DER MAKROPODE 2_09.pdf · Dario dario (Foto: G. Ott) Sphaerichthys vaillanti (Foto: F. Schäfer)...

Der Makropode – Volume 31 – 2 / 2009 37

DER MAKROPODE31. Jahrgang – April 2009

Zeitschrift der IGL

Internationale Gemeinschaft für Labyrinthfische

ISSN 0937-177X

2/09– 30 years IGL – Jubilee edition – 30 years IGL –

38 Der Makropode – Volume 31 – 2 / 2009

Achtung Preise auf letzte Seite!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Channa melasoma-pair (Foto: C. Kanele)

Nandus nandus – female (Photo: A. Kandler)

Sandelia capensis-pair, on the left the male, on the right the female. The genders can easily be observed by the differences in head shapes.(Photo: H. Hensel/J. Schmidt, Weißwasser)



Cover picture: Betta imbellis, Pontian, West-Malaysia (Foto: M. Hallmann) Macropodus opercularis – der Paradiesfisch (Foto: T. Seehaus) Dario dario (Foto: G. Ott) Sphaerichthys vaillanti (Foto: F. Schäfer)

Auke de Jong (NL) Editorial

Thomas Seehaus (D) Macropodus in garden ponds

M. Hallmann & M. Scharfenberg Species differentiation of the stocky, bubble nest building fighting fish (Betta splendens-Group)

Karl-Heinz Roßmann Simple identification key for stocky, bubble nest building Betta – wild forms (only males in magnificent coloration to be determined), without breeding forms and hybrids.

Karl-Heinz Roßmann (D) Gouramis of the genus Trichogaster – the new problematic fishes?

Peter Finke (D) Licorice gourami in tanks: Basic facts and recommendations

Anke Binzenhöfer (D) Sphaerichthys vaillanti – the red chocolate gourami

Jürgen Schmidt Observations regarding sexual characteristics of dwarf ctenopoma, bush fish and cape kurper

Christian Kanele (CH) Channa melasoma – breeding, exotics and the IGL

Karl-Heinz Roßmann (D) They are called Badis badis – the “blue“fish of the genus of Badis and Dario

Rudolf Rucks (D) Nandus nandus (Hamilton, 1822)

Hugues Van Besien (F) Polypterus senegalus Cuvier, 1829 – the bichir from Senegal

Bruno Urbanski (D) The literature team

Ingo Schindler (D) The taxonomic research of the labyrinth fishes from 1758–2008

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EditorialDear members of the IGL,

After the publication of our jour-nal 3/4 as special edition in 1994, we now have a second anni-versary issue of our magazine “Der Makropode” available. The reason for the first issue was the 15th anniversary of the IGL and it was the first issue of “Der Makropode” with a colour cover. Today, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the IGL, we can proudly present the second spe-cial edition. This issue is double the size of a normal one and con-tains only colour photos. Espe-cially for this issue, the many different articles were written by the members of the IGL. So they reflect the whole diversity of the thematic work within the IGL. The fact alone that so many members agreed to write an arti-cle for this special edition shows us the potential inside the IGL. In my opinion, this is used far too little and it will be a challenge for the future steering committee to use these potentials slumbering within the IGL in an even better way. However we should always bear in mind that it is a voluntary work and that it remains as such as Peter Finke wrote.

One should really assume that a community dealing with laby-rinth fishes represents a strongly specialized organization so that further specializations hardly seem to be possible. But that’s not the way it is. The teams working within the IGL concen-trate on particular species which require special methods of keep-ing and breeding. Let’s think of the keepers and breeders of

the several species of Channa. Nobody would come up with the idea of co-housing snakeheads and licorice gouramis, to quote only one example. So there are 12 different teams working within the IGL and of all these teams you can read articles in this issue. At this point I would like to thank all authors making it possible to publicize such a special edition.That’s the way voluntary work is fun. The last two and a half years of my term as chairman showed me anyhow that voluntary work can cause a lot of pleasure as a matter of fact. Particularly when you are successful you wish this would be our profession.

