Elassoma evergladei

[mikev]

They should be fine in a loach rivertank and they don’t take much space. No idea what would happen to Sewellia fry with these guys around…. probably nothing good.
Even better would be to mix them with gobies.

[mikev]

In re Elassoma: my current problem is that there is more than one species. I can get e.evergladei
or e.gilberti now, but it should be possible to find Elassoma okefenokee and zonatum too. Just how does one know which one is more interesting/more attractive? (cannot keep them all ).

[Rüdiger]

Hi Mike,

the most attractive of the Elassoma spp. certainly is E. okefenokee, due to the larger amount of blue in the finnage.

As far as behaviour/habitus is concerned, the species should be more or less the same.

I’m quite sure you could fit 4 tanks 40x25x25 cm somewhere??? Since they don’t need heating or filtration and, if the tanks are fairly close to a window, not even light you could keep them all! 😀

Shouldn’have said that, now should I. 😎

Regards

R.

[mikev]

Thanks for the recommendation, R!

Nay, 4 more tanks is not an option… too many other interesting creatures around …
Here is the next one for me… incidentally comes from the same waters as Elassoma’s. I’ve been waiting for a while until this strain (subspecies?) shows up again.

[torso]

I agree with Rüdiger, Mikev. E. okefenokee is the most stunning little fish I ever had. In a way I still regret a bit to have given them to a friend.

Cheers Charles

[Matt]

Great pics Charles, I’ll add some profiles asap.

Mike, if you get the Lucania going please bear me in mind for eggs!

[mikev]

Great photos indeed, thank Charles.

I’m a little confused about the fish now…. I asked the Florida guy I’m getting Lucania from about availability of Okefenokee from him (I know he had them previously) and he said that his fish was mis-id’d, and was always E.gilberti … and the quality of his photo makes it unclear just what he has. Or what other suppliers may have (not sure if anyone else has them now).
Plus, he says that the fish is not really maintainable without life food (I need to understand just what he means by this)… anyway I need a bit more research before doing anything.

(Incidentally: are Elassomas close relatives of Aphanius per chance?)

As for Lucania, with luck before end of the week, so let’s hope! This strain whatever it is seems much more colorful, here is a better photo from another collector who encountered them a few years ago:

[torso]

Hi Mikev

Your pic shows E. gilberti, right? It’s not my species. They have come from a German breeder.

Some pics showing females – first at arrival and then males in different states of dominance. In any case they don’t show the pattern of your specimen.

Cheers Charles

 

[mikev]

Your pic shows E. gilberti, right?

Right.. and this introduces a confusion since this is the guy who caught and distributed them around as okefenokee…. I’ll have to be making sure that it is not his if I’m to look for true okefenokee… these do not look like yours either. ?

Fantastic shots again, btw, tyvm!

[torso]

Hi Mikev

I think the difference is clear even when the specimen are not settled. That’s why I showed a bunch of pics. E. always has large blotches which can melt, a blue dorsal fin vs black bars or a lack of it when stressed, dorsal black with clear blue markings and a deep velvet black when in good mood and not fighting.

They need life food, but take decapsulated artemia and frozen black moskitos once used to it. Cyclops eeze should do well if you take the oxygen out with a syringe. May be the best food after all.

But E. gilberti is beautiful too, would like to have it here.

Cheers Charles

[mikev]

In re live foods:
My aphanius group gets life artemia+frozen brine+frozen bloodworms and seems to be happy. I’m just wondering if I can get with this for sunfishes too (they seem to be similar enough?). I can add other frozen foods and live grundal worms if needed… but if they need something like daphnia, this i cannot do (I tried several times, never can keep the culture going … artemia otoh is not a problem, I hatch it every day anyway.).

(Of course if I end up having something interesting, I can try mailing eggs.)

[Rüdiger]

Hi guys,

just a bit of my experience with E. evergladei. In the beginning they would refuse anything but life food. I gradually got them used to frozen by reducing life and mixing increasing amounts of frozen with it. Worked best for me with what we call white mosquito larvae I recon you call it glass worms?? By now they take frozen daphnia, bloodworms and cyclops too. You can of course get by with artemia if you grow them a bit past naupilii stage but that’ll be a bit monotonous all the time. All I can say is that my specimens never proved as dificult as they are said to be. I feed 80% life anyway but got them used to frozen for those occasions where you just can’t get anything else. I’ve got the same bad luck with any life food culture I ever tried my hands on. 😕

Regards

R.

[Matt]

Great info guys.

Nope Mike, they’re in the order perciformes so nothing to do with Aphanius.

[Rüdiger]

I cincerely hope I’m not saying anything ridiculously stupid but I faintly recall to have read in an article sometime last year that the classification of Elassoma as a genus is somewhat under scrutiny? In that context I seem to recall (equally faintly) that the question was raised if Elassoma actually belongs to the order perciformes? 

If memory serves, there was either one or a group of scientists working on that?

I’ll have to go through my files and try to find that again.

Regards

R.

[Rüdiger]

Unortunately I could not find that specific article anymore (what else?:x) but, for those interested, I still had this, which deals with the uncertain placement of the genus Elassoma within the order perciformes.

Regards

R.

[Author]

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