Any sources for 'local' Aplocheilus panchax?

[Trichopsis]

Hi folks,

I'm interested in obtaining blue panchax (Aplocheilus panchax) for my setup, which is supposed to represent a selection of small fishes and invertebrates that can be found in streams and drains in some of the rural areas of Singapore. Not so much a stream in the Nee Soon Swamp Forest, more like those streams and marshes you might find in Kranji.

How compatible are these fishes with a community setup? My intention is to get a small school of blue panchax (mixed sexes; who knows, they might breed?), with other fishes such as guppies (not the fancy ones liable to get their fins nipped, more like the 'wild' feeder types), mosquitofish and croaking gourami. Based on what various Internet sources claim, it seems that results vary, with some panchax living quite peacefully with other species, and others creating some havoc. Which result is more likely?

Another problem I've faced has been finding a LFS or fish farm that stocks this species. I did see a tank with some sort of panchax at C328 over the weekend, but wasn't too sure if they were blue panchax, plus I had no idea if I was looking at a mixture of males and females or purely males. Not to mention that they seemed to be fully grown (~ 6 cm), when I would prefer to have my panchax still somewhat smaller (my guppies aren't fully grown yet, and I'm wary of how they might cope with full-grown panchax at their current size).

Is there any LFS or fish farm that sells this species, preferably at smaller sizes? Catching my own blue panchax from the wild is quite out of the question, since I have no idea as to where I have the best chances of finding them (instead of wasting my time chasing guppies and tilapia), as well as any possible legal issues arising from collecting fishes, even if I'm not in a nature reserve. Not to mention that some of the places where I have seen blue panchax are in mangroves, and I think it would take a long time to acclimate them to pure freshwater, even if I was able to catch them.

Speaking of which, how does one differentiate Aplocheilus panchax from Aplocheilus lineatus or any other panchax? I thought the white dot on the top of the head was unique to the former (hence its other common name of whitespot), but a Google image search tells me that other Aplocheilus species possess this feature as well. Is bluish coloration a good way to identify blue panchax?

Thanks for any advice and recommendations!

[Trichopsis]

Just wanted to mention that I actually managed to find a source of wild local blue panchax. Don't worry, no poaching from nature reserves and other protected areas was involved. But suffice to say that I now have a group of blue panchax in my aquarium, and I hope they settle down.

Also, I visited Qian Hu earlier this week, and although they had a tank of killifish labelled as 'blue panchax', those were actually striped panchax (Aplocheilus lineatus), the original wild form of the golden panchax we commonly see in the LFS.

[RonWill]

...suffice to say that I now have a group of blue panchax in my aquarium

Pictures??

[Trichopsis]

The panchax are settling in well and most have started feeding on live Tubifex and frozen bloodworm. Yay!

Here are some photos. Not too sure how to sex them at the moment...

[RonWill]

The one at top left looks like a female. Fairly obvious differences in color, markings and shape of dorsal, anal & caudal fins. Almost certain.

Observe this male's reaction to close proximity of other males or those that has similar finnage.

[Trichopsis]

Ah, thanks uncle Ron! I did notice some of these differences (mostly the shape and colour of the caudal fin) but wasn't too sure if it was really sex or age-related.

[stormhawk]

The size of the pelvic fins is also an identification marker between the sexes. See this pic by Choy:

[piperon]

Frankly speaking, I used to catch these so called Blue Panchax in a drain at Outram road.
But they were transparent all the way, no colour, no whitespot, only the obvious black strip on its mouth.
We used to called them LONGKANG fish and usually we feed them to the larger fish.
Thinking of it now, it is kind of cruel. I don't do that anymore, I protect all kind of fishes now.

I was wondering - are these blue panchax the evolved species of the transparent species I caught in the drain 20 years ago?

PS : I like to take this opportunity to thank Pseudogobiopsis for his kind assistance.

[Trichopsis]

You're welcome, glad to be of help.

