The third species I acquired at SAKE last month was a killifish known as the Fundulopanchax gardneri Udi Mountain. I’ve found this pair to be extremely shy. I could only spot one in the tank as I brought out the phone to snap a photo, and it immediately darted under the sponge filter. I lifted it a little to get a snapshot, but the image quality, I’m afraid, isn’t all that good.
This link takes you to a lovely photo posted on Wikipedia. This is a gorgeous species.
I was unable to identify whether the male or female appears in my photos as I couldn’t see much more than you do here, and I didn’t want to stress the fish out by trying to get it to come into the open water.
A little about killies. They are what is known as a tooth carp, and the livebearing tooth carps diverge from the egg-laying tooth carps at the Family level. Both are of Order Cyprinodontiformes, and whereas the guppies and other livebearers are in the Family Poeciliidae, the killies are in a number of orders. This species is under the family Nothobranchiidae.
Unlike many killies, this one is not an annual. In other words, it lives more than a year and these were raised in hard Phoenix water, so it will be interesting to see if they can spawn. I plan to add a spawning mop soon so they are able to breed if they are so inclined.
You’re probably wondering about that Udi Mountain part. The thing about killies is they generally come from extremely localized populations, and it is considered bad form to crossbreed individuals from different locations, as these different populations often have different coloration. I’ve even heard of populations being called “races” much the same as we have in humans. More about this another time.
The practice among killiefish keepers is to append the genus and species with the location and the year of collection if known. Strictly speaking, since I don’t know the year of collection, I should advertise these as Fundulopanchax gardneri Udi Mountain Aquarium Strain. (Note to self: check with the person who brought these to the auction to see if the collection year is known.)
Yeah, the naming conventions can become a bit long, but there you have it. This pair of fish is descended from fish collected at a place called Udi Mountain. According to Seriously Fish:
Native to the Cross River system in southeastern Nigeria and western Cameroon plus the Benue River drainage in central Nigeria.
An interesting species with a reputation for being fairly easy to breed. I’ll let you know.
ETA: I did a partial water change just before noon and found a fry in the cup I was using! Looks like they are okay with the water and the moss in the tank! Woo-hoo! Bred another species!
