Tropical Fish Hobbyist - September 2007

and eventually opportunistic fungal and bacterial infections set in. These can be difficult to treat, and eventually the poor eel dies. Prevention, rather than remedy, is the key, and these eels should only be kept in tanks with a soft, sandy substrate—silica sand or non-calcareous black sand is ideal.

Peacock spiny eels will leap out of open tanks given the chance and so should only be kept in tanks with a tight-fitting hood. Floating plants also seem to do an admirable job of providing shade and security, encouraging the eels to swim about during the daytime, making them much easier to observe.

The other major problem with spiny eels is feeding—they are not scavengers! Earthworms, tubifex worms, and insect larvae such as bloodworms are especially relished, and it is important to offer these at night when the eels are naturally more willing to feed. They are slow feeders and should not be kept with catfish or loaches likely to steal the food before the eels even find it.

Code Name: Pantodon buchholzi Alias: African butterflyfish

Origin: West and Central Africa

Special Skills: Beautifully camouflaged, very butterfly-like when viewed from above, essentially peaceful

Potential Flaws: Skilled jumper, easily escapes uncovered tanks, predatory, tricky to feed

The African butterflyfish is one of the most regularly traded oddballs on the market. Typically reaching around 4 inches

in length, these fish are confirmed predators and will eat small fishes such as neon tetras, guppies, and zebra danios, though they are perfectly safe with bigger fish like gouramis and angels.

In the wild they feed primarily on insects that they detect within a relatively small area around the head; vibrations and eye-catching movements attract their attention, and once located the prey is quickly snapped up. Anything outside of this “kill zone” is basically ignored, and this is what makes these fish difficult to slot into the community aquarium—they just won’t swim up to pellets and flakes and eat them in the same way as other surface-dwellers like hatchetfish and livebearers.

To begin with, live foods such as mosquito larvae and mealworms should be used. Once settled in, they normally accept frozen substitutes such as bloodworms, carefully placed directly in front of the head. Some specimens eventually take flake and pellet foods as well.

African butterflyfish inhabit weedy backwaters and ponds, where they are most commonly found hidden among the plants, becoming active primarily at dawn and dusk. While they rely primarily on their excellent camouflage to avoid predators, they are able to make a quick getaway by leaping out of the water and gliding for short distances using their enlarged pectoral fins, so don’t keep these fish in an uncovered aquarium.

Breeding in home aquaria is possible but difficult, not least of all because these fish

are sometimes territorial with one another (and potentially other surface dwellers, too). The two sexes can be distinguished by the shape of the anal fin (the male fish has a curved edge to the fin, whereas that of the female is straight). Soft and acidic water is essential for breeding. Over 100 floating eggs are produced; these hatch within one or two days, and the resulting fry are difficult to rear, requiring tiny live foods. One last thing: the long, trailing fins that help these fish blend in with their surroundings have a magnetic attraction for fin-nipping fish like tiger barbs and serpae tetras. Only keep African butterflyfish with non-nippy species.

Ed Taylor

The African butterflyfish Pantodon buchholzi has the ability to leap out of water and “fly” for short distances using its enlarged pectoral fins—obviously, a covered aquarium is a must for this fish.

108 www.tfhmagazine.com

Decision Time

After reviewing our dossier of agents it seems, in considering the pros and cons of each, that the ideal oddball fish for the community tank is the glassfish. Its small size, lively behavior, and all-around adaptability make the glassfish the most easily accommodated oddball in the batch.

This isn’t to say that the other fish mentioned here can’t be kept in community tanks—they can, you just have to choose tankmates with care. South American puffers would work well in an aquarium with silver dollars and a pleco, but are less well kept alongside Corydoras and angelfish. The African butterflyfish is a fascinating addition to a spacious aquarium alongside peaceful barbs, catfish, characins, and gouramis of similar size, but it will need to be given a certain amount of special care at feeding time. The spiny eel and elephantnose could both work well in any community of mid-size species, with the proviso that they are the only bottom-dwelling fish in the tank. With these two species, feeding is a problem, and anything likely to steal their food shouldn’t be added to the tank.

There are, of course, many more oddball fish available other than the ones mentioned here. Oddballs are what Martha Stewart would call “accent pieces” that draw the eye to the aquarium while immediately setting it apart from more mundane community tanks. But these are fish, not objets d’art, so before buying any fish you don’t immediately recognize, it is important to find out as much as you can about its size, needs, and behavior.