Akwen

Codes

BLLMC 05 / 2

Geography

Akwen is situated on the main Eyomojok to Mamfe road to the northeast of Lake Ejagham. A river runs under the road at this point where the population was collected.

History

Collected by P & C Lambert, J Y Melin & M.Bogaerts in 2005.

Habitat

Two photos taken on the BLLMC 05 trip. Left hand photo shows bottom sandy layer being stirred up during collection. The right hand photo is the bridge over the river at Akwen. Photos courtesy of Christine Lambert ,Melin J-Y & M Bogaert.

The biotope of this population is a sand base. I set up a breeding tank with a silver sand base but only got 6 eggs from it. Most eggs being deposited on sunken mops.

Images

Fish I had in 2009

The above photo is a fish distributed in France (2003) as 71/6. This code is unrecognised but it shows a striking resemblance to Akwen. It is known that the C89 trip collected in this general area & code 6 was referred to as mamfensis.
It shows split phases of blue & yellow & a strikingly similar anal pattern.

Traits

The anal fin seems to be a constant in males a couple of generations from wild, being pale blue with red spots.

Variability

Wild fish show a broad orange band in the anal fin reminiscent of lacustris. Due to its proximity to Lake Ejagham where lacustris comes from this is interesting. The fish I had seemed to be a mixture of yellow & blue phase with blue in the upper & lower caudal outer margins with yellow blotches. It's possible this population will throw all sorts of colour patterns out in future generations.
Note the outer margin of the fish pictured on this page which is yellow & blue phase.

Notes

This was quite an easy population to breed using a sand base & a bottom spawning mop. An Indian Almond leaf was thrown in to get the water brown as in the wild biotope. Water was 100% rainwater.
Eggs were taken off the mop & put onto damp fresh peat (not wet). Initially all eggs went fungussed but after a couple of weeks of perseverance they became more fertile & settled down.