Something New 2 - Ilyodon furcidens
By Michael McKinney
from The Underwater News, Pioneer Valley Aquarium Society, January 2004
Aquarticles
This is a follow up article to the 'Something New
- Xenoteca eisseni' that I had written and was included in a previous edition
of the Underwater News. This is further documentation of my recent divergence from the
world of Cichlids. So far this interest in something new as taken me only to the group of
fish called goodeids. I am currently keeping three species of goodeids: Xenoteca
eisseni, Ilyodon furcidens, and Ataeniobous toweri. I have successfully
spawned the Xenoteca eisseni and now the Ilyodon furcidens (to which
this article describes).
Ilyodon furcidens is a goodeid (and as such, a livebearer) that originates
from Mexico and Central America. In my mind, the easiest way to describe the appearance of
the fish is to say it is a 2 - 3 inch version of the small mouth bass. I acquired my group
of Ilyodon furcidens at a monthly PVAS meeting. Rit Forcier was the speaker for
that monthly meeting and he was giving his Livebearer presentation. Rit brought in a few
bags of livebearers for the club's auction and this included two bags of Ilyodon
furcidens. One bag was an adult pair and one bag was a group of five juveniles. I was
lucky enough to take home both bags of fish. The adults had a length of about 2" and
the juveniles had a length of about 1.5". I placed all seven fish into a 20-gallon
long aquarium, which only contained a large patch of Java Moss and two sponge filters. No
substrate, rocks, caves, etc.
I was a little nervous in that I had no idea what to expect. I had no experience with
or knowledge of Ilyodon furcidens, other than what Rit was nice enough to share
with me after the meeting auction. But the nervousness subsided quickly as this group of
fish gave me no reasons for concern. The fish settled in pretty quickly. There was what I
would call a normal level of aggression, with no one fish taking more than their share or
showing any visible signs of damage. They quickly and eagerly took all the foods that I
offered them which included frozen brine shrimp, frozen bloodworms, freeze dried krill,
cichlid flakes, and spirulina flakes. They never seem to slow down, and the constant
activity (similar to my Xenoteca eisseni tank) makes this one of favorite tanks
to watch.
Another reason I like the goodeids I have so far is that I did not have to alter my
current maintenance schedule or water chemistry. My three species of goodeids are thriving
under the same environment that my cichlids are. I maintain the pH at 8.0, the temperature
between 74 - 80 degrees, and perform 30% water changes every 5 to 6 days. I have had the
fish now for about 3 to 4 months. In the last couple weeks it was very easy to tell that
the adult female and one of the 5 juveniles had become swollen with young. They both
dropped the young in the last couple days and I now have what looks like about two dozen
young, although it is nearly impossible to get an accurate count of the young, as they are
all staying deep in the patch of Java Moss. I can't believe how big the young are. They
were dropped only two days ago and are just under ½" in length. They have very
eagerly accepted both live baby brine shrimp and live white worms. Although at this time
they will not venture out of the Java Moss to get the food so I have to make sure to get
the brine shrimp and white worms down into the Java Moss. Not a big deal with use of an
eyedropper or turkey baster.
All and all, this is a very neat and interesting species of fish that I would recommend
to all of you. Hopefully I will be able to describe my spawning experiences with Ataeniobous
toweri soon in Something New 3……
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