Robert Ellermann:
I first heard of Gnatholebias zonatus in the pages of Dr. Bruce Turner's and his co-author's book "Enjoy Your Killifish" published by the Pet Library in 1967. In the section on South American Annuals, Bruce had one sentence on zonatus. He referred to it as "the fabulously beautiful Gnatholebias zonatus (Pterolebias then)". I wondered how beautiful could it be to rate "fabulously beautiful" in a family known for beauty. Regular fish books were silent on zonatus as it had only entered the hobby thanks to Leo Hoigne in Venezuela in the early 1960's. It was notoriously difficuly to breed with the eggs requiring 9 months of peat incubation.

I obtained my first zonatus in November, 1970 when AKA'er Fred Behrman advertised pairs for sale in his TFH ad. I ordered immediately and a week later there they were - a perfect young pair - and they were fabulously beautiful. They were also peaceful, bold, large and showy. I was in love. I tried breeding them but sadly failed to hatch any fry from their peats.

After that, I would not have the opportunity to try them again until 1972, when AKA'er Randy Keller of Utah collected large numbers of wild ones. I obtained zonatus again and this time what was then called "shady" zonatus. The "shady" zonatus was a new related species even more spectacular than the original or "sunny" zonatus. It was soon named Gnatholebias hoignei after its discoverer and the man who gave us Venezuelan killies - Leo Hoigne. I had briefly corresponded with Hoigne in 1970 to learn all I could about zonatus in the wild. From Randy's fish I managed to raise a few fry of each.

In 1973 or 1974, AKA'er Charlie Nunziata offered a Columbian "green" zonatus. You had to buy 10 pair. A friend split an order with me. Luckily, a few months before, the great Venezuelan killifish ichyologist and collector, Dr. Jamie Thomerson visited me and from him I learned even more about Gnatholebias - especially the need to keep them and incubate their eggs at 82-84F. This was natural for them and shortened the incubation period to a more reasonable 5.5 months for zonatus and 6.5 months for hoignei. With this information, I raised even more fry from the Columbian zonatus but nothing spectacular.

I would not have zonatus and hoignei again until the early 2000's when AKA'er Roger Brousseau collected large numbers. By then I had RO water available, 30 gallon breeding tanks, a real incubator for the eggs in peat and and learned from AKA'er Ed Warner that fruit flies as a big part of their diet made a big difference in one's success with them. I became a fly farm as big 4-5 inch Gnatholebias species guzzled flies. They also got live blackworms, grindals, live daphnia, mosquito larvae and live adult brine shrimp. Their water was 84F and fairly soft and acid. For a while I even bred zonatus and hoignei in the same tank. They never cross bred, didn't even show any interest in each other. When I hatched their peats, 100% pure zonatus hatched at 5.5 monthd and 100% pure hoignei hatched from the same peats at 6.5 months. These methods produced 100's of fry from every peat. They were then raised in 55 gallon tanks, fed huge amounts of fruit flies and other foods including flakes, kept at 84F and sex ratios - infamously unbalanced in Gnatholebias - were 50/50. Edson Lopes, the late great Brazilian annual breeder, shared with me his finding that raising annuals in typically small tanks - 10-20 gallons - caused bad sex ratios - and not because of canibalism of smaller female fry as is often asserted.

Since those years, I have not had my beloved Gnatholebias. I ordered hoignei eggs in 2012 and the fry were maturing when Hurricane Sandy struck cutting power for 2 weeks and during a cold front. They perished. In 2022, Columbian zonatus were commercially imported. Few females were included and the one female I obtained was weak and soon died. The Marxist idiots in Venezuela make new collections virtually impossible. Hopefully, one day soon... The hoignei photo below (bottom photo) is Leo Hoigne's photo of the original ones he brought to the 1964 AKA Convention in Los Angeles. First time seen in the US at that Convention.