Meaning of Name |
After Father G.L. Bates, a Catholic missionary working in Cameroon. An interesting point with the naming of this sp. is the addition of an extra 'i' at the end. Normally when naming a species after a person it only has one 'i'. I looked into this & apparently it was considered 'common practice' on occaisions to add this extra 'i' in the early part of the 20th century. This practice was later dropped to the now more familiar single 'i'. To be perfectly correct the fish should be pronounced 'bates eye' although 'bat ee see eye' is also used. | ||||||||||||||||
First Description |
Boulenger G.A. 1911. (Fundulus batesii) Descriptions of New African Cyprinodont Fishes. Ann. & Mag. Nat. History. 8 (8) (44): p 261-262. | ||||||||||||||||
Size |
78.2 mm (Huber 1979) | ||||||||||||||||
Meristics |
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Karyotype |
n = 16-17, A = 30-34 (Scheel 1990)(variable between populations). | ||||||||||||||||
Sub-Genus |
Raddaella | ||||||||||||||||
Group |
batesii | ||||||||||||||||
Synonyms |
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Populations
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Akoemetam M'balmayo - http://www.garysfishroom.us Gary Bartell's site Awae - Collected by Rod Roberts, Hubert Peturka & Ed Pürzl in 1983. Along side the road from Sangmelima to Djoum. Also collected at Ngoungoumou. I had a pair of wild fish but my hard water meant they didn't spawn. I gave them to Alan Green as his water was soft. He had better results.
Ayos -
CSK collection codes - After recent (March 2002) contact with a BKA member who had problems with a sp. bought as CSK 95/15 Djenasoumé which conflicted with my records I contacted Geert van Huijgevoort who was one of the collectors who informed me that CSK 95/14 is Djenasoumé, whilst CSK 95/15 is Ndwoué. Djenasoumé - CSK 95 / 14 -
Eboo Esatop GEMBLJ 2003 / 7 -
Makokou -
Sangmelima -
Clausen 1966 - 5 Scheel 1966 - Between Akonolinga & Abong Mbang Thys 1970 - Ebogo, Nyong river Radda 1972 - 12 km south east of Sangmelima Lengton 1972 - 32 km north of Sangmelima Thys 1975 - 30 km Abong Mbang, Dja river Louete 1976 - Mieri, Doumé river Chauche 1985 - Ekombitié, S Mbalmayo Castelo 1989 - Ngumu, Rio Guoro Buisson 2001 - Libi river, Sangmélima
- Oveng Collected between Ménguém & Mvengué by Grell & Eberl in 1991. Found A.exiguum with A.batesii. Radda (1971) mentions a stream he collected in near Nsomi on the Sangmelima - Yaoundé road. Species collected A.batesii, A.exiguum & A.cameronense. | ||||||||||||||||
Type Locality |
Bitye on the Ja River (types 1 & 2) & Assobam on the Bumba River (types 3 - 8), Eastern Cameroon. | ||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
The Inland Plateau of Southern Cameroon & Ivindo Basin extending through northeastern Gabon into northern Congo.. | ||||||||||||||||
Habitat |
Rafia swamps & shallow, stagnant pools. Also collected in rainforest brooks. Sympatric sp. include A.cameronense, A.cyanostictum, A.georgiae etc. Scheel reported them difficult to find as they were found in shallow water on soft mud. He measured natural water to be pH 4.2 - 6.8, GH 0.1 - 1.0. These measurements were taken in the dry season. Swamp
near Sangmelima, Cameroon. Habitat of A.batesii. Another part of the above swamp. Photo: Courtesy of Ed Pürzl. | ||||||||||||||||
Distinguishing Characteristics | Large, heavily built fish. Gill covers have large red areas sometimes in 2 lines. | ||||||||||||||||
Colour/Pattern Variability | High | ||||||||||||||||
History |
Boulenger described Fp.batesii from specimens collected by G.L.Bates from Bitye, Ja drainage, eastern Cameroon. He also had specimens from Assobam on the Bumba river in 1915. Boulenger placed fish collected from Akonolinga, Upper Nyong River, east Cameroon in 1915 under Fp.sjoestedti but they were considered to be A.batesii by Scheel. Boulenger gives the following collectors / locations in his 1915 Catalogue.
