Among the many spectacular Nothobranchius species to come out of Africa over the last few years, Nothobranchius sp. Kisaki TAN 95/9 and its “sister” fish N. sp. Kwaraza TAN 95/14 are perhaps some of the most beautiful. Both were collected from sites in Tanzania by Brian Watters, Ruud Wildekamp and Ian Sainthouse.
N. sp Kisaki TAN 95/5
Collected roughly 60 km south of Morogoro and just north of the Selous Game Reserve, N. sp. Kisaki has basically a blue-green body with red scale edges. The caudal fin is deep red, the pectorals orange-red, and the throat orange. The anal fin is finely banded in blue-green and red, with prominent orange-red “flame-like” extensions to the fin rays, primarily on the front half. Barry Cooper describes the fish as “a rather elongate, slim Notho, with a strong overall reddish orange color that is … intense in the tail [and] … under the throat area.”
N. sp. Kwaraza TAN 95/14
This Notho was collected from the Ruvu River floodplain just west of Dar es Salaam. While undoubtedly the same species as the Kisaki fish, the two populations should not be mixed.
These new Nothos are easily propagated, robust, active, and often aggressive. Unless maintained in “bachelor” male-only tanks, the males will fight viciously; even the females will inflict serious damage on each other. Brian Watters has reported that keeping a number of pairs together in a large tank worked, but that the fish always looked a bit ragged. His best results occurred when keeping the fish in pairs. When kept in small breeding groups of several females to one male, one female usually dominated, forcing removal of the others.
“This is a prolific population,” notes Brian, “and the fry are large, so raising them is no problem.” Incubation of the eggs, typical for Nothos from the lowland Tanzania area, is 2.5 to 4 months. Water conditions for these fish do not seem to be critical. Barry maintains his in hard water (280 ppm TDS), pH about 8.0.
These two fish (the Kisaki and the Kwaraza populations) were one of four new species discovered during the1995 collecting trip. As of late 1996, formal descriptions were being prepared for subsequent publication.
— G.C.K.A. Newsletter, Sept/Oct 1998