Any sources for 'local' Aplocheilus panchax?

[Jeremy747]

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gnP38MUkzp...HTC++(114).jpg



Sorry for the not so well taken photos. My handphone camera is not great.

The fish are now used to eating tetra bits and respond when I knock the glass....a sign that food will be falling from the sky soon. They are still a bit jumpy, but none of them have jumped out of the tank yet. I lost 3 of them the very first day. The fish just died within hours of putting into the tank.

[stormhawk]

This is the typical local form once settled in. Your male will get more colorful over time.

[piperon]

Thanks for sharing, beloved Jeremy.
These are beautiful, just like those Ivan are keeping.

[Jeremy747]

I will renovate the tank and hopefully keep a self sustaining population of them.

[Trichopsis]

Jeremy747: Great to see that you've also started your own school of blue panchax! It's one of those species that deserves more attention, particularly because it's our only native killifish, and is apparently very easy to keep in the aquarium.

[Jeremy747]

My A panchax are notorious gluttons. They have become extremely at home in the tank and its feeding frenzy all day. They have even eaten cherry shrimps that I put into the tank. I had hoped the shrimps would help clean the tank like they do in my other tank.

Instead they have been relentlessly been hunted down by the panchax. I even saw one with a shrimp clenched between its jaws. Obviously too big for it to even swallow.

But at they rate they have been chasing them, I think I will not find any trace of shrimps in the tank by the time I get home tonight.

Luckily these are the excess males that I have to remove from the other tank anyway.

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[Trichopsis]

Heh, blue panchax are definitely not shrimp-safe! You'll be amazed at how wide their mouths are. The only shrimp I dare to keep with them are large ghost shrimp ('feeder prawns').

[TBoss]

Don't put in mini cories or anything that can fit their mouths too. I lost some mini cories of my own and also the panchax as they choked to death.

[Jeremy747]

Just an update after about 6 months.

I had decided to release these Panchax fish in a nearby pond. Its a pretty small but 'wild' pond. Pretty close to the kind of habitat that I found them in.

Their eating habbits are a bit to gluttonous for my liking and disturbs the peace in my tanks.

I had little hopes of them surviving as the pond is small, about 10 metres across and kingfishers have been seen to take fish from the pond.

The white spot on their heads look like a painted bullseye.

So it was with a heavy heart that I let them go on the second day of CNY. There were about 6 or 7 of them, one large male, 2 or 3 females and the rest juveniles an inch or less.

Yesterday, paid a visit to the place. Straight away I saw two of them in the shallows at one end of the pond. I said pretty lucky to find two out of the 6 so quickly. A walk around the pond and I realised that there were at least twenty or more of them now. All living in the shallows or hiding in thick plants.

They must really reproduce fast or someone else has added some to the same pond. Despite all the predators around, they are increasing in numbers.

At least they are more colourful and interesting than the guppies and platies in the pond.

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[Beng Tang]

Hi, can someone PM me some locations (not nature reserves) to get panchax? I want to try to establish a captive breeding program to breed them and re-introduce them to suitable habitats as all our native fish are under severe pressure from habitat destruction due to "drainage improvement works" and urbanisation. Another once common fish that needs help is Anabas testudineus - climbing perch. Even the local keli may be threatened now by habitat destruction and competition from introduced species. Swamp eel also needs help. All these used to be very common but now are rare.

[Jeremy747]

I think they are doing pretty fine. But the truth is they will only be safe in the nature reserves. Outside they will be eaten by peacock bass and other alien cichlids.

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[boofeng]

Hello all

I know this thread is rather ancient, but it seems most appropriate to ask here. I'm trying to obtain some of these Aplocheilus panchax. Does anyone have any to sell? Or know where I can collect some for myself?

Thanks!

[zep_betta]

i would also be interested in obtaining a location to catch these or to catch jungle halfbeaks.