Aphyosemion (Fundulopanchax) cinnamomeum Clausen 1963
by J.J. Scheel
(This article was prepared before the agreement mentioned on the page before was made)
In 1959 Stenholt Clausen returned from Nigeria bringing a small collection of
Aphyosemion with him containing four species. In 1960 these species were placed
in the tanks of Hans Klementsen, and in my tanks. The future A. cinnamomeum was
taken over by Klementsen, whereas I took care of the A. gulare from SW Nigeria,
the A. filamentosum from Ijebu Ode and an unidentified species from the Ndian
River in northern Cameroon. The latter is still undescribed and will remain so
until we have collected live material in southern Cameroon in 1964/65.
As Klementsen had no offspring of his species, he delivered the specimens to me.
It was soon realized that the spawning normally takes place into the peat and
because of this the eggs become "annual". We soon raised a fresh stock of this
fish.
In March 1963 Stenholt Clausen described this species as Aphyosemion cinnamomeum
and placed it into the subgenus Fundulopanchax. Aphyosemion cinnamomeum is known
from the type locality only. This is a small stream in a low mountainous area
44 miles north of Kumba, northern Cameroon rainforest in an area of very high
rainfall.
The male of this species differs rather much from the common Aphyosemion style
not only by its strange coloration but also in the general appearance and in behavior.
In some way it is rather "Nothobranchius-like" but one should not consider it as
a "link" between these two genera. The mature and active male is a beauty indeed
when fighting or flirting. However, normally its coloration is rather drab and
nobody would consider it to be handsome. When active the body color is very dark
all over. The brilliance seen on the body sides of most males of this genus is
only present as very small spots reflecting a particular bluish violet glow.
Besides this the whole area of deep blackish body color has a certain violet
tinge except on the area next to the pectoral fins. These deeply orange colored
fins stray their color into the body sides forming a broad cinnamon girdle all
around the foremost part of the body. This girdle is more easily seen when the
male does not become blackish and activated. No traces of red spots are seen on
the body sides of both sexes. The ordinary "worm like" markings on gill covers
of Aphyosemion here are transformed into a marbled area behind the eyes. The
ordinary rather complicated throat pattern of male Aphyosemion is not present
and probably is not needed for identification as the male's throat when activated
is colored by a deep blackish violet color. Under the microscope traces of the
usual red pattern are seen below the eyes, at the corners of the mouth and also
sometimes here and there along the line of side line pores behind the lower lip.
Traces of red pigments are found below the gill covers.
The ventral, anal and caudal fins have like color patterns. Close to the body
there is an even deep violet blue color that often turns into a nearly black color
when not seen in incident light. Then follows an even darker line that has a
somewhat reddish tinge. Then normally follows a very thin bluish line and the
outmost part of the fin is brilliantly yellow. When compared with the corresponding
edges of A. nigerianum, the "yellow variety", the color on A. cinnamomeum is warmer
or more orange. In the hindmost part of the caudal fin the very dark "separation
line" may not be quite unbroken and in such cases the bluish color (guanin) of
the inner part of the fin may spread into the yellow area turning this into a
brilliant green color. The color pattern of the caudal fin is not unlike that
described for A. meinkeni and has also traits towards Nothobranchius rachovi.
The dorsal fin is colored very much like the anal fin, however there is a certain
marbled pattern of more or less brilliant areas. The separation line is narrow
and the outmost part of the fin is normally without yellow color. However, on a
few males one may notice a very weak yellow color.
The female's color is a nearly uniform olive brown that becomes lighter towards
the belly. The unpaired fins and in particular the anal fin have a conspicuous
lemon color when active. There are no traces of dark spots in its fins, however
in incident light one may notice a certain marbled pattern in her dorsal and also
her ventrals and the anterior edge of the anal have some bluish brilliance as most
females within this genus.
