Aplocheilus lineatus - Striped panchax

Striped panchax occur in India and Sri Lanka in weedy by roots structured rainforest waters. Beyond the wild form, a golden form is commercial available. Both color forms are very attractive.

Ordnung	Cyprinodontiformes
Family	Cyprinodontidae
Species	Aplocheilus lineatus
First despription	Valenciennes, 1846
English Name	Striped panchax
Spreading	India, Sri Lanka
Size	10 cm
Hardness	soft to hard
ph-Value	6 - 8
Temperatur	22 - 30°C

Keeping

An aquarium for a small group of Striped panchax should be at least 80 cm wide, however, the fish actually inhabit only the top layers of the tank. The aquarium should be fully covered in any case, since the panchax can jump very well and do so at every opportunity.

Regarding the water conditions, this species is not particularly sophisticated and can handle a wide range of temperatures and degrees of hardness. However, because Striped panchax prefer living or frozen food a good filtering is recommend as I would prefer almost always. Panchax also eat all varieties of flakes and granules at best from the water surface. Like angelfish the greedy fish tend to overeat.

For good keeping the aquarium should be planted at best up to the surface being at best not to bright illuminated. Striped panchax are indeed anything but shy, but the colors, especially of the golden form, come in lower light to their best advantage.

Co-housing

Contrary to popular opinion, I could not find any major aggression among the panchax so far. It is mostly recommended, not to keep together too many males to ensure a surplus of females, which is in my experience not absolutely necessary if the tank has a suffizient size.

Striped panchax can also be maintained successfully in a community tank. The middle and lower areas are not inhabited by the panchax. However, the fish reach at least a size of 10 cm and will catch any small fish that fit in their mouth. Neon tetra are clearly too small, but other characins, such as Serpae tetra are to vertical and are completely ignored.

I'm currently co-housing the panchax only with a large troupe of Kuhli loaches and some Dwarf Chain loaches, but on a transitional basis, I've also kept them together with Serpae tetra and Platies in a tank occuring no problems.

Breeding

Besides the great colors and the modest "predatory nature" of the Striped panchax, the easy breeding and maintainance is particularly a good reason for keeping these fish.

For breeding a 20 liter tank with a small filter, a heater and some Java Moss is sufficient. My strategie was to put a couple one week in the breeding aquarium and then put them back into the main aquarium. A few days later, the first young fish hatched being within a short time already very independent and actively searching for food. By degrees about 50 young fish have come up.

It is remarkable that the fry is taking decapsulated artemia, cyclop-eeze and pulverised flakes or freeze-dried food from the beginning and therefore no living artemia or even paramecia have to be fed. The small panchax grow relatively fast, but also quite irregular. Since the larger preying upon the smaller ones, the fry can be separated in groups. However, I have not done so since about 15 juveniles have grown up and I could not accommodate more. Striped panchax

Conclusion

Striped panchax are very attractive killifish, that are quite easy to keep. Particularly interesting is also the easy breeding, which is also suitable for beginners.