Pseudoepiplatys annulatus

[imported_thomas]

Hi

I am new here. I am currently raising some fry of Pseudoepiplatys annulatus. I am going to change my 128 l. Apistogramma tank into a species tank for a group of annulatus. Since I am biotope nerd I am currently looking for some good biotope descriptions for this species, but what I have found is rather limited. So, if any of you have detailed descriptions or know of some book or Internet literature where it can be found, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

Best, Thomas

[whuntley]

They live in low-lying coastal areas of western Guinea to western Liberia, with the type locality Maka, Sierra Leone. Collections are all, apparently, from very near the ocean.

Radda and Purzl describe the habitat as follows:

"Habitat: Swamps and swampy parts of shallow brooks in open savanna and rainforest."

"Temperatures: 25-30 C."

Since the species is quite variable, hobbyists are usually careful to keep collection codes intact and avoid hybridization where possible. [They may actually be several very similar species.]

Unfortunately, unscrupulous exporters have been willing to make up collection locations, so the situation in the hobby is a bit confused. It isn't an area that has been friendly to European or New World collectors in recent years.

HTH

Wright

[imported_thomas]

Thanks a lot for that info. Would you happen to also have some info on GH and PH? I suppose it is soft and acidic, but how much? Thanks again.

Thomas

[whuntley]

They are not, in my experience, very fussy about the water. Coastal fish often like/tolerate a bit harder water and even like a bit of added salt if your water is not too soft to begin with. (AUS, SJO, etc. are typical)

Killies and most other fish (unlike the inaccurate atlas info) don't much care what the pH is. I like to keep it at or below 7 so no ammonia problems ever develop if I miss a water change.

Remembering back several years (and memory is my second-shortest thing!) they bred readily in my Fremont tap water at about 300 ppm tds and a bit over 12 degrees of GH. They also did well in the nearly-distilled water of San Francisco (<50 ppm tds). I may have tempered my water with some RO, but just do not remember if I needed to or not.

Wright