Ahl reported 2 specimens from Sangmelima which had been collected from the Upper Lobo River of southern Cameroon. He described these as Fundulus gustavi but placed them closest to A.batesii. In 1929 Pellegrin had this sp. from Nyabessan, east Cameroon. Apparently their are two locations in this part of Cameroon with the same location name & this colection is regarded as 'un-fixed'. Scheel caught 'many individuals' between Akolinga & Abong Mbang, Upper Nyong drainage in 1966. Scheel reports in ROTOW 1 that they were restricted to swamps in this area. Adult fish only were found in the dry season. He also found A.exiguum as a sympatric sp. Exact dates in this piece are confusing but are
accurate I believe to within a year. Referenced BKA newsletters No.89
& 91 (anyone contemplating a collecting trip to southern Cameroon
would do well to read this paper - 'Studies in South Cameroon' by Dr.
A.C.Radda). In 1971 Roger Langton collected them 32 kms north of Sangmelima. A total of 25 young fish were taken back to the USA. The fish were bred. In 1972 Radda again collected Fp.batesii from the same locality. This time some individuals from the 30 collected did make it back to Europe alive but failed to spawn. The majority of this shipment died through males fighting through being closely confined in plastic bags during transit. Males must be shipped in individual bags This situation was also observed by Rod Roberts during a collecting trip to Cameroon in July 1983 where the Awae population was returned to the UK where it was distributed but failed to become established. Radda again collected them in January 1983. This time,despite the area being heavily flooded was able to bring 3 specimens alive to Europe which later spawned. History of the synonym Aphyosemion splendidus Pellegrin 1930 Fundulus
splendidus Pellegrin 1930. ibid 55.
Pellegrin
described this sp. from 56 specimens collected by Baudon in the Sangha drainage.
Additional material (23 specimens collected on the road between Suanké
& Gara-Binzam) was collected in the Ivindo-Ogowe drainage area. History of the synonym Aphyosemion (Fundulopanchax) schreineri Ahl 1935 Ahl described this sp. from 6 specimens collected by Schreiner from the upper reaches of the Lobo River close to Sangmelima, southern Cameroon. History of the synonym Aphyosemion kunzi Radda 1975 Described by Radda from specimens collected by Herzog & Bochtler in 1972 & Bochtler et al in 1974, northern Gabon. | ||||||||||||||||
Breeding Notes |
Fp.batesii is not a particularly easy fish to spawn & I must confess that all my attempts with wild fish from Awae failed to produce a single fry although I did manage to find a few eggs in bottom mops which failed to develop. Alan Green had better results with water incubating
the embryos from parents (males) which were up to 2" in length.
Hatching occurred in 26 - 32 days (in water) with a temperature of 75°F.
Males exceeding this length for some reason produced eggs with a thick
outer shell which fry could not penetrate to hatch. Best results have been reported using peat or peat fibre & drying this out for 2-6 months. A pre-incubation diapause of 5 months has been observed in wild fish. Fry are large enough on hatching to consume newly hatched brine shrimp & micro-worm. Gunnar Asblom (AKA newsgroup comment) made the observation that eggs of this sp. cannot take quick drying & considered the drying of the biotope to be slow. He suggested storing the eggs on wet peat for the first 10-14 days & this reduces the loss rate to 10-50%. A BKA member maintained them
in the begining of the 1980's (these were possibly Awae as the dates fit nicely)
and commented that they were easy to breed in 'very acid, very soft water' with
a thin layer of peat & a lot of Java Fern. Diapause has been reported up to 15 months in unhatched embryo's. Growth rate is rapid with a size of 2 cm being attained after 30 days. Males have been known to start colouring up at 35 - 45 days. Females are able to produce eggs at 2 months of age. (BKA newsletter No.210, February 1983). Jaroslav Kadlec in BKA newsletter No.431, August
2001 reported the Mbalmayo population did better when storing eggs in
half dried peat. Water in the spawning tank was 1·5 GH, carbonate
free, pH 5 - 6·2, water temperature around 24-24°C. Substrate
can be peat or coir, both equally as good. | ||||||||||||||||
Diameter of Egg |
1.4 mm
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Remarks |
This sp. is a large & colourful Aphyosemion. Perhaps the most striking part is the area behind the pectoral fin which has a number of scales (variable between 5-9 in photo's I've seen) edged in very dark red which gives the appearance of a 'bleeding heart' pattern. Reported to feed exclusively on water insects in the wild (?). At one time A.batesii, A.splendidum & A.kunzi were part of a small group known as the batesii group. Research now believes these sp. to be one & the same so the group has collapsed into one sp. It has been reported (BKA newsletter No.163, March 1979) that differing populations can be sterile (kunzi). |