Jordanella floridae, Goode & Beane
1879
The American-Flag Fish
By Wright Huntley,
SF Bay Area Killifish Association, June 1995
Aquarticles
INTRODUCTION
Described by Tutaj 9
as "An American Beauty," this strikingly lovely and peaceful algae eater
deserves a better break.
Of the hundreds of species of killies kept and propagated by dedicated
specialists, very few qualify as a suitable fish for the more casual aquarist. The
American-Flag fish, Jordanella floridae is a notable exception. Misunderstood,
improperly identified, and frequently described inaccurately in the general aquarium
literature, this pupfish deserves a place in many community tanks that it has been denied
by an undeserved reputation. While consuming algae like the best Siamese Algae Eater, it
is beautiful, rugged and extremely tolerant of varied water conditions. Highly prized in
Europe, maybe it's too close to home, here, for proper appreciation. Recently priced at
less than $3.00 in local stores, it is a colorful bargain when it matures.
Originally thought to be a cichlid, this native of the gulf coast, but
primarily Florida, also was identified with the sunfish. Now known as a unique,
single-species genus of native American pupfish, it has uncanny behavioral resemblance to
both the sunfish and cichlid groups. The spiny dorsal ray is unique among Cyprinodontidae.
The only time the Jordanella floridae shows belligerence, above that of a molly,
is during courtship and when guarding eggs. At that time, the female, or any territorial
invader, is at real risk from an irate male, who can do serious damage. This is no
different than almost any nesting cichlid or gourami.
The generic name is for David Starr Jordan, the first president of Stanford
University. The species name is for the state where it is most prevalent. The habit of
shipping wild specimens from selected gathering grounds in Florida has left the species
free of the dominance of ugly mutations that have ruined many other good aquarium fish.
Typical J. floridae of today probably look identical to the specimens so eagerly
greeted in Europe over 70 years ago. Unfortunately, that appearance gets masked in the
living conditions of many fish shops, and poor understanding of the needs of this fish
often has turned a real swan into an ugly duckling.
As in most killifish, the male and female are different in appearance, but their
coloring is as variable as any chameleon. Each has a different kind of attractiveness, but
both may be quite dull and drab in the wrong conditions. Their behavior is as interesting
as their appearance. In this paper, the author proposes a hypothesis to answer the
question of why there are so many conflicting descriptions of this species. The breeding
behavior under two different environments, and their general behavior is described,
following the description of the fish and proper living conditions. A concluding section
puts forth the hypothesis. A proposal for defining correct conditions for keeping and
breeding Jordanella floridae is advanced.
APPEARANCE
The body is much shorter and more laterally compressed than most other
cyprinodonts. The unique spiny fin rays and unusual body qualify it for a separate genus.
The body of both sexes is similar, with the male size about 25-30% larger than the female
(3˜ vs. 2 ¼˜). The flattened sunfish-like shape, with dorsal and anal fins
displaced to the rear, gives it an unmistakable silhouette. It is easily the most colorful
of our native aquarium fishes, rivaling the dwarf gourami in overall attractiveness. The
origin, unique shape, and bright colors should qualify the Jordanella floridae as
the signature fish in the AKA logo, rather than some non-native that is rarely kept by
most modern killifish aquarists. The particular color pattern of the male is even more
reason we should proudly display this fish as our logo.
Male and female Jordanella floridae.
Original photo supplied to Aquarticles by Steve Coach, of San Diego.
In a well lit, heavily planted tank, the male takes on the appearance that
leads to the common name. "American-Flag Fish" requires the hyphen of a compound
adjective, for the male looks as if he dressed in the national pennant. [Almost all other
authors and editors seem to miss this simple grammatical point] With red stripes on the
sides, and an upper fore-quadrant of deep blue, the resemblance is uncanny. The iridescent
green-white spot on each scale makes the stars in the blue field, as well as the
"white" rows between the red stripes (if you don't mind a grass-stained look to
the white). The upper and lower edges of the scales are bright red, forming solid,
horizontal, brilliant red stripes. The transparent unpaired fins are a pale sky blue, but
dorsal and anal are so covered with red markings that red is the dominant hue.
