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bitaeniatum Lagos Red |
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One species of Killifish that is sometimes in the fish shops is Aphyosemion (chromaphyosemion) bitaeniatum Lagos Red, also called multicolour Lagos Red or Aphyosemion bitaeniatum Red and a number of other names, all with Red or Lagos in the name! This is one of the more brightly coloured fish with long anal and dorsal fins, often with bright orange extensions. The body is brown with red dots and can have red on the flanks, dependant on the location. The anal and dorsal fins are extremely colourful, with body and fins changing colour from green to blue when displaying. During display, fins are fully spread, sometimes with gill cover extended. There are seldom fights but a few split fins or damaged extensions can occur. Sexual differences.. A good size for an adult male is 6 cms with females slightly smaller. Females have not much colour in the fins, which are short and rounded, with brown flanks and two black longitudinal bars. One bar going through the eye to the top of the dorsal fin, the other starting at the lower part of the mouth to the lower part of the caudal fin. These colours are also shown by the male when unsettled.  Feeding Feeding can present a slight problem, as they prefer live foods such as bloodworm, glass worm, midge larva, tubifex and daphnia. Cyclops is a last resort when no other food is available. To partly solve this problem, you can feed frozen bloodworm, glass worm and artemia, but they rarely eat dried food. Breeding Breeding the "Lagos Red" is easy;- anything from a 20cms x 20cms x 20cms, (or about 2 gallons) for a young pair up to a 30cms x 30cms x 30cms (around 10 gallons) for an adult pair. The bigger tank will allow you to let the fry grow up in the same tank as the adults and only remove the young when you can sex out the fish. The only drawback with this is that the young fish will eat all the eggs they can find, also bigger fry will the smaller ones, but this can be overcome by having a well planted tank and well fed fry. The basic set up A basic set up can be a small bare tank with no gravel with two or three spawning mops if you want to collect the eggs. Or you can try a tank full of Java Moss for the fish to spawn in, with a 30% water change every 14 days in a small tank. In a larger tank, change about 25% every 14 to 21 days;- the smaller the tank, the more water changes are required. As a precaution, syphon the water out through a fine mesh net to collect any eggs deposited or fallen in to the debris. Water quality Use rainwater to aim for a ph between 5.5 to 6.9 and a hardness below 5 degrees. The temperature should be between 21C and 25C, with the upper temperature for breeding. (Never above 30C as the life span would only be about 1 year). At around 21C they will live quite happily for around 3 years, so only increase the temperature if you want them to breed. Using a mop A mop is made from very thick wool. Wrap the wool around a book (size 10-15 cms) twenty times. Tie a piece of wool around the twenty lengths of wool to keep them together. Cut the opposite sides in half and attach to a cork (or a pice of poystyrene 2.5cms square) and float in the tank. Collecting eggs from a mop is easy. Gently squeeze some of the water out of the mop, then gently slide your fingers down the mop and you will feel the eggs. Put them in a 1 lb margarine tub half full of tank water and topped up with fresh water. Do the same technique with the debris you had syphoned out of the tank;- you will feel the eggs in the debris. Put these in a tub, but stop most of the light by keeping them covered as they may be light sensitive. Eggs that are found in the floating mop will stand the light and can be kept in a butter tub without cover. Hatching takes between 12 to 17 days. Remove any fungussed egg at once to stop it spreading to other eggs. You can use chemicals to stop the fungus, but I think it also kills off some of the fry just as they are hatching. An oak leaf in the tub will help to prevent fungus starting, but remove the leaf after two days. This will have lowered the ph so to compensate, add a little fresh water. Feeding the fry On hatching you can feed microworm or freshly hatched brineshrimp. Growth is fairly slow, but I find a little water change every other day helps the fry develop. After a month move the fry to a half gallon container and continue with the water changes. When the fry are about 2 cms move them into a small tank to finish growing on. As can be seen, these are a beautiful Killifish and well worth having a go with...  Conclusion A final tip.... Lagos covers a large area and the catching location is important. Fish from one location will breed with fish from another location but the eggs will be infertile. Others will breed and with the following generation, all the eggs will be infertile. So, as some of these locations are a long way apart, when you buy fish from an aquarist centre, always buy pairs from that same centre. This way, you stand a better chance of your particular fish coming from only one location. Copyright Text and photographs; Bill Drake. My thanks to Bill for this, his first article. For the few who don't know him, Bill is a stalwart member of the BKA and a 101% Killi enthusiast. My thanks also to Bill Jones who first produced this article in the Preston and Dist A.S. Newsletter. |
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