Articles Index

Malpulutta kretseri
by Mike Hellweg

New to the Hobby Haplochromines
by Greg Steeves

Yasuhikotakia sidthimunki
by Stan Sung

Zoogoneticus tequila
by Andrew Hebert

The Blue Pin Tail Gourami
Malpulutta kretseri

By: Mike Hellweg

Hiding among the leaf litter on small Sri Lankan streams, and even among the leaves and plants growing in some family water collection and storage tanks on the island is a gorgeous, yet little known dwarf gourami – Malpulutta kretseri. I’ve been told local boys collect them and give them the name Blue Pin Tail.

Males are among the most stunning of freshwater fishes. They are a pale tan color, covered with metallic blue dots. They unpaired fins are bright metallic blue. The dorsal fin can extend well past the caudal base and the central rays of the caudal form a pin tail that is sometimes as long as the rest of the fish!

For many years, this fish has been rumored to be extinct, nearly extinct, endangered, or threatened depending on what source you were reading. Due to the ongoing civil war in Sri Lanka, actual data is hard to come by, even today. They disappeared from the hobby in the late 1980’s, leading hobbyists to fear the worst. But in the last two years, numbers of them have made their way to Europe and from there to the US.

The fish are remarkably undemanding for such a rumored “delicate” fish. In my experience, they are remarkably hardy and prolific. The biggest disappointment is that these gorgeous fish are extremely shy. This might lead to their being thought as more rare in the wild than they actually are. They hide all the time. Males prefer caves, and females seem to prefer hiding in plants. Most of the time, with or without small dither fish, you don’t see them. The tank looks empty. Sometimes a week or more can go by without ever seeing them, especially the females. Not even food can coax them out, though small worms can sometimes coax the male out into the open.

Oddly, young fish are just the opposite, gregarious to the point of not letting other non-kretseri in the tank even get something to eat. Upon reaching maturity, however, they take on the secretive ways of their parents.

As you can guess from their hidden nature, they are also a hidden nest spawner. My males have preferred to spawn in caves made of flower pot saucers. You’ll know something is up when the male doesn’t even come out for a nice, juicy worm, or if he does, it’s a quick dash and then back to the cave. It seems that almost magically one day you are presented with a group of 25 to 40 fry when they become free swimming. I remove the fry to another tank as I see them, though I’ve missed some and they’ve grown up in the tank with the adults, so they don’t seem to be fry predators. This is similar to their cousins, Pseudosphromenus cupanis and P. dayi, neither of which are fry predators to any great degree.

Over the last year or so, I’ve seen a couple of nests that were made by young males in caves up against the front glass. They are small, barely larger than a dime. Spawns are likewise small. I've had some spawns as large as 60, but some of the first were only a dozen or so.  
 
I feed adults and juveniles a variety of foods - live, frozen, and dry.  They love newly hatched brine shrimp, small Daphnia and Moina.  They also enjoy smaller worms like Grindals and young black worms.  The fry eat microworms, ‘Walter Worms’, Cyclopeeze and APR, along with grazing microfauna from the large number of plants in the tank. 
 
The tank setup is simple. I keep a single pair in a 10 gallon tank, filtered by a sponge filter. The tank is tightly covered, as with many other small Anabantoids, they are excellent jumpers. The tank is full of caves and plants, and the surface of the tank is completely covered with Water Sprite. I keep them at a pH of around 7.0 - 7.2 with a total hardness of 125 ppm, mostly from carbonates (about 70 ppm).  Temperatures are in the low to mid 70's.  They appear to stop spawning when it gets close to 80.   
 
They are kept alone.  My interest is in breeding and studying these fish, not in keeping a "community".  Most of the folks that have received fry from me have reported a similar shyness when the juveniles reach spawning age.  At least one person tried to keep adult fish with Pygmy Rasboras, thinking these would act as dithers and make the kretseri feel comfortable enough to spend time in the open.  His fish nearly starved to death.  Judging by their shyness, they probably won't do well with a lot of other fish. 
 
If you come across these rare gems, don’t hesitate to give them a try. Provide them with their own tank set up in a simple manner as outlined above, and they’ll provide you with more fry than you know what to do with!

Mike Hellweg