Female Jordanella floridae, showing false
eyespots.
Photo by Steve Coach
The female sports a false eyespot in the center of her side, directly below the
start of her dorsal fin, and another in the rear base of her dorsal fin. Her basic color
is tan to gray, and only the central portion of two or three scale rows may carry the
iridescent green shine. She has a chameleon-like ability to shift colors and patterns in
all kinds of interesting ways. Sometimes a checkerboard, then vertically barred, her most
happy appearance is to echo the central eye spot several times back toward the caudal fin,
each spot with less contrast as the tail is approached. At the height of breeding passion,
she can become a buttery bright yellow, with almost no dark body markings.
The eyespot on the side of the male is still present, exactly at the right
angled corner of the blue star field. It is not so hard-edged and well defined as in the
female. While the male loses his dorsal spot as he matures, the female's jet-black dorsal
spot has a brilliant white "iris," making it more obvious than her normal eye.
It should confuse many predators.
The male flashes his bright red unpaired fins, to attract the female's
attention, and uses them in the actual mating as described below. The upward facing mouth
has somewhat wide fat "lips." His sharp teeth are capable of taking neat bites
out of sword plant leaves, if enough algae, riccia and duck-weed aren't present to satisfy
the craving for vegetable matter. Their face has an expression that some have described as
"froggy."
BEHAVIOR
Like many partially vegetarian fish, the routine behavior is
a slow and dignified search for algae, and a calm resting position among top weeds. In
shallower tanks, the resting position may be nearer the bases of plants. A mated pair will
spend most of their non-breeding time in close proximity, with lots of affectionate
brushing and touching. Rarely will they allow the other out of visual range. While seldom
molesting others, more aggressive species can cause the floridae to become timid
and to hide. Like many killies, the young do become frantic when frightened, but this
tends to go away with age. Small babies are often very hard to see. They instantly dive
for cover at any approach to the tank.
The most striking behavior is during mating, described in detail below. The
spawning behavior is radically different in different conditions, which has led to a lot
of confusion in the literature. 1,3-8,10
Hopefully, this report will start to clarify this point, and future efforts can proceed
with better direction. Most of the cited references contain some material factual errors,
and only the JAKA/Killie Notes references should be trusted. 2,9
In particular, the males are larger than the females, they are very
brightly colored, they don't "dash around" the tank, and they don't molest other
fish, despite the claims of some famous encyclopedists.
LIVING CONDITIONS
The literature is, again, somewhat divided on desirable
conditions. The J. so readily adapts to very different situations that most
stated conditions are probably correct. This author has obtained viable eggs from the same
pair, both in soft, too-warm, deep, acid water, and shallower, hard, cooler water. The
only requirement seems to be reasonable acclimation, and adequate mix of animal and
vegetable matter in the diet.
They first spawned in the top plants of a 55 gallon "Amazon" plant
tank. Since the temperature was 81º F. and the hardness was down around 2 dGH, with
pH about 6.2, the spawning was a complete surprise. These parameters were well outside the
range of almost every reference, yet the floridae happily deposited eggs on
hygrophila leaves, duck-weed roots, floating water sprite and anything else near the
surface. Introduction of a power head caused enough surface turbulence that they tried
spawning on lower plants and an algae-covered log. They went back to surface spawning when
the current was directed slightly downward, leaving some still corners at the surface.
They never attempted to spawn on the bottom.
Some days after completion of the spawning round, they were generally
peaceful. However, an Apistogramma macmasteri pair started defending a new brood,
and the female J. floridae simultaneously showed some tattered fins. Moving the
pair quickly to an old 10 gallon tank, they received only hastily drip-acclimation to the
74º F., hard-water tank. dGH was estimated at about 20, but was not measured, at the
time, and pH was well above 7 (above 7.4 without CO2 injection). The depth
of the 10 (8.5˜ from gravel to surface) was much less than the tall 55G show tank
(16˜). Some salt had been added earlier, but intervening partial water changes made
the residual concentration uncertain.