From Klementsen, I received 3 males and a number of matured females. The males
were of equal size, but only one male had the contrasting yellow edges of ventrals,
anal and caudal. First I thought that there may be two sorts of males as we find
it within A. nigerianum. The two unimpressive males were placed into a big tank
together with many specimens of Aphyosemion, Epiplatys etc., whereas the handsome
colored male was used as a breeding male. Klementsen had had all individuals in
a 4-gallon tank and inside this they all were raised to maturity. For many months
the two "intersexed" males were kept under control and they did not develop any
yellow color, but suddenly they were just like the breeding male. Their age at
that time probably was more than 12 months. I think that we may explain this like
that:
If you raise a brood of Colisa lalia in one tank you will realize that some individuals
will grow more rapidly than others. At a certain time one big male will start
blowing bubbles and he will develop the beautiful colors of the matured male.
Once so colored he will keep these colors for his whole life. Normally only one
male will mature like this. If you remove the mature male, its place will soon
be taken over by another male which develops its mature colors.
Elassoma evergladei from Florida, USA, has a like system. In a brood of young
specimens that are kept in a small tank normally only one male shows the deep velvet
black colors of a mature male. The other males are colored mostly like females,
however here and there on their bodies black spots are seen. Now and then one of
these males within seconds develops the matured colors of a breeding male and a
fight may take place between the two black males. The loser after the fight will
develop the female-like coloration.
In my opinion a similar system works inside populations of A. cinnamomeum. Breeders
of killifish know that one male normally will be able to serve several females
forming a breeding team. I myself have used up to five females to each male of
different species without getting more infertile eggs as usual. In nature it may
be important that only a few males develop into breeding males that govern a certain
territory and that the surplus of males do not develop at once into matured males
but are kept as reserves. A mature male is rather conspicuous compared with females
and unmatured males. It is more easily seen and taken by birds and predators. If
the breeding male inside a certain territory is lost, another male will take its
place and keep the "immatured" males from developing the yellow edges of the fins.
If you place two mature males of this species in one tank, a fight very soon will
take place. According to my own observations, the males of this species do not
make "scissor-like" movements of dorsal, anal and caudal fin (see draft for article
on A. nigerianum) and the movements of the males before and during the fight are
more like the Nothobranchius: "stretching of fins and attack". The attacks are
often described towards the brilliant yellow edges of the anal and caudal fins.
The looser very often does not show but traces of his previous proud yellow. If
the loser is not removed from the tank and if he survives the battle the remains
of its yellow color will be very weakly colored and his body color will be very
close to that of females. As mentioned in the draft on A. nigerianum, the combination
of the yellow edges of male's fins and the contrasting blue body color makes the
matured male very conspicuous in particular when the fins are spread. If the breeding
male of A. cinnamomeum did not possess the yellow fin edges, it certainly would be
very difficult to discover and females will be in difficulties when they are ready
to spawn. On the other hand, predators also more easily can take him. Perhaps the
lack of yellow color in the dorsal fin is a sort of a compromise between these two
opposing forces because a reduction of the conspicuous pattern just in this fin will
decrease the vulnerability towards birds whereas such reduction does not interfere
much with the possibility for females to discover him. An even more pronounced
reduction of the yellow fin edges is seen inside the Aphyosemion roloffi-calabaricus
group where the yellow color has been lost in both anal and dorsal fins.
As Barlow has pointed out for Cyprinodon macularius, the colored pectoral fins of
this species stand in perfect contrast to the blue body color of matured males of
this species. This combination of colors probably works in just the same way as
the "throat signal patterns" which we are studying among species of Epiplatys and
less developed also among Aphyosemion. A. cinnamomeum has no conspicuous throat
pattern. The differences between males and females are only the difference in the
dark pigmentation. Mature male = dark throat, female and immature males = light
throat. It is likely that the brilliantly colored pectoral fins and maybe also
the yellow edge of the caudal fin play the role of the throat pattern when seen
in contrast to the nearly black body color. A. australe and A. cognatum both have
highly colored pectoral fins. Both have a highly reduced brilliance on body sides,
just like A. cinnamomeum. There is no conspicuous throat pattern on specimens of
A. australe and during fight and spawning the male develops a very black throat
colour. This primitive system is found mostly among Epiplatys. E. senegalensis,
E. fasciolatus and, in some ways, E. sheljuzhkoi are examples. The throat pattern
of A. cognatum does not differ much between the two sexes. However, the male does
not develop a black or dark violet throat color during a fight and spawning. It
might be so that colored pectoral fins within Aphyosemion play a somewhat different
role when compared with Cyprinodon macularius.
