Aphyosemion Marginatum Species Report

[Oxquo]

Aphyosemion Gabuense Marginatum

Location: West Africa, North west Gabon

Size 1 3/4" max

pH 7.2

Hardness Medium-soft

Temp- 72-76F

Sexual differences, Males way more colorful with big fins. females very little color, short fins.

Recommended breeding, substrate or adhesive.

Feeding was done with live foods, not by choice but it's all they will condition on. Foods included, grindals, daphnia, baby red wrigglers and a bit of frozen brine from time to time.

These fish are quite the gems, the pair I have are still quite young but not very aggressive to one another. The male has a mix of red, yellow and green, beautiful bars along the tail, dorsal and anal with red spots across the rest of the body. The female has slight red spotting but is typical pink throughout.

I keep the pair together in a 10 gallon tank and after experimenting with top and bottom mops I find either worked but floating mops were the better choice with over 70% of the eggs close to the surface. Other than spawning the fish seem to hang out in the bottom to middle stratum.

Once the pair was given 3 days as I give all of My moppers a 3 day egg period so hatching is not so far apart that the fry can consume one another. The eggs were removed to a light solution of the parents tank water and blue methylene, (one drop meth per cup of water). The eggs were placed in a film container and kept at room temp, they were opened once a day for air exchange. On day 10 I found the first hatchees and transfered them to a 1 cup dish with clean water from the parents tank. A few long strands of java moss were also added to the dish, this is done 5 days after picking the eggs. It took 2 days for the egg sacs to disappear on the first fry but at this time the last fry were just hatching. After the egg sacs were gone I fed light with micros for 4 days and then on to frozen rotifers and bbs. The fry grow rapid and water should be changed often, I find this done easiest in a smaller container and switching out 25% a day with a turkey baster worked very well.

Over all this was a 100% hatch but 1 of the 10 fry was gibbled, maybe due to the eye dropper as I sucked them out of the film container. I have had better egg laying later on and feel the egg production was less due to them being stress during shipping. At this time I cannot tell male female ratio but feel that with starting out on micros the females should survive fine. I would say this fish could hold it's own in a mixed killi community but not to sure about other fish, maybe small non-aggresive tetras. They will handle a pH down to 6.5 so even a Ram, cardinal, killi tank might work add a few small cories such as pandas and Your tank would look pretty damn fine.

This was a good fish to get back into killies with after a year off from them. A perfect beginner killi with a super fast hatch out. I will be trying to peat spawn and hatch but for now just want to build up a nice tank of perhaps 4F and 1M.