erratum: Ep fasciolatus zimiensis SL89 not SL99

[RonWill]

Bill & Wright,
I did a big water change and let the male ZII join the harlem. The following pics should be encouraging :wink:

Returned male ZII from Kwek Leong

Curious female ZII hears of a new stud in town

Female hides... playing hard to get

She "Oh well..."

Meanwhile, the 'other' girl...

Shall we?

We should! (followed by a quick sprint)

... and around the corner they disappear...

ok guys, your guess is as good as mine :wink: (how's that for suspense?? )

[ruyle]

Ronnie, great pictures! But....I thought this was a family site! You can't
show pictures of fish boom-booming, can you? Also, that's "harem"
not "harlem," though the eggs could be called "globe-trotters." :wink:

Lets keep our fingers crossed!

Bill
farang9

[RonWill]

Hi Bill, application to upgrade site rating from 'G' to 'RA-18' is being reviewed but while the ZIIs are doing their 'groupie-thingie', it really doesn't matter to them whether it's 'harem' or 'harlem', does it? :wink:

Since the male has settled in very nicely, I decided to shoot more pics hoping to see the much-revelled colors. Instead, I saw a sore-butt.

Will be treating tank with Levamisole hydrochloride once I hear of Kwek Leong's observations.

[ruyle]

Ron wrote:

Hi Bill, application to upgrade site rating from 'G' to 'RA-18' is being reviewed but while the ZIIs are doing their 'groupie-thingie', it really doesn't matter to them whether it's 'harem' or 'harlem', does it? :wink:

You're right, how picky of me

Will be treating tank with Levamisole hydrochloride once I hear of Kwek Leong's observations.

Kenny mentions a product by Avian Science (levamisole/praziquantel combo) that would be wonderful to try in this instance. We're not talking
"surgical strikes" but a shotgun hit of meds that will knock out any flatworms, flukes, trematodes, etc, that you have in your tanks. Nice med
to have around as a super dewormer!

Bill
farang9

[RonWill]

Bill,

Someone wants to say hello...


The male from Kwek Leong is now about 6.5cm but he's not very interested in having sex Females are just slightly smaller. Hmm... is there a viagra for fish?

Trio resides in one of the partitions in the main rack and I'll see if gut-loaded* adult brine shrimp will perk them up. Mop is empty, not even a fungused egg. Don't suppose these guys spawn in peat, do ya??

* astaxanthin & spirulina

[ruyle]

Wow, Ronnie, nice pic!!!

Placing some peat in the bottom of their bungalow couldn't hurt. What's
their "room" temperature?

[RonWill]

Bill,

Dammit...

Now I know why my Cherry shrimp population is dropping like flies...




The shrimp is easily 1cm and going by current prices at the LFS, that's a .80cent snack!

oh well... if the shrimp gets his libido up... I suppose it's worth it

[stormhawk]

Ron, I'd be wary if I was you. The ZII might choke on the whole shrimp. I lost a fish to choking once.

[whuntley]

Ronnie,

My general experience with shrimps and crawdads is that they molt.

When they molt, they are soft and vulnerable.

Killies are very fond of "soft-shell-crab" style dinner.

Only tanks with unusually-good hiding places tend to have survivors over any long period of time.

I just plain gave up, and decided to only keep such crustaceans in species tanks, and still provided good hiding crevices for the more cannibalistic crayfish.

Wright

[stormhawk]

Okay I know the thread's a little old but time for a pic update and here's one of a pair of the zimiensis. I hope I did them justice. :wink:



Click on the pic to see a larger picture. The actual size is just a tad bit bigger than the limit allowed.

[ruyle]

Jian Yang, I was browsing the threads today and saw this--nice pics! I
wonder if any eggs are in their horoscope

[stormhawk]

Hi Bill,

The pics were taken over at Ron's place, where the fish are currently residing. I don't think they've given any eggs yet.

