 This
fish goes by several names including Leopard Ctenopoma,
Spotted Ctenopoma, and Bushfish. It was first imported
to Europe in 1955.
These relatively large anabantoids come from the Congo, in Africa.
Specifically, the fish occur in the Congo river system and in the
Stanley pool. They are found in fast flowing rivers as well as in
quieter regions and standing water.
My fish were kept in
a 125-gallon tank with large clown loaches and large plecostomus.
Because of a split in the tank the water level was about half the
possible height. They were about 5 years old and the female was
larger than the two males. The female was about 6 inches and the
males were 4 inches. They are big eaters and will eat anything (fish
or shrimp) up to 1 inch long. They were fed flakes, pellets, black
worms, earthworms, and culled angelfish. The water was soft (about
120 ppm) and acid (6.0-6.7 pH). Water changes were infrequent. Although
they were basically shy and nocturnal, they came out to feed and
were not afraid to share a PVC tube with a foot long loach. There
is some gravel on the bottom of the tank and some duck weed on the
surface of the water. The water is filtered by two large Eheim filters
that spray water into the tank from about 1 foot
above the surface. The temperature was between 75-80 degrees F (25-29
degrees C).
One day in March the female looked fatter than usual so I put her
into a recently cleaned (totally new water) 15-gallon tank with
a sponge filter and a floating mop. Two days later, both of the
males were moved to the same tank. Sexual dimorphism has been reported
to lie in the area of spines on the males gill covers being more
developed. In my experience this is not apparent, but instead there
is a difference in size and most definitively there is Velcro-like
spot at the base of the male’s caudal peduncle that is absent
in the female.
Two days after the males were put with the female, thousands of
small (<1mm) almost clear eggs were floating at all levels in
the water. The actual spawning was not seen, but based on the similar
body shape, similar Velcro-like spot at the base of the male’s
caudal peduncle and similar eggs, I assume the male embraces the
female in the same way as my Cenopoma kingslei did. There
was no bubble nest and no bubbles at the surface. The temperature
was about 76 degrees F. The parents were not eating the eggs, but
nevertheless I moved them back to the loach tank. Just for insurance,
I moved some of the eggs to a ten-gallon tank. Virtually all the
eggs were fertile.
After one day the eggs showed dark pigment and after two days they
hatched. Even though they hatched, they still floated at all levels
of the water with the yolk oriented up and the helpless larva upside
down. When the yolk was absorbed enough to allow the fry to swim
upright they all hid in or under the mop or the sponge filter. It
was truly amazing to see the cloud of tiny black fry swim away when
the mop was disturbed.
Because of the small size of the fry, the first food offered was
a fine powder that they seemed to ignore. Next rotifers were offered
and some of the fry made “capture” motions. The next
day a mixture of rotifers and newly hatched brine shrimp were offered
and taken. From then on feeding was no problem. The problem was
space.
At one month of age the fry had developed a very nice pattern of
dark brown spots on a light beige background. They are truly striking.
They also developed a voracious appetite. They ate white worms,
black worms, and baby angelfish. They even had to learn to eat pellet
food. These are beautiful as young fish and not-so-shabby as adults.
Attractive in appearance, elegant in their movements and interesting
as fry, these fish can be heartily recommended for the right tank.
These fish are rarely bred, the first breeding report I know of
came from the Basel Zoo, where the fish spawned in a large, well-planted
tank. Apparently, despite subsequent successful reports in the US
the only details available are that they are free layers, and do
not care for the eggs. It is hoped that the current report will
rectify that dearth of information. |
Up
5
|
