Aphyosemion australe

Keeping A.australe with F. gardneri? I've tried that many times. AUS can be an aggressive fish, even to each other. Those perfect specimens you see with long trailing caudal filaments were usually raised alone...

00 introduction Part of the CAL group, AUS has been studied in captivity since the 1800s and was one of the first popular aquarium fish. 01 types There are a number of striking man made variations, and there are several different wild populations in captivity. Most of these look more or less the same although at least one location looks like a gold australe when young. Besides being found in a few places there are other forms that look a little different. In the 1980s there was a collection from "Mayumba" which could not be maintained in captivity. An undated photograph from 2017 (or possibly before) by Carleton Ward, shows a specimen of AUS from Gamba, halfway between Port Gentil and Mayumba. The AUS in Mayumba have white caudal and pectoral fins while the fish from Gamba has a white caudal but orange pectorals; the Port Gentil/Cape Lopez (and all aquarium strains) have orange pectorals and a caudal tipped in white. Whether this one fish is a unique morph and just one specimen is different because of the substitution of white for orange in the caudal fin or perhaps there's an entire population there of australe with white tails and the only way to find out is to look at more than one which means somebody has to go there and check. Manmade strains are: gold (also called "orange"), red-gold(Orange but morered in the fins), "spotless orange" (which is exactly as it sounds). A striped fish once showed up in thehundreds ifnot thousands Charlue Drw has bred, but afyer several generations wasneverable tofixthe strrain so trheyprodiucesd allstipedprogeny.Instgead the offspring wee all spotted normally. 02 care Even a gallon jar is fine with a but of plant material. which is (much!) deeper than the water they are found in when they're in nature. That being said it is possible to have australe in a tank of mixed fishes despite the more commonplace recommendations of one or two pairs with extra females in a small to medium sized tank with either 1) a very heavy weed-choked planting or 2) lots of usually dark green or dark brown synthetic mops.

03 breeding In the former so-called "natural setup", fry wil appear among the plants and if the adults are well fed they will not bother the fry which can be taken out when half an inch in length or so sometimes, although it's usually a good idea to get them out when you can just in case. Maternal and Paternal attitude to wards fry as food varies somewhat. Two fish per half gallon is fine if the tanks are low and long and not tall. Tanks of 5 to 15 gallons are used too but I'd wager that more than 90% of AUS in captivity are in a two gallon (or less) tanks. Of the remaining ones, 90% of those are in a five. These are not big fish and do really well in tiny tanks. In the latter case with synthetic mops the eggs are removed daily and put on peat for fifteen (at 35-45C/95-104F ) to thirty (at 20C/72F) days. These types of breeding tanks (large jars are sometimes used)tend to be smaller and half gallon or less tanks are common and sometimes found in batteries -Charlie Drew would set up a dozen long narrow half gallon tanks with a pair of fish and a mop and would raise multiple numbers of 14 gallon tanks of young, 100 or so to a tank. 04 history The fish has been in held in captivity since the 1800's. 05 xrefs