Peppermint Pikehead
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Breeding Pikeheads
When most hobbyists think of mouthbrooding fish, the group that comes to mind is the Lake Malawi haplochromine cichlids. The haplochromines are maternal outhbrooders, with the females carrying the eggs and fry. By contrast, mouthbrooding anabantoids, such as pikeheads, are paternal mouthbrooders. The males brood the eggs and fry.
Over the years, I have had a few males come into the country carrying a mouthful of fry, with numbers ranging from 15 to 35 or so. The fry I’ve seen have been approximately 1/2 inch in length. Unfortunately, I was not successful in raising them, possibly due to water chemistry and/or a lack of appropriately sized live foods.
Based on their size, I would expect them to take newly hatched brine shrimp and similarly sized foods, but at the time I received the brooding males, I was not culturing any live loods. Because they appear to be larger upon release than the fry of mouthbrooding bettas, rearing them should not be too difficult if one is prepared for their arrival.
The key question is whether the fry can be converted to prepared foods or if movement is required to trigger a feeding response. Hopefully, as more hobbyists maintain the pikeheads and breed them in aquaria, we’ll start to see F1 and future generations that feed on pellets and frozen foeds. If that happens, the popularity of these species should increase dramaucally
Natural History
The pikeheads have generally been considered to be fairly primitive anabantoid species most closely related to Ctenops nobilis, but new research has shown that they are more closely related to members of the genus Sphaerichthys than to Ctenops. They are presumably closely related to Parasphaerichthys as well, but this has not yet been proven due, in part, to the lack of fertilized eggs for study and the doubt that exists as to the reproductive strategy followed by P. ocellatus. It is presumed that this species is a mouthbrooder, but that has so far not been confirmed.
The four genera are related closely enough that they can be considered a monophyletic group, though the exact position of Parasphaertchthys within the group is still in doubt. Examination of the surface structure of fertilized eggs of L. pukher, C. nobilis, and S. osphromenoides and unfertilized eggs of P. ocellatus has shown that the four are vey closely related.
Interestingly, the surface structures of their eggs are different from any other fish whose eggs have been studied to date in having almost equidistant ridges that run in a counterclockwise spiral (Britz et al., 1995).
Giant Pikehead
L. pulcher, the type species of the genus, was described by Gray in 1830. L. pulcher goes by a number of common names, including the Malayan pikehead, the giant pikehead, and sometimes the crocodile fish, but it is most frequently referred to simply as the pikehead.
It is the more common of the two species in the aquarium hobby and is shipped from Singapore on a somewhat regular basis. Your local independent aquarium shop may not stock this species, but they should be able to find it for you. If they can’t, a larger regional shop can get it or you can purchase it online.
L. pulcher inhabits peat swamps, slowflowing waterways, and flooded forests in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Thailand, and Singapore. The color pattern features a light-brown body marked by a broad, brown, horizontal mid-body stripe that runs from the snout to the base of the tail. A narrow light-brown to greenish stripe is inside the broad stripe and runs from the head to the rear edge of the anal fin with some variability in length. The back is somewhat olive in color with a number of dark spots. There are several dark spots on the body above the anal fin that can appear to be a wavy line. The caudal fin is yellowish with several broad, vertical, darkbrown to black stripes. L. pulcher grows to 8 inches in length.
Peppermint Pikehead
The second species, L. aura, was described by Tan and Ng in 2005. It has been known for some time and has been available in the trade occasionally for a number of years. It is definitely less readily available, and the aquarist who desires this species may have to do a bit more searching to find it, but it has been offered by Singapore exporters more frequently of late.
L. aura is commonly known as the peppermint pikehead. I am completely at a loss as to the origin of the common name. The first time I saw the name on a list, I assumed there would be some red on the fish or maybe some red and white. I was surprised when I actually got them in. There is extensive peppering of iridescent spots inside the mid-body bar of this species, and the common name may have come from that. Regardless of the origin of the common name, this is a very strikingly patterned species and is the more colorful of the two.
The iridescent spotting is a dead giveaway to the identity of this species. It is also the smaller species, reaching a maximum length of 6 inches, with 5 inches being more typical. L. aura’s natural range is restricted to the Batang Hari River Basin. The Batang Hari is the longest river on the island of Sumatra, running from the Minangkabau highlands east to the sea. The city of Jambi is located near its mouth.
The next time you’re looking for a challenging fish to breed or need a fish to eat your culls, try a group of pikeheads. Their feeding and interactive behavior will reward the hours you’ll spend observing them. To find out more, you can check out Peppermint Pikehead.
