gar.abuja

Wild male collected in the Tarka River, Abuja.
Photo from BKA newsletter No.238, June 1985 reprinted with permission from Brian Sell.

Codes

None known. Also known as Tarka River.

History

First records of this population are from the DKG (referenced below) where Thomas Schulz visited the site beginning 2008.
At the village of Uke a river runs nearby that was dried except for pools occaisionally connected by a trickle of water. The area is used by the locals to wash cars & is full of rubbish.
Thomas reports - 'Before reaching the village of UKE we drive through a small depression, to the right and left of us are palm trees and short shrubs. So I ask our driver to stop and the stream turns out to be small water holes, which form parts of a watercourse in the rainy season. The holes lie in deep shade - brown water with decomposing leaves. The first landing net finds blue flashing fish between the leaves: the hoped-for Aphyosemion'.
Fish were sent to Jörg Rückle in Germany who bred them. He noticed they were not as prolific as the other populations (Lafia & Makurdi). Also, they did not like temperatures over 25°C.

This population was brought back to the UK in 1985 by Clive Charlton, a worker in an open cast mining company who distributed them to BKA members in the Cornwall area.
They were collected on Wednesday 10th December 1984 in a pool along the Tarka River bed.
A total of 20 fish were collected in a weedy area of the pool & were put into a gallon paint tin.
Clive's steward returned to the area the following day & collected another dozen or so fish.
These were taken by road to Kura near Jos which took 4 & a half hours, then on to Kano for the flight to Gatwick. Only one fish died in transit.
*Note. A population was distributed & were known to be in the USA & reintroduced back to the BKA from the USA as Tarka River. These may have been the Abuja collection.

Habitat

Abuja is situated about midway between Lokoja, at the confluense of the Niger & Benue Rivers to the south, & Kaduna to the north.
The area is savannah with rainfall around 40" a year which falls between June-October. The dry season arrives suddenly with a cool, dry wind called the Harmattan. The area has frequent bush fires. By January rivers have dried to isolated pools or even dried out completely.

Dried up Tarka River bed showing isolated pockets of water. Collection site for the Abuja population.
Photo courtesy of Brian Sell from material given to him by Clive Charlton.

The biotope was at the base of a small cateract & had a flow of a few gallons per minutehad a lot of green weed & algae. Also found were a small barb sp.
In a later article it was reported that the original collection point had dried out completely.

Images

Abuja. Photo courtesy of Roger Gladwell

Abuja. Photo courtesy of Brian Sell.

Abuja. Photo courtesy of Roger Gladwell

Male from the original collection.
Photo courtesy of Brian Sell.

Abuja (top) with Akure (bottom).
Photo courtesy of Brian Sell

Abuja from Thomas Schulz' collection 2008.
Photo courtesy of Werner Eigelshofen

Traits

Fish bred from the original wild stock were reported to grow to a maximum size of only 50 mm.
Although the biotope was reportedly seasonal, eggs in aquaria hatched in 14 days, with young reported as being slow growers taking 3 months to attain 1".

Variability

Fairly low although the blue phenotype has not been observed in captivity in recent years.
The anal fin, as is common in many gardneri populations can change from 'red bar' to 'spotted'. Spots on body can also be seen as small or heavy.

Notes

In a follow up article in BKA newsletter No.248, April 1986 (see also No.238) Brian Sell reported getting some blue phenotypes showing a blue edge to the anal fins from the fish originally collected by Clive Charlton's steward from the second collection. On borrowing Clive's original stock following the loss of his male he raised 20 young, 5 of which were males, all of which had yellow anal fins.