| Meaning
of Name | Derives
from the markings just behind the gill plate, although this marking is observed
to extend onto the plate itself. This marking is supposed to display the Greek
letter for alpha which I cannot display as HTML will not recognise it. It looks
very similar to our letter 'a' though. |
| First
Description | |
| Size |
5 cm. |
| Meristics |
From Killidata - D = 12·33, A = 14, D/A = -1,
ll = 25·67 |
| Karyotype |
|
| Sub-Genus |
Chromaphyosemion |
| Group |
|
| Synonyms |
|
|
Populations
- Cap Estérias
- Owendo
(area of southern Libreville)
- Santa
Clara (GJS 00/34)
- Cap Santa
Clara (DNA 01)
- LEC 93 / 26
|
|

Santa
Clara GJS 00/34
male
Photo courtesy of Rudolf Polmann
|

Santa Clara GJS 00/34
Wild male
Photo courtesy of Rudolf Polmann
|

LEC 98 /26
male
Photo courtesy of Rudolf Polmann
|
|

LEC 98 /26
male
Photo courtesy of Rudolf Polmann
|

LEC 98 /26
female
Photo courtesy of Rudolf Polmann
|
|
-
http://home8.swipnet.se/%7Ew-86183/alpha.htm Alf &
Anitas site. - GJS 00 / 34 - Santa Clara
- Material
kindly sent by Mogens Juhl "In the shady part of the stream we found
A.striatum, E.singa
and more E.sexfasciatus
and a lot of other sp. and finally a female A.alpha.
We searched the stream quite a long way and suddenly came
to a part that was much wider and with a lot of plants in parts of the stream.
Although the plants were submerse they were not aquatic plants, just plants that
had been covered with water. Here we found lots of A.alpha.
Every time lifting the foot from the plants one could immediately
collect some A.alpha
in the footprint among the plants. After a short time walking around these plants
we had more than enough of this species. The most interesting about this population,
despite it seems to be a little more pretty than the earlier introduced populations
with much yellow to orange in the fins, it also seem to be a lot easier to reproduce.
The pH was very high, almost 7, which makes the demands for this population much
easier to fulfil. Breeding this population one can easily get quite even numbers
of males and females, which is much different with the other populations that
often only gives males, or females, but not both. Water temperature was 25°C,
pH 6·85 and conductivity 54 microseimens". - DNA
01 - Cap Santa Clara - Collected by
Nevin Aspinwall in July-August 2001.
|
| Type
Locality | 17·1
km north of the airport of Cap Estérias. |
| Distribution |
Fairly restricted to the Cap Estérias & Cap
Santa Clara areas. |
| Habitat |
|

GJS 00 / 34.
Photo courtesy of Mogens Juhl.
|

GJS 00 / 34.
Photo courtesy of Mogens Juhl.
|

GJS 00 / 34.
Photo courtesy of Mogens Juhl.
|
|
|

GJS 00 / 34.
Photo courtesy of Mogens Juhl.
|
|
It
is worth noting that the above biotope photos show water which is less brown &
contains a high degree of algae. Sympatric sp. include A.australe
& Ep.sexfasciatus. Huber (Killidata)
considers the habitat to be coastal fringes which contain either little salt content
or none at all. Also mentioned is their being found in primary forest but on rare
instances in savannah biotopes. Inhabits clear running (slow) water over a
sand base. Depth of water recorded at 30 cm. Water temperature recorded at 22-32°C |
| Distinguishing
Characteristics |
Photo courtesy of Mogens Juhl | A.alpha
males showing characteristic red chin colouration. These are GJS 00 / 34. |
|
| Colour/Pattern
Variability | |
| History |
First discovered by Mersseman in 1971. Collected
by Fourdrinier in 1988 16·3 km from Libreville airport but the direction
is not recorded in my reference material (Killidata). Collected in 1993 at
location LEC 93 / 26 by Legros et al., Gabon. Described by Huber in August
1998. Article references to the first description have been seen as 1999, but
this is an error & probably refers to a BKA translation of the original description.
First distributed in 1996 as Chromaphyosemion
sp. No.2. Collected by Wolfgang Eberl. Collected by Mogens Juhl et al. in
2000 from Santa Clara. |
| Breeding
Notes | Young
fish are reported (Killidata) to take 8 weeks to sex out & take 6 months to
reach maturity. |
| Diameter
of Egg | 1·3
mm |
| Remarks |
An extensive article with colour photographs appears
on the DKG site. This text is in German. http://www.exotics.net/dkg/steckbriefe/chromaphyosemion/alp/alpha.pdf |