BAD BATCH: THE ‘FRANSENLIPPERS’
Feted for their hostility, loved by newcomers and the downfall of many a community. Is there any way to save the reputation of the freshwater sharks?
EPALZEORHYNCHOS SHARKMINNOWS and Gyrinocheilus Chinese algae eaters — many fishkeepers will at some point have kept at least one species of these beautiful but feisty fish, whether accidentally or intentionally. They are some of the most commonly encountered fish in the trade, sold by the millions worldwide and are extremely popular despite a supposed brutal nature. But is such a reputation deserved?
Being a staple of the aquarium trade, demand is high — especially for the ‘sharks’ of Epalzeorhynchos
— and to cater for this most are extensively bred using hormone techniques in the fisheries of the Far East. Sadly, for some they are now classed as extinct in the wild although this has more to do with habitat loss and ecological damage than overfishing.
Many modern books regard both of these genera of fish as highly aggressive toward their own species, similar looking fish and indeed any other aquarium inhabitants.
Hobbyists frequently report the same, finding that the relatively calm and attractive juveniles they started with soon grow into bullies or even outright killers. Usually bought by naïve aquarists to help with algae control or for cleaning the bottom of the tank — the fish will actually do neither of these — they are then returned to the shop at a heftier size, or moved along to other unwary fishkeepers once they become too problematic. Which never takes long.
Sharkminnows are instantly recognisable and live up to their namesakes, having a powerful streamlined body with a large triangular dorsal. It is this ‘sharkiness’ that makes them such popular sellers to this day. The mouths are underslung and sub-terminal with a pair of rigid lobes on the nose, and two small maxillary barbels at the sides. A hard bottom lip and a fringed top lip helps to scrape aufwuchs, detritus and small crustacea off the plants, substrate and rock-scape of their environment. In Germany they are known as ‘Fransenlippers’, which translates to ‘fringe-lipped’; an apt nickname and one I feel fits the fish better than sharkminnows.
The behaviour for all the species described here is quite similar and they are nearly always active, day and night, especially if kept correctly.
The isolation issue
In a lot of the older literature regarding sharkminnows their feistiness is noted but the ‘requirement’ for solitary keeping
— a requirement that seems to have appeared later on — isn’t really discussed. In fact, great success was had then with keeping small groups. What led to the change in opinion I do not know. Possibly, like many examples of this nature, one author or aquarium expert may have come up with the idea that the fish should be kept singly and other authors took the idea on in their own writings and references. Remember, this harkens back to a time well before the advent of the internet, so aquatic books, journals, letters and magazines were the primary source of information for a lot of fishkeepers across the globe; ideas could easily become dominant the more and more they were shared.
It is true that they can be bullies if kept in confined quarters and reduced numbers, and making this very error seems to be the norm for new aquarists especially, something that only further compounds their reputation as hardcore isolationists.
How is it done?
So how should we be keeping them? The answer is simple. Keep them in groups — large groups in large tanks. Six or seven as a minimum, but better still think double figure numbers and upwards. We should perhaps take a leaf out of the books of the loach fanatics and Rift Valley cichlid keepers. They keep very large