Akaram

Codes

BLLMC 05 / 1

Geography

Akaram is situated on a river which crosses the main road from Eyomojok to Mamfe near Akwen. Follow this river south. Akaram is situated on a big bend in the river south of Lake Ejagham.

History

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

Habitat

This photo shows one of the collectors under a bridge. Sand from the river sides/bed was used in the construction of the bridge.
River was shallow with a sandy base & few plants on the edges.

Three biotope photos of the BLLMC 05 / 1 location. Photos courtesy of Christine Lambert ,Melin J-Y & M Bogaert.

Images

Two photos below brothers from same parents (captive bred) - Akaram taken 2023
Note, fish on left yellow phase emerging & anal fin marginal band missing.
Green body cast is still apparent in both fish.
Definately no cross breeding involved, lines were kept pure.

Photo courtesy of Roger Gladwell

Photo courtesy of Roger Gladwell

Akaram
Photo courtesy of Roger Gladwell

Akaram. Photo taken March 2023.
Yellow & blue phase. Anal outer marginal band retained.
Photo courtesy of Roger Gladwell

Breeding Notes

Roger Gladwell reported they lay best in silica sand which is finer. The fish laid more eggs in this sand than on the mops. Coarse sand was not as good.
Looking at the biotope photos above the base is sandy & muddy.
I set up 2 tanks with a silver sand base but had no eggs from it. All eggs were laid on bottom mops. Just goes to show what works for one breeder may not be good for another.

Traits

Variability

Wild fish show an orange anal fin with few red spots & a black outer margin.
When they first came in I said - 'It's possible this population will throw out different colour patterns in future generations'. This seems to be proving correct. All photos above from our original fish, no hybridisation.
I would put variability quite high on captive bred fish.

Notes