Photo: Dornenwolf, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Clown killifish
Pseudepiplatys annulatus
4 cm
Adult size
20 L
Minimum volume
3
Minimum group
5 years
Lifespan
Water parameters
Understand these values- Genus
- Epiplatys
- Diet
- carnivore
- Social life
- small group
In the wild
Overview
Described in 1915 by George Albert Boulenger, the clown killifish (or “rocket killifish”) is a small surface killifish of about 4 cm, barred with four broad dark bands alternating with yellow, hence its name annulatus (“ringed”). Males have a fan-shaped tail with red and blue rays.
It was placed in its own genus, Pseudepiplatys, now abandoned: FishBase puts it in Epiplatys, as Epiplatys annulatus. It is not an annual killifish.
- Scientific name
- Epiplatys annulatus (Boulenger, 1915)Current valid name; in the hobby: Pseudepiplatys annulatus
- Classification
- Cyprinodontiformes › Nothobranchiidae
- IUCN Red List
- Least concern (LC)
Natural habitat
Coastal plains of southern Guinea, Sierra Leone and north-western Liberia
Observations (GBIF) and localities Native countries Rivers and lakes
It is widely distributed in the coastal lowlands of southern Guinea, Sierra Leone and north-western Liberia, around Monrovia. Breeders give the locality of origin (Kasewe, Monrovia, Fallaba…) to avoid mixing populations.
It lives in marshes, slow streams and small rivers in savannah and rainforest, among bank vegetation. The water is warm, soft and acidic, sometimes slightly brackish.
Behaviour
Peaceful, it is too small and too demanding for a classic community aquarium: keep it with small African tetras or other tiny, calm species. Fairly gregarious, it is less shy in a group of 8 to 10.
It hunts small insects and zooplankton at the surface. It breeds fairly easily: the eggs are laid among fine-leaved plants or floating roots, and fry sometimes appear spontaneously in a well-established tank.
Sources:FishBase Seriously Fish GBIF · Base map: Natural Earth