Fundulopanchax Sjoestedti by Bob Hargis

FUNDULOPANCHAX SJOESTEDTI - FINALLY

Fund - you - low - pan' - chacks Shoe' - sted - eye

The first killifish I ever owned, and the one that took me the longest to breed. By Bob Hargis

I now have almost 100 tanks in my fish room, yet anyone who comes into it stops to look at a certain 10 gallon tank. The fish in this tank is the most colorful in my fish room. It has superb finnage and a certain air about it that lets you know that he is king of all he surveys. This fish is also the flagfish of the American Killifish Association and its picture is incorporated into it's emblem. The only dull thing about this fish is its common name, the Blue Gularis. The Blue Gularis was first described by Loennburg in 1895 and was given the name Fundulus sjostedti. In an 1890-92 expedition Professor Y. Sjostedti of Sweden explored the area now known as Nigeria and West Cameroon on the western coast of Central Africa. He collected this fish in a small brook off of the Ndian river in West Cameroon. Specimens have also been collected in Southern Nigeria. Typically the Gularis is found in weedy areas of small slow flowing brooks and streams in the rain forest. Since then the fish has undergone several name changes. Some recent literature places it in the genus Aphyosemion but in 1981 it was placed in Fundulopanchax.

The Blue Gularis, as well as being one of the more colorful of the killies, is one of the largest. Males can often be six inches long and females 4 to 5 inches in length. The overall body color is blue-green in color with numerous rust colored blotches across the body. At the midpoint of the fish where the dorsal fin starts, the pattern of these blotches form vertical bars. The dorsal, anal, and pelvic fins are also blue-green in color with the same pattern of dots. The caudal fin is very striking forming a trident shape coming to three points. The upper and lower sections of the tail are the same as the body with rust colored patterns, the middle section being a yellow to orange color. To best visualize this fish you just have to see it. The females, in typical fashion, are a dull beige in color with some strains having a few red dots along the body.

This fish is very easy to keep. I would recommend a 10 gallon tank to keep a trio in. The males can be very hardy drivers during spawning and the addition of the extra female is helpful. As with all killifish you will need a cover on the tank. Since this is a riverine fish from the rain forest, softer water is preferred. Generally, water with a pH of 5.0 to 8.0 and a hardness of Dh 4 to 10 (50 to 150 ppm) is acceptable but I would recommend avoiding the extremes. I keep mine in a bare tank with a sponge filter and two large mops with lead weights to keep them on the bottom. I have found that the Blue Gularis is extremely easy to feed. If you only feed flake foods make sure it is a very good quality and preferably one formulated for a carnivorous species. In the wild the Gularis will feed on small fish and crustaceans and whatever insects in encounters. For the most part I feed mine frozen brine shrimp and live earthworms. Many hobbyists also feed frozen beef heart [last line of page lost to bad photo-copy].

Many articles will say that this fish is easy to maintain and easy to breed. I received my first pair 15 years ago and finally was able to spawn this fish (not the original pair), this year. Most breeders describe the same problem, you will get about 20 eggs a day from well conditioned fish but only 20% will be fertile. These infertile eggs will fungus and the fungus will spread to the other eggs.... Using the bottom mops to collect the eggs, I have hatched them two ways successfully. The easiest way, (as Charley Grimes would call it: the No Brain Method), is to pick the eggs from the mop and place them in a container of damp peat moss. I do not dry the peat but just squeeze all of the water out of it that I can. After collecting the eggs for about a week, I then store the peat for six weeks. Do not let the peat dry out. You will be able to get a better hatch if it is stored at around 80 degrees F. After six weeks place the peat in cool water (70-75 degrees F.) and the eggs will start to hatch in a few hours, although some will not hatch for a week. The advantage to using the peat method is that the eggs are usually not touching so fungus doesn't spread and since all of the eggs hatch at approximately the same time you have a larger spawn to grow out and you don't tie up 6 tanks with 10 different sizes of fish.

Blue Gularis eggs can also be water incubated, but you have to check them daily for about a week to pick the bad eggs out. I use a petri dish (any small container works), filled with water of the same type as in the tank, I then take a bottle of acriflavin, (a dye that controls fungal growth), and touch the tip of the bottle to the water. This will color the water a slight green color. As you can guess a 1 oz. bottle of acriflavin is a lifetime supply. If an egg is white or fungusing I use an eye dropper to pull it out. If the water become cloudy or foul smelling, pull the eggs out and put them in another container. The advantage to water incubation is that it only takes about three weeks to hatch the eggs.

Fry are fairly large for a killifish and can easily eat newly hatched brine shrimp as a first food. Growth is fast. With a good food supply males can be distinguished at four to six weeks by a dark bank at the bottom of the caudal fin. At seven to eight weeks the males will have blue lips. They can reach breeding size in four to six months. Males can be nasty and will fight each other. Keep an eye on them and if you have too many then spread them out into other fishrooms. In the hobby today there are basically two variations of the Blue Gularis. There is a strain called the Dwarf Red Gularis, it is only about 4 inches long and lacks the middle point on the tail. The ones I had also had vertical bars on the rear half of the female's bodies. Unfortunately I only hatched three fry before I polluted the parents' tank and one female is all I grew up. At a killifish show it is easy to spot the guys who are successful with the Gularis. They are the ones who are smiling during the auctions while people are bidding up to $25 for a pair of their fish. At the convention of the AKA two pair of wild caught Blue Gularis went for $110 at auction. The third pair went for $120. Usually breeders advertise in the Business New Letter of the AKA and sell them for $5 a pair, easily a fish that is affordable by anyone. If you have a chance, try this fish. Good Luck and Good Breeding, Bob.