If only the usual geological counts and measurements are compared, A. cinnamomeum
cannot be separated from A. nigerianum. The study of the coloration system however
separates these two forms from one another. This cross is very easy to establish
as usually inside this genus. There were no fertile eggs with abnormal development
of the embryo. The hybrids were very viable and both sexes were present. There
were 8 males and 5 females. No individual had intersex characters. At an age of
2 1/2 months males started maturing. The yellow color first developed in the
anal fin, then in the lower part of the caudal fin. First the color is lemon,
then it gradually changes into the more orange coloration. This means that one
particular male may become orange in the anal fin and lemon in the caudal fin.
At this age the young males have no red dots on body sides except for the particular
area (see A. nigerianum) just behind the pectoral fins. The brilliance of the body
sides is not a uniform one, as on A. nigerianum, but more marbled as in A. cinnamomeum.
Female characters were intermediate. The yellow color of the unpaired fins was
weak. The dots on body sides were present but the number of dots was low and the
dots were very small. They spawned but with their brothers and with male A. nigerianum,
all eggs were sterile. The size of their eggs varied between 1.60 and 1.75 mm.
Egg size of A. nigerianum (Akure stock) is approximately 1.0 mm and that of
A. cinnamomeum is 1.5 mm. The egg surface had a marked reticulated pattern as
eggs of A. cinnamomeum. Eggs of A. nigerianum normally have only a very weak
reticulated pattern. Variation of egg size is known also from some other Aphyosemion
hybrids.
Hybrid males were very brilliantly colored and belong to the most handsome Aphyosemion
hybrids produced in our tanks. When fully matured and developed, the brilliance of
the body sides was not marbled but quite uniform. The color is just like A. nigerianum.
The development of the red dots differed somewhat forming a more marbled pattern
than A. nigerianum. All hybrid males had yellow edges on all fins. The pattern
of the caudal fin was more or less a compromise between the crossing species.
Most males did not develop an unbroken separation line all along the edge of the
fin as in A. cinnamomeum, but in all the upper and lower "lyre pattern" formed by
these lines did not turn up and down as in A. nigerianum (and most Aphyosemion
possessing this pattern) but turned towards the center of the hindmost edge of
the caudal fin. Only one male at an age of more than 15 months developed an unbroken
red line all along the caudal fin. The yellow color of the hindmost edge of the caudal
fin was not a pure yellow when the red line was not completely closed, but merely
a yellowish green. The pectoral fins were colored as A. nigerianum, however there
was more yellow color near the edge as normally seen within yellow males of
A. nigerianum. The outmost edge was pale red.
The throat pattern also was very much like A. nigerianum and males' throat did not
develop a blackish color during fight and spawning. The caudal fin of A. nigerianum
does not develop long streamers as many male Aphyosemion. That fin of A. cinnamomeum
is said to be rounded and so it is normally. However, old aquarium-kept males often
develop some prolongation of the upper and lower rays and approximate the shape of
A. nigerianum. The hybrid male when old is intermediate. It might be of some
importance that the A. nigerianum male used for this crossing belongs to the Wokocha
River, near Port Harcourt, eastern Niger Delta area and not to the usual Akure
population. The hybrids did not differ from the parent species in their haemoglobine
spectrals.
The female A. cinnamomeum was also crossed to the genotype of Aphyosemion, A. christyi.
Only a few fertile eggs were harvested. The embryo did not develop normally. The
length did not exceed 90 degrees on the equator of the yolk. The development of
the blood system was poor. One embryo lived inside its egg for 5 weeks before it
died but it did not approach reaching the full development of organs. I do not
think that viable embryos could be had from this cross.