Heavy rear-corner planting in the 10G filled all the swimming space but a
central clearing by the front glass. This turned out to be an observational jackpot, for
the area chosen for next spawn was within range of a strong hand-held magnifying glass, in
the center of the clearing.
Even with the abrupt change in conditions, the male harassed the
female, and, within a day, spawning resumed. Fussy about conditions, they are not!
SPAWNING -- HIGH VS LOW
The initial spawning in the 55G tank was at odds with the
sunfish-like descriptions in many books. The tendency was to just say those authors were
busy quoting each other and had not bothered to observe that the Jordanella floridae was
a typical killifish that should spawn in mops near the surface. After all, everyone
"knows" killies don't guard their young.
In the shallower tank, the difference in behavior was almost unbelievable.
The mating dance changed completely, and the egg-laying looked almost as if it really was
in the gravel. The male fanned the eggs, and in all ways fit the cichlid-sunfish-like
pattern, described so often, before.
In the tall tank, earlier, eggs were rescued from the floating roots of duck
weed and placed in a small fishbowl to gestate and hatch. One egg even floated in the
meniscus at the top of the water. They weren't very sticky, and the one egg led to the
belief that the eggs were buoyant. Later, the author observed that bottom-laid eggs were
not buoyant. They pulled on attached fine strands of algae to hang down when undisturbed.
The difference in spawning was so great it leads to speculation that the salinity or fat
content of the eggs might be different for deep-water spawning and for shallow-water
bottom spawning, to minimize egg loss.
The original mating behavior, in the deep tank, started with a male dance to
attract the female. When she was receptive, she would swim up to him, and then lead him to
some, often distant, part of the tank she had chosen to deposit her eggs. Snuggling
together, head-to-head, she was always on top, with the male cupping her from below as
they semi-inverted to push her vent up against the plants chosen. His unpaired fins all
curled to clasp her in a cup as they lay on their sides, nearly parallel to the surface,
and vibrated along the plants. Repeated several times each evening, there were long rest
periods while they recovered. When resting, they tended to stay close and keep within easy
eye-contact range.
In the smaller tank, the male so severely chased and bit the female that
physical separation became necessary. He, not the Apisto, had been the fin shredder.
Despite the fighting, both tried to find a way through the installed barrier. By the next
morning, they were getting so frantic that it was removed. Spawning was resumed, right
away.
This time, the female clearly led the dance. It takes quite a bit of room,
and smaller tanks could be a problem here. She grabbed the exact center of the clearing,
and pointed herself directly away from the male. Flicking little puffs of water at him
with her tail, as he circled the clearing (always in a clockwise direction), he displayed
his fins to her. She rotated with him to keep him visible in both eyes, and her tail
pointed directly at him. Gradually, his circles tightened and/or she backed up until her
tail was actually stroking his side with each flick. When he became sufficiently aroused,
they moved to a side-by-side position and started a vibrating spawning pass over the
gravel. Cupping his anal fin near her vent, she deposited the eggs on plant strands in
rows as they slowly wriggled along.
Watching with a magnifying glass, it was possible to observe in detail. The
spawning "in the gravel" was no such thing. Every single egg was getting
deposited on a strand of hair algae, a root, or strand of Java moss. No eggs were seen
attached to, or free, in the gravel.
Driving the female away, the male groomed and fanned the egg site. He thrust
forward with his caudal fin and backward with his pectorals to create a strong current
over the eggs, while tilted, head down, at about 30º from the horizontal over the
"nest." Several spawnings were completed, over the next few days, before he
drove the battered female away for the last time. He diligently fanned and watched the
eggs, driving the female into hiding whenever he could see her, and threatening the author
whenever he approached the glass for a closer look.
Some eggs were lost to ramshorn snails (which the father ignored), but most
hatched successfully, after about a week. No infertile or fungused eggs were observed. A
portion of the spawned-on plants was removed, early in the process, to a small floating
container, but most were left with the parents to see what happened. When all the eggs
were hatched, the male still fanned and watched over them. The parents were finally
returned to the big tank as the babies started to scatter on the second day after hatching
started. The separated fry were returned from the floating container to the tank and the
babies were started on infusoria, to supplement the already-active fauna of the aged water
in the tank.
