Fundulopanchax walkeri GH74/2 Kutunze

Fabulous fish!

The AKA works very hard to promote the killifish hobby. Watching out for species that are in danger of becoming extinct is a key area. For this purpose there is a Species Maintenance Group. Certain fish that for whatever reason are not being kept  by very many people are evaluated. The condition of their natural habitat is checked. Then breeders who will make a multi-year commitment are provided with some pairs to try and get the fish going again. This is one of those fish.

It appears that their natural habitat has been destroyed. Recent information with Great Britain is that the fish has disappeared from there. There seems to still be a couple of people in Sweden and maybe Germany who are keeping these fish. A breeder or two in the US still have them. This fish certainly qualified for special attention and concern.

I am honored to have been allowed to get 3 pairs of these fish and try my best to breed and increase the population. Hopefully I will raise enough to be able to swap with some other breeders who are also working on these fish so that we can keep the gene pool vigorous. Only time will tell.

I have set up each of the three pairs differently in hopes of getting an optimum method figured out. One pair has the standard peat in the bowl, another pair has sinking mops, and the last pair I have set up the way I do Blue Gularis - big wads of spagnum moss sunk in the tank. To date, all three methods has resulted in eggs and fry. I have just this week been able to set up a pair of fry F1 generation to go for babies from the babies. (Nov 2000). Hopefully they will give me my F2 generation.

Late January 2001

The F1 generation has fertile eggs. Right now all three pairs plus the F1 pair is producing good numbers of fertile eggs and fry. Having a little trouble with lots of females, too few males. That should settle out with warmer weather.

April 2001

I have raised up a bunch of the fry from the F1 generation, but have been getting about 10 females to 1 male. I have tried higher temps and putting a heater in one tank with 74 degrees. Still lots of females. I have paired up the F1's and they have spawned giving good numbers of fry, with a much better sex ratio. I tried raising the pH form my normal 6.6 to 7.0 to a steady 7.2. The pH seems at this point to have an effect on the sex ratio.

As two different batches start sexing out, they look to be very close to even in the sex ratios. The higher pH seems to be the trick.

With some luck on the parts of all the people involved in trying to get these fish going again, they will be available in the near future for everyone to rediscover and enjoy. They are a very pretty fish, very active, and a delight to have.

Pictures of fertile egg

Picture of new fry

Picture of tank with the long peat for spawning  I got a little carried away, there is at least 2x too much peat in this tank, but the fish seem happy.

How I am breeding

The fish are bottom spawners, and regardless of the spawning media, the eggs are in the gravel. I still prefer the peat on the bottom of the tank, along with gravel. The long strand peat gives the female lots of places to dart and hide when the male gets too aggressive. I set up a pair in a 2 gallon tank, gravel on the bottom, long strand peat not quite as heavy as the picture. Add a sponge or pipe T filter, and some java moss or java fern. I feed the fish good for about 3 weeks, and then move them to another identical tank. To process their original tank, I take out the moss and the filter, net out the peat moss and put it in a plastic shoe box. I drain out half the water and then stir up the gravel. Use a brine shrimp net and do figure 8's in the tank. This is where you get the eggs. Plop the eggs into the peat in the shoe box. Repeat until the eggs stop showing up. Now you can clean up the tank so it is ready for more fish.

Take the shoe box and push all the peat up to one end. Elevate that end so excess water drains down to the other side. I leave it like this for a couple of hours, then take a paper towel and lightly press on the peat to push out the extra water. Be careful and check the paper towel in case it picked up any eggs. Once the peat is just damp, not dry and not dripping or showing any water it is ready to store. I transfer to peat to a smaller container, label and place in a plastic bag, store in a box in the dark at 70-74 degrees for 6 - 8 weeks. Put on roughly how many eggs you think are in there.

When it is time to wet the peat, I put it into another larger container, anywhere from a soup bowl size up to a sweater box, depending upon how eggs are in there. I fill the container with clean aged water and swirl the peat to loosen it up in the container. Usually within an hour or so the fry are popping out. If the container is at least shoe box size, I add an airstone or small filter running slowly. I start the fish out with microworms and slowly start adding baby brine shrimp over the next few days. By the time the fry are 3-4 days, they can all eat baby brine shrimp, lots of it. Now just raise them up.

Can I get some of these fish?

Email me and check for availability. I am now distributing more and more pairs and trios out to people and they are having great success with breeding and raising the fry.  It would be really great to see these guys get going again. They are a beautiful fish and if treated similarly to the Fp gardneri varieties, they will keep you happy for a long time. Other than the fact that they are a bottom spawner and the eggs need to be dried for a while, they are just like the gardneri or australes. If you can do those fish, you can do these.

Location of Fish

Kutunze, Ghana
http://www.ghana.com/republic/images/Ghana.jpg Kutunze, the town is a few miles away from Accra, near the coast. The area they were collected has long since become a market area and is gone forever.
Even though the fish is usually described as Fundulopanchax walkeri GH2/74 Kutunze, (or Kutunse), I think the correct collection code is most likely Fundulopanchax walkeri GH74/2 Kutunze. GH is Ghana (I think), 74 is the year, and the 2 is the second collection site.