It's possible that what you caught back then were immature blue panchax; the colours you see seem to show up only in adult males; the females and juveniles remain rather drably coloured, besides the orange tinged fins with black spot on the dorsal fin. However, as far as I know, the white spot on the top of the head is a characteristic feature of the species.

Another possible candidate is that you were looking at a different species of fish, the Javanese ricefish (Oryzias javanicus), which is translucent and doesn't possess much colour.
http://www.ecologyasia.com/verts/fis...e-ricefish.htm
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/oryzias-javanicus/
http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/guideb...h/text/225.htm

[piperon]

Thanks Pseudogobiopsis,

I am very sure those I caught 20 yrs ago were not Javanese ricefish and they were definitely adults fishes.
The shape itself and the dorsal fin look completely difference (only their fins were transparent, their bodies were semi-transparent - unlike the Javanese ricefish)
They look more like the Blue Panchax we caught and look exact in the pictures above except without those colours.
But the whitespot were there, so I am very sure they belong to the same family (I remember the whitespot till now).
The only difference is those I caught give birth to fry straight away but the panchax lay eggs.
So, I think these are two entirely difference species, maybe I should go back to the Outram Road's drain to get some. Hahaha!

Thanks you for your generous information and assistance, sharing is a beautiful gift for us all.

[Trichopsis]

Very interesting. The only freshwater livebearing fishes I know of are halfbeaks, and introduced species like guppies, mollies and mosquitofish, which are still very common (in fact, dominant) in many urban drains and canals.

Here are a couple of links to websites featuring some of the notable freshwater fishes found in Singapore; perhaps this might help you pin down the identity of this fish.
http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/guideb...h/fishlist.htm
http://www.ecologyasia.com/verts/fishes.htm

[piperon]

Thanks for the tips, Ivan.

I found a near one but it doesn't have the whitespot on the head.
And the tail fin is a bit difference - the one I saw on the site is kind of triangle shape, those I caught were like the panchax with the rounded tail without the colours.
Maybe, I was wrong after so many years. Hahaha!

[akillifan]

Anyone organizing a recce of local streams to make some observation what species live where? Am familiar with Mcritchie area.

[Luthfi]

Hi all! Just want to mention that your local A. Panchax was very similar with my local (Medan, Sumatera island) A. Panchax.

[stormhawk]

Hi Luthfi, A. panchax is a widespread species. Each population has a difference in degree of coloration. Some populations have more bluish males, others, more yellowish males. The local form found in Singapore is very colorful but may become colorless when kept in a tank.

[Jeremy747]

The first time i saw such a fish was in Bali. It was in the artificial streams in a beach resort. I thought it was some kind of Betta.

I just saw a few of these fish in a local long kang. I am going back there to try and get a few back and keep. They are not as colorful as those I saw in Bali, but the colour patterns are similar. Maybe their colour darkens in a dark background habitat.

[Jeremy747]

I just caught about 10 of them this afternoon from a long Lang near my place. Quite a good number of them around but hard to catch because they are fast. They are a bit skittish now in the aquarium. Hope they don't jump out. There are two with nice lightning blue tails. The females have a yellowish ventral fin. And all of them have the white iridescent spot on top.

Funny thing is after all these years of catching and keeping fishes, this is the first time I encounter these fish. Maybe I have always brushed them off as platies or guppys.

[piperon]

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks for the heatup, any picture of your catch lately?
Looking forward to see your new babies.

[Jeremy747]

If they don't settle down I will just release them back. If they do settle in, I hope they will breed and hopefully I can keep a population of of them for a few years

[Jeremy747]

Just an update on the fishes, I lost 3 of them on the first day.

I guess this is just the normal attrition rate for wild caught fish. Many years ago, I also lost the same fraction of wild caught rasboras. The remaining ones are already eating the fish food that I drop in the tank. They are also a notch less skittish. Will post some photos of them when I get back later tonight.