Yield of viable, free-swimming fry was very poor in the 10G tank. The earlier
eggs, collected in the deep tank, hatched in a much shallower container, with much better
results. Many killies do not develop proper swim-bladder function if trapped in too-deep
water, and it is easy to speculate that this is true here, too. The fry struggle very hard
to reach the surface as soon as they can swim. The few who do, seem to grow better and
swim better than the ones left belly-sliding on the bottom. The ability to stay at the
surface seems related to the first attempts to get there. Filling the swim bladder with
air, early, may be critical.
CONCLUSIONS
Combining the need for shallow water in the babies, and the
two radically different spawning behaviors leads to an interesting hypothesis. The
spawning of the Jordanella floridae is simply adjustable to the early needs of
the young.
In deep water, surface spawning on free-floating plants allows the eggs to be
blown ashore, where the hatching can occur in shallow water. In shallower water, the
protection of the parent is more safe, so the eggs are laid in a nest and protected. In
nature, 8.5-inch-deep water is rarely more than a few feet from shore, so shallow water
easily could be reached by belly-sliding fry. Unfortunately, the 10G tank did not provide
that protection, and most of those fry did not get to the free-swimming stage. While algae
growth was prolific in the old water of this tank, the hydra came out in droves to further
deplete the fry population. The fry do not swim well for the first couple of days, so were
easy prey. Only five or six, that probably started in the floating container, survived.
The next variation on a theme will be to collect eggs and test the growth of
fry hatched at several different depths, to see if an optimum can be defined. The results
may take a while, so they will have to be reported later.
It may be better to keep only males for quantity display in the community
aquarium, like dwarf gouramis. While mildly territorial, they do well together if given a
little room, and will even school in groups. Parboiled spinach, algae or veggie flakes
should supplement live foods and regular flake food, if the softer plants are to be
protected. After all, these are pupfish, with long intestines, and they like and need some
vegetable food. Their grazing will, however, tend to keep unsightly hair or beard algae
under control. They are less expensive and much more ornamental than almost all other
really effective algae eaters.
The breeding roughness and fierce male guarding of the young might suggest
that females should be kept only for breeding, and raised/maintained separately from the
males, once breeding age is reached. This author so enjoys their normal affectionate
behavior that it seems a shame to keep them apart. If kept with a male, in a small tank,
just provide plenty of hiding places for the female. Otherwise, the spawning-frenzied male
might cause severe injury to her fins.
This is an easy-to-breed species, and would be an excellent and entertaining
first breeding project for someone just starting out in killifish culture. Who knows, we
might eventually get enough out at our own shows to rival the large numbers usually
entered in the DKG show.
REFERENCES
1. Axelrod, H. R. & Schultz, L. P. 1955, "Handbook of Tropical Aquarium
Fishes," McGraw-Hill
2. Brill, John S., Jr., Jordanella floridae, Nov./Dec. 1978, JAKA Vol. I No. 6
3. Frey, H., 1970, "Illustrated Dictionary of Tropical Fishes," T.F.H.
Publications
4. Hoedeman, J.J., 1974, "Naturalist's Guide to Fresh Water Aquarium Fishes,"
Sterling Publ. Co.
5. Innes, W.T., 1966, "Exotic Aquarium Fishes," 19th Ed. Revised, Metaframe
Corp.
6. O'Connell, R.F., 1971, "The Freshwater Aquarium," The Great Outdoors Publ.
Co.
7. Petrovicky', I., 1989, Aquarium Fish of the World," Arch Cape Press
8. Rataj, K. & Zukal, R., 1972, "Aquarium Fishes and Plants," Spring Books
9. Tutaj, Duane, Aug. 1972, Jordanella floridae, An American Beauty Killie Notes
Vol. 5 No. 8
10. vanRamshorst, J. D., (Ed.) 1978, "Aquarium Encyclopedia," H.P. Books June
1995
Wright Huntley Santa Clara, CA
Copyright 1995 © 2001 SF Bay Area Killifish Assn.
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