[PL]

Hi all,

i receive two couples from David three weeks ago, and start collecting eggs almost immediately. I'm collecting 6-8 eggs each 5 week and i'm looking forward to raise the first fry.

One of the things i notice was that there is a strong competition from the two males. One of them is more territorial, bigger, but it's the other one that i usually see spawing with the females.

Maybe whats missing in your tanks is some male competition

Paulo

[RonWill]

i receive two couples from David three weeks ago, and start collecting eggs almost immediately...

Welcome to the forum Paulo. Nice to know another killie-keeper who has an interest in Epiplatys and working on the ZII (zimiensis).

The ZII trio in our database was a 'gift of eggs' from Bill and I suspect we both are maintaining the same stock. I've made several attempts to spawn the ZII's but may have gone about it wrong.

Research on the internet points to relatively high pH8 while my tank water is around pH6~6·5 (my main interest is Chromaphyosemions). In Wright's earlier post, he reasons that since the ZII's were collected near costal areas, hard-alkaline water may be the key to trigger spawning.

You said, "6-8 eggs each 5 week"... is that 6~8 eggs each week or every 5 weeks? How are you incubating them;, over peat or in water? In your experience and with your weather, how long is the incubation time?

I'll be converting one of my tanks to brackish parameters and will attempt the ZII spawning under these conditions. Will update as I progress.

BTW, I'd appreciate it if you can update the location entry in your membership profile. Thanks!

[ruyle]

Hi Paulo, congrats on getting eggs! I'm thinking you mean 6-8 eggs every 5 days, correct? What I find puzzling is Dave's water source is soft and acid as memory serves. I'm wondering if he doctored up the water he uses to breed these

I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting to see pics of your pairs, fry! If you live
in Portugal, how did Dave ship the live pairs over? Curious.

[PL]

Hi

Yes, i meant 5 days. The eggs are all eyed up, and i'm really looking forward to raising fry.

These zimiensis are from "Faimah" SL89, following Dave's indications, and so they are the same as the ones you are trying to raise there. Here in Portugal there is another population of zimiensis: "Perie" SL89, very beautiful and quite different from the ones we've got from Dave.

I'll post later a detailed description on water condition.

These fish were the first ones i decided to buy from overseas, and i must say that Dave's work was wonderful. A really good surprise (thanks Dave). Every fish in it's own bag, plenty of space, etc. etc. Obviously i also payed for the faster shipping method avaiable.

Paulo

[PL]

Hi again

As promised here are the key factors im my set up for the Ep. fasciolatus zimiensis.

T - 21oC
pH - 4.5
GH - 17

2 males and 2 females (lack of space to separate couples at arrival).

lots of java moss (i guess??) and a mop.
All the eggs collected so far were in the mop.

Paulo

[stormhawk]

The location map for Zimmi (type location for this subspecies), shows that it is quite close to the coast.

Here's a link to a map. Town circled in red.

Multimap - Zimmi, southern Sierra Leone

There isn't a town called Perie in the vicinity of Zimmi, but there is one town just a little to the south called Periwahun. There isn't a Faimah either and the closest a town name gets to Faimah is one called Fanima, which is a little to the north of Periwahun. All localities shown in the map url above.

[hwchoy]

There isn't a Faimah either and the closest a town name gets to Faimah is one called Fanima, which is a little to the north of Periwahun. All localities shown in the map url above.

there is a Faima, apparently a town of about 5,000. This site also list three different Fanima (some with spelling variations).

[stormhawk]

Just to add some new info.

Was surfing Vasco Gomes's great code library online and found this entry on the code SL-89.

Code SL-89 Country: Sierra Leone

Apparently this fish is not Ep. fasciolatus zimiensis, but rather Ep. fasciolatus fasciolatus. The location Faimah is attributed to the Ep. f. fasciolatus not zimiensis. I will amend the census data accordingly even though this species was lost a few months back.