The same female was crossed to a male A. labarrei - 14 fertile eggs. The development
of the embryos was normal. After hatching the hybrids were very feeble and some were
bad swimmers whereas others "lost the air" and rested at the bottom. All died before
maturing.
Once more the female was crossed to the form which has been kept as an aquarium
fish, fist under the name A. striatum, then (USA) A. lujae, then A. cameronense
and at present again A. striatum. It comes from the Congo River north of Leopoldville.
Morphologically it seems to be close to A. cameronense and A. striatum. Only 3
eggs. 2 eggs developed and hatched. But the fry did not grow. At an age of 6
weeks it only measured 8 to 10 mm. After some time the two fry died.
Then the female A. cinnamomeum was crossed to the unidentified Aphyosemion from
the Ndian River, North Cameroon. Morphologically, also this form is close to
A. cameronense and it is not possible to separate these two forms. It may stand
rather close to A. nigerianum. I had 31 eggs, 22 eggs were fertile. Normal
development and hatching. Also these hybrids were rather feeble and were difficult
to raise to maturity. At the time of maturity they developed different colorations.
Some were weakly colored males, whereas others developed mostly towards females but
with more colors than normal within this genus. Later on, they turned into a more
and more male appearance. After maturing their coloration the hybrids were more
hardy and most lived for more than one year. Some hybrids of male type had yellow
edges of unpaired fins, others had no yellow.
At present it is very difficult to place A. cinnamomeum in the right place inside
the genus Aphyosemion. From what could be seen from the crossings, the behavior,
the color patterns etc., we probably have to place this form as a "blind off-shoot"
from some form close to A. nigerianum.
A. cinnamomeum is a bottom living form. It takes time to train this fish to come
to the surface to take fruit flies. In such situations the fish rushes to the surface,
catches the fly and rushes down again. Compared with A. nigerianum this species
is more peaceful but mature males will fight violently. Unfortunately it is not
a robust fish like A. nigerianum and tuberculosis and Oodinium may kill your stock
if you are not careful. We have kept this species in slightly acidic water of
zero hardness and in our ordinary tap water which is alkaline and has 15-20 German
degrees of hardness. In the water type first mentioned the fish will spawn and
eggs will develop, but diseases may be a problem. In the water type last mentioned
the eggs normally will be ruined but the control of diseases is much better. We
always use peat as a bottom layer. 68-78 F. Dim light.
Spawning normally takes place at the surface of the peat. However, if you separate
the two sexes for a week or so and then form your breeding team, spawning mostly
will take place all over the tank at any water level and even in the Riccia at
the water surface. The percentage of fertile eggs is rather often low when breeding
this species. The reason for this seems to be found in the water type used. Calcium
ions probably should not be present not even when the water is acidic. Peat-loaded
water seems to improve the results. As the percentage of fertile eggs often is
higher in the crossings when female A. cinnamomeum is used, it may be the sperm
that does not like the water type. Several males suffered from struma and became
sterile. I used iodine bromide without result.
Eggs measure 1.5 mm and have a very conspicuous reticulated surface pattern. When
taken out for development in small glasses they normally do not show any delay of
development. However, normally eggs do not hatch when ripe and it is often difficult
to force the fry to hatch. Drying up of the bottom peat for 4-6 weeks gave the best
results so far. One egg receiver in 1963, Mr. Johannes Franz, Dresden, raised 3
males and 4 females. Maturing started at an age of 4 months and 35 mm. Spawning
took place at an age of 5 months, but even at that time the males were not able to
fertilize the eggs. At last, at an age of 6 months, fertile eggs were harvested.
Most eggs were "resting eggs", that is to say that the development stopped just
after the fertilization. The delay of development was more than 8 weeks. Franz
used a water of 6 German degrees of hardness. Best result gave 70% of fertile eggs.
My own females gave up to 80 eggs per spawning and per female after one week of
heavy feeding.
D 13/14, A 16/17, sq. long. 30-31, sq trans. 9-10. Maximum length (without caudal
fin) approximately 40 mm (male)