The IGL has changed during the last years and it could prove that it is really a modern working international association. The non profit making and cosmopolitan nature shape our image more and more. At the moment the inter-nationality is especially reflected by the two teams Parosph-romenus and Channa. As already announced the Channa team and the Snakeheads UK (Great Britain) are organizing a Channa meeting in Meppel, Netherlands. Participants from England, Scot-land, Belgium, France, the Neth-

erlands, Switzerland, Sweden and Germany will attend this meeting. The English language as the lingua franca of our team enables the exchange of experi-ences and a Study Group Chan-nidae was found which enjoys great popularity. Interested par-ties of one of the most important channa habitat in India applied for their participation.A program is the basis for the work of all teams: “What is the purpose of maintaining our tank stocks?” How can we contribute to the protection of the environ-ment and what can we do to protect the natural habitats of our fishes are going to be exter-minated at an incredible speed? And how can we multiply the species in order to sustain stable populations in the long run? Should we possibly even try to simulate a kind of natural (artifi-cial selection? 200 years after the birth of Charles Darwinthese are the questions which we should concentrate on.

Finally here is important infor-mation in the matter of planning the conference in spring 2010. In the last issue of our journal “Der Makropode” 4/08 you could read that the conference should take place from May 23rd – 25th, 2010. This date is not correct!!! The cor-rect date is April 23rd – 25th, 2010! However Altena as the place of the conference is right.

I wish you a lot of fun when you read this journal!

Yours chairman,

Auke de Jong



Macropodus in garden pondsBy Thomas Seehaus

Macropodus ocellatus - male (Photo: H.-J. Richter)

Team Macropodus

More that 130 years ago the par-adise fishes (Macropodus oper-cularis Linnaeus, 1758) were imported from Ningbo in China to Europe for the first time. On the one hand they were very robust but on the other hand also nicely coloured and furthermore they showed an interesting behaviour. Therefore it is no wonder that they became the pioneers of the warm-water-aquarists in Europe. The fact that these fishes are so robust is – without any doubt – due to the enormous distribution area. From the south of Vietnam to the river Amur in the north of China they inhabit an area cover-ing tropical, subtropical as well as temperate climatic zones. The fishes have to cope with hard winters and frosted waters in their northern distribution area. Therefore the different kinds of macropodus are excellently suited for the outdoors, whether in the garden pond of in a tank on the balcony or in an outdoor tank. Before going into the out-door keeping more precisely I would like to shortly present the distribution area of the currently known species and variants.

The round tail paradise fish – Macropodus ocellatus Cantor, 1842 Paradise fishes inhabit the most northern parts of the distribution area of all macropodus. You also find them from the subtropical

south of China to the river Amur in the moderately cool north of China as well as in Korea and on some Japanese islands. The requirements on the keeping of tanks are very different when fishes live in such varying cli-matic zones. Whilst paradise fishes from the south of China are only rarely confronted with temperatures below 10 degrees C, the most northern stocks have to get by with severe frost up to minus 20 degrees of air tempera-ture. They can only survive these temperatures in waters being deep enough so that a frost-free water zone can be formed. In summer there are only rarely temperatures of more than 20 degrees in the north whereas 30

degrees and more can be reached in the south.Fishes from Korea can perma-nently be kept outdoors without any problem as long as the water does not freeze completely. Fishes from regions further to the south are more sensitive and have to over winter in cold (~ 10 degrees) but frost-free waters. Unfortu-nately we usually don’t know where the fishes which occasion-ally turn up on the market come from. The exporters fro the Far East only rarely quote the exact places where the fishes were found, and if so it is a matter of luck if the retailer really knows the actual locations. Therefore you should carefully deal with fishes of uncertain origin and you



should not over winter them out-doors.Fishes imported from Hangzhou (China) in the 80s could repeat-edly over winter under ice. The stock from the middle Yangtze area shows comparable climatic needs. Since several years para-dise fishes from Korea have con-tinuously been kept in garden ponds where they willingly mul-tiply, too.Paradise fishes are very peace-ful labyrinth fishes showing only little aggression against each other. However they are often very shy so that you cannot see much of them when there are too few floating leaves which protect them from being seen from above. Floating leaves also prevent that

Spawning couple, typically the light female (Photo: A. Hartl)

