This is the king of the killies.

The males can reach 5"-7", with appetites to match. Females are smaller and not as colorful, but have the same appetite.

They can lay a huge number of eggs, and the fry are more than big enough to handle baby brine shrimp when they hatch. Lots and lots of brine shrimp. And the growth rate....

Fundulopanchax sjoestedti "Loe"

Click for larger picture

Breeding Information

The more or less standard method for breeding Blue Gularis is to set a pair up and spawn then over smaller container in the aquarium that has fine peat in it. After spawning or a given period of time the container is taken out, the water is drained out until the peat is just barely moist, and then placing the peat or the peat and container into a plastic bag. This bag is then stored in the dark for roughly 2 months. The eggs are checked periodically to see if they are eyed up. If so, then it is time to add water and let them hatch.

I do it somewhat differently. Only because the only thing I could do with the fine peat and a container was make a huge mess of the tank. When I tried putting sinking mops all over the bottom, the fish ignored them and just sprayed the eggs all over the place. So I came up with a different way of doing it and the fish seem to find it to be ok.

I use a tank of roughly 5 gallons or so. Actually I have the best luck with a semi-transparent plastic letter size file box that can be purchased at a Target or Wal-Mart type store for less than $5.00. There is quite a bit of traffic where my fish are and the semi-transparent container keeps them calmer. I put a very light layer of gravel in the bottom and a sponge filter at one end.

I use the long strand peat moss you can buy in a garden center that people use to line hanging baskets with. I have to pick out the sticks and pine straw, and then soak the stuff for about a week to get it to sink. Then I put big handfuls of the peat strands into one corner of the spawning tank. It will not sink to the bottom at first, but hover in the lower half of the tank. In goes the pair of fish.

Click the picture for a larger version.

Now I keep an eye on them. If the female is not already fat with eggs, I really pour in the best food possible. 

Live black worms, earthworms, and frozen brine shrimp in huge quantities will get them spawning quickly. The actual spawning is fun to watch. The pair will dive down into the peat and disappear. All that can be seen is the peat bumping up and down as they move around and spawn. 

When the female has trimmed down and spawn is finished here is what I do:

I place the pair into another tank. I take out the strands of peat (I have never found any eggs in it) along with the filter. I pour off about half of the water. I have a couple of Jiffy peat pellet that are full of water, tear them open and spread them out on the bottom of a plastic shoe box. I use a large brine shrimp net and do fast figure eights in the tank water. This will stir up the water and get the eggs swirling into the net. The net will collect a mixture of eggs, pieces of peat and whatever else is in the tank. I plop that into the shoe box with peat. If the spawn has been a good one, this process is repeated till I stop getting eggs or my arm is falling off.

By now the shoe box with the peat and eggs has quite a bit of water in it. I prop the shoe box up on one side with something, push the peat to the high side, and siphon off the water. I will probably keep the shoe box tilted like this for 1/2 a day. I want all the water that will drip out of the peat to do so. I will usually take a piece of paper towel an put it at the edge of the peat to wick out some more water.

When the peat has completely finished draining, I make up a label with the fish pair information and the date the eggs were collected and the date to start checking them. The label goes on a fish bag. The shoe box goes into the fish bag with a baggy tie closure. I put the bag into a big cardboard box that no doubt has a lot of other bags in it down near the bottom. The outside of the box has a sheet of paper on it with the contents of the box - what eggs are in there and what are the check dates. The check dates will get moved ahead a week if the eggs have not starting eyeing up on the first check date. When I check the eggs, I also check to see how the moisture content is doing. Sometimes I need to wipe out the bag to get rid of extra water, sometimes I need to add a little water.

I start checking Blue Gularis eggs at 5 weeks. Ready or not I add water if they are at 8 weeks. When the eggs are ready, I fill the shoe box 1/2 full of clean aged room temperature water. Usually within an hour the fry start to appear.  Most of the ones that are going to hatch will have hatched within 12 hours. If I have a huge number of fry hatch, I don't worry about what ever other eggs may still be there. If only a few eggs hatched and I know there are still a lot more good eggs, then I will eye dropper the fry out with the water, prop the shoe box up and start the drying process again. It then goes back into the bag, back into the box in the dark for another week to ten days. Then I do the water bit again.

I have never done this for a third round. By the second round I am already wondering how the feed both the fry and my family without taking out a loan.

Now feeding the fry is just a matter of hatching out all the brine shrimp you can and try to keep the water clean. In a week or so, I set the shoe box inside a tall version of the plastic sweater box or plastic file box full of water. Then I just lift up the side of the shoe box and let it all flow into the larger container. This larger container will last another 2 weeks. Then it is time to start splitting the fry up into several larger containers to continue growing out. By now they are eating frozen brine shrimp and O.S.I. brine shrimp flakes.

The fry will grow at tremendous rates. But some of fry will grow even faster and start eating the others. You have to sort for size because letting the biggest guys eat the smaller ones will leave you with some bad sex ratios. Lots of males and no females.

If all goes well, you will find yourself with some spectacular grow out tanks as the males color up.

Blue Gularis are a great fish to keep and raise.

Click for larger pic. An interesting sport. Might be worth working with.

Short video of Blue Gularis spawning and more info <CLICK>