Blue gularis

Care at a glance

Overview

Keep a single pair or a trio of one male and two females in a tank of at least 80 liters, and only ever one male, since two males will fight. They are aggressive, predatory bottom dwellers that will eat small fish and shrimp, so any tankmates must be peaceful and too large to fit in the mouth. Run the water at 22 to 26 C, soft, with a pH between 6 and 7.5. A tight lid is essential because they jump. Feed meaty foods like frozen bloodworms, brine shrimp, and small earthworms, with the odd pellet they will take.

In the wild

Blue gularis come from the coastal lowlands of Nigeria and Cameroon, in and around the Niger Delta, where they live in soft, acidic blackwater pools and slow forest streams stained brown with tannins. To match that, give them fine sand, plenty of driftwood, and dense planting, with some leaf litter or botanicals to push the water soft and acidic. Keep them between 22 and 26 C with a pH of 6 to 7.5. Lower light and tannin-stained water suit them best.

Good to know

This is a large killifish in the family Aplocheilidae, growing to about 12 cm, which is big for a killi. It is a bottom spawner, and the eggs can either be water incubated or stored in damp peat for a few weeks before hatching. Most fish in the trade are bred by hobbyists, and a healthy adult lives a couple of years.

Did you know

The eggs can survive out of water. In the wild, pools that dry down would kill most fish, so the eggs sit in damp ground until rain returns, which is why hobbyists can store them in peat and post them in the mail. You can wet the peat weeks later and watch a batch of fry hatch out within hours.

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