Epiplatys chaperi shreiberi Berkenkamp 1975

Wild male CI 9 / 93

Meaning of Name

After Gerhard Schreiber original collector of this subspecies. He was also a former chairman of the DKG.

First Description

Berkenkamp H.O. 1975.

Epiplatys chaperi schreiberi subspec. nov., eine neue Unterart von Kumasi/Ghana mit einer Übersicht bisheriger Unterarten.

Aquarienfreund 4 (5): p 83-98, figures, map.

Size

4.5 cm

Meristics

D = 9-10, A = 14-15, D/A = +6-7, ll = 29-30 (Berkenkamp 1975)

Karyotype

n = 25, A = 26 (Scheel 1968)

Sub-Genus

Epiplatys

Group

chaperi

Synonyms
  • Epiplatys chaperi Scheel 1968
  • Aplocheilus chaperi Scheel 1974
  • Epiplatys species Kumasi Berkenkamp 1975
  • Epiplatys chaperi "Kumasi" strain.
  • Aplocheilus chaperi schreiberi Scheel 1990
Populations
  • Kibi
  • Kumasi
  • Ofosu Apia
  • CI 9 / 93

BKA photo from the early 1970's. This form circulated in the BKA as E.chaperi Kumasi. Kumasi is in the area of schreiberi & the dorsal & caudal tips of pale blue would put this form into E.chaperi schreiberi.

Amisa and Kakum - Rivers along the road after Kumasi - Collected April 2000 & 2002. This collection was reported as being violet in colour.
Unfortunately no home page or reference to E-mail addressess of colectors was shown in the website.

CI 9/93 - Import code I created in 1993. Steve McAlear collected these by accident. He found them high on a hill in a drying out puddle. I found males to be very aggressive & needed lots of mops in the tanks. I found females were prone to dropsy. I bred the wild fish & distributed but they didn't last long in the hobby probably due to lack of colour.
Type Locality

5 km southeast of Kumasi along the Kumasi - Chirapatre road, western Ghana.

Distribution

Restricted to the upper Pra, Ankabra, Orin, Anum & Birim river drainages of southwestern Ghana.

http://homepage.uibk.ac.at/homepage/c102/c102mr/epiplaty/schreibe.htm

Habitat

Small rivers & pools. Also found in small bodies of water left from receeding floods which later dry out.

Distinguishing Characteristics Can be distinguished from E.chaperi chaperi by the lack of colouration on the body which is an olive green colour. Also the upper outer margin of the caudal fin is pale blue/white which is very distinctive.
Colour/Pattern Variability Low
History

Scheel in ROTOW 1 refers to 'an unnamed subspecies' occuring to the north of the distribution range for E.chaperi & E.chaperi sheljuzhkoi. These were live fish collected from Kumasi. He refers to this fish as being 'dark all over' & the 'upper edge of the dorsal &, particularly, the caudal, is brilliant white to bluish-white'. The photo at the head of this page shows this white edge. In fact, as this fish grew this white edge became more prominant. See ROTOW 1 page 153 for photo.

Gerhard Schreiber collected them at Kumasi in the Pra River drainage in 1974. These were coded GH 1 / 74.

Breeding Notes

I bred them fairly easily on the bottom row of my fish house which was cool. Eggs were laid in top & bottom mops with young presenting no problems. Water incubation takes around 14 days. Sexual maturity around 5-6 months.

Diameter of Egg Not measured but larger than E.chaperi chaperi.
Remarks

Wild males can be aggressive.

Wildekamp's line drawing (A World of Killies Vol III) of a specimen collected to the southwest of Kumasi shows four vertical bars to the rear of the body. The CI 9 / 93 collection I had never showed any barring.