Aphanius similis

Wild caught male A. similis from Ereğli

Aphanius similis belongs to the A, mento species complex. It was originally described from Ereğli in Central Anatolia and is also found in the lower Seyhan, where it is quite abundant. The original three pairs of A. similis came from Ereğli where the species only exist in a very tiny spring flowing into a terrible polluted lake. In the spring, millions of Gambusia occur and few Aphanius. Since many years, there is a broodstock of this population in Europe. This species is the last surviver of the interesting fish fauna of the Ereğli marshes. Still in the 1990th, there were nice populations of many fish species in the marshes. These marshes have since dried out and all fishes are lost. We found a population of A. mento still in 2009, but this population might have vanished since. There is also a second population from the area of Ereğli, from Zengen, in the hobby. At FSJF, it breeds very well and juveniles have been given to several enthusiasts. I usually placed about five pairs in a 70x70 cm tank and since 2015, as all Aphanius, they inhabit a 600 Liter tank, where 15 pairs are based. They prey little on their young and number of fishes in the tank continiously rise during summer.