. Svein and Ronwil, Post more photo of thie lovely species please.

[RonWill]

Folks,
Here's an update of the peruensis at 3 months and have colored up, almost anyway. Eggs collected from them are not very viable yet but I've given a bag to Rashid, due to wet in about 18 weeks!

I'm sure some are waiting eagerly for the pics...


Dominant male at about 5cm.


Another pic of him.


Nice fat female


Spawning group... 2M:3F

Not the most display-friendly fish, preferring to laze amongst the fern and moss, but their finnage is beautiful.

[stormhawk]

Ron, stunning fish as usual and worth the long wait.

Perhaps their close cousin, Aphyolebias rubrocaudatus, might do better in your care.

[A.Rashid]

I want ... I want....

Ronnie, the peat you pass me, no hatch, I guess you've exhausted them all from the 1st wetting.... anyway... will have to wait til July for the incubated ones to be wetted.

And what nice pix you have especially with the oyama "substrates"....

[hwchoy]

wow nice fish. I am sooooo tempted to conduct a raid on Ronnie's jungle hideout.

Perimeter alarm - activated
Motion sensor - activated
Surveillance cams - activated
Anti-theft homing rounds - armed

Choy, now you can come over :wink: Bring along your gears as well.

nice nice! must start practising my leopard crawl

[TyroneGenade]

At your SG temps the eggs should only take about 14 weeks to develop according to Roger Brousseau's Hobbyist Guide to SAAs. Possibly less if placed ontop of damp peat or water incubated.

Really stunning fish! I got sent eggs by Kadlec in Oct. 2003... by July 2004 none of the eggs had eyed-up!

Regards

[RonWill]

Tyrone,
While incubation period is relative to ambient or storage temps, that isn't always the case, at least for for imported eggs. Dr Brousseau's incubation guide may be applicable for 'spawned-in-SG' eggs.

Jian Yang has sharper eyes than I and when he visits tomorrow, I'll have him go through the last peat collection and search for viable eggs.

Regarding water incubation for the peruensis, please elaborate further. [actually, I'm interested in methods that doesn't involve peat incubation at all]

Really stunning fish! I got sent eggs by Kadlec in Oct. 2003... by July 2004 none of the eggs had eyed-up!

ok... so what happened to them in 2005 How was the hatch rate after 9 months?

Rashid,
I've forgotten that the peat you received was the original peat that arrived from Pennsylvania and may have 'exhausted'. [did I give you any freshly collected peat? If not, why wait till July??]

From the 2 pairs, let me incubate their last collection and see which (pair) is more fertile. You can then safekeep the next peat collection. Nevertheless, keep me updated.

[TyroneGenade]

HI,

Yes, shipping really plays around with development times. With Nothos it normally speeds it up. SAAs too so I can't see what peruensis should be so different but sure enough, Kadlec said the eggs should of eyed-up long ago when I talked to him about it.

I don't know what happened to them... I think I gave them to a friend before I left for Italy (or they are still in my egg box! wll check when I visit home in April).

The eggs were also hard to see even through they were HUGE!

Regards

P.S. Here is the reference for water incubation (I just yanked it out of my LaTeX Bib file...):
@article{dkjaka1,
author = {Katz, D.},
year = 2002,
title = {Water incubation of South American annual killifish eggs},
journal = {J. Amer. Killifish Assoc.},
volume = {35},
pages = {137--145}}

[A.Rashid]

Rashid,
I've forgotten that the peat you received was the original peat that arrived from Pennsylvania and may have 'exhausted'. [did I give you any freshly collected peat? If not, why wait till July??]

Yes Ronnie you did gave me a freshly collected peat, and that is why I have to wait till July till I wet them, right?

[Svein]

Hi Ron

Nice to see that you're working very well with peruensis. I have only a trio, but they are huge, and the male is now about 8 cm.

I have collected eggs every 2 weeks, and I have found eggs , yes they are quite big.
I tried hatching a bag with peat after 12 weeks (storage 24-25 degrees) but no fry, so I look forward to see if i will get somthing in the nearest future.
Keep well
Regards
Svein