M. opercularis (Photo: Dr. J. Schmidt)

the water is too strongly heated by direct solar radiation.In the 90 litres mortar tubs which I use, you can absolutely keep two males together with two to four females. As soon as the water temperatures reach 15 degrees the males start to to put on their magnificent summer dress. But between themselves they remain peaceful. Females ready for spawning begin to change color, too. However they show a bright creamy spawning colour. The males become very territo-rial after spawning, because they now have to protect the bubble nest with their eggs or larvae. Often the nest only consists of one cluster of spawn which, if necessary, can be moved by the

male in case of danger. The fishes also cope with the attendance of snails. Nevertheless the keeper should take care that they do not spread out of control in case he wants to breed the fishes suc-cessfully. Once the larvae swim free there isn’t any danger by the adult fishes. However the larvae of damselflies can take a consid-erable toll from the swarm of the young fishes. Normally there are however enough larvae which grow up during the summer in order to save the stock especially since the grown-up macropodus greedily polish off smaller insect larvae.

The paradise fish – Macropodus opercularis (Linnaeus, 1758) Considerably further south is the distribution area of the paradise fish. The most north borderline is approximately in the latitude of the city of Nan king (Nanjing) at the Jangtsekiang (Chiang Jiang). There the average temperatures vary between 0 degree in Decem-ber/January and 27 degrees in July which is comparable to regions in Germany with moder-ate climate. The most southern distribution area that is known is situated in the highlands of Dalat in South Vietnam where there is a moderate climate, too. As para-dise fishes are very adaptable it might be possible that wild pop-ulations exist still further in the south. If these South Vietnam-ese populations are quite natu-rally there or if they are wild or exposed tank fishes, is only very difficultly or even not to be proved nowadays. Today you even find paradise fishes at places where it is for sure that they do not live there naturally, for example in Florida or in Madagascar.As already mentioned in the intro-duction, the first paradise fishes were imported to Europe from the city of Ningbo near Shang-hai. Nan king in its turn is only 100km away from Ningbo. There-fore the paradise fishes from Nan



Macropodus hongkongensis (Photo: Dr. J. Schmidt)

king should correspond to a large extent to the first macropodus kept in tanks. It was probably a fortunate coincidence that these fishes were imported even from there and therefore they could very well cope with the condi-tions in the first European tanks. Fishes from the Nan king stock are excellently suitable for being kept in ponds. In regions with relatively milder winter seasons it is even possible to over winter under ice, as long as the period of frost spans only a few days or weeks. I over wintered these fishes together with round tail paradise fishes at water temper-atures below 10 degrees. They can stay outdoors from March until late autumn.Macropodus from North Vietnam can be kept in the garden until autumn, too, because the climate there absolutely knows cool tem-peratures which however rarely fall below 15 degrees.The middle and South Vietnam-ese stocks are clearly more ther-mophillic. You should not expect them to tolerate cold snaps with air temperatures below 15 degrees. I keep these stocks in mortar tubs on the balcony only from May to the end of Septem-ber where you can easily observe the mating. It is interesting to see that the females of all wild forms of paradise fishes which I know, show a similar change of colour as the females of the round tail macropodus.The last mentioned stocks are not suitable for the garden pond; because they need to be fished out in autumn and so you always have to expect losses. However for keeping in tubs which can easily be surveyed or outdoor tanks they are absolutely to be recommended.

The Hong Kong paradise fish –Macropodus hongkongensis Herder & FreyHoF, 2002

A few years ago the Hong Kong paradise fish was found in a

spawned at the same time. How-ever among each other they can get very spiteful. Sometimes we have losses, especially with half-grown fishes when they begin to fight out their hierarchy. Then the keeper must carefully observe the fishes and separate them, if necessary. But as soon as the couples find each other there are almost no losses anymore.During spawning, there may be some fights between the partners from time to time. Really serious injuries can be avoided by put-ting two couples into directly neighbouring tanks at the same time soo they can concentrate their aggression or better their willingness to protect their nest and the larvae against each other fish, upon their neighbours without hurting each other. With regard to the possible keeping outdoors, the same rules should apply as for the paradise fishes from North Vietnam.

Macropodus sp. “rotrucken” – Macropodus spechti var. eryth-ropterus, Herder & FreyHoF, 2002

Herder & Freyhof described the Macropodus sp. „rotrucken“ as a second new species of the genus of macropodus, certainly one of the most attractive kinds of these fishes. The natural distri-bution area is near to the city of

quite small area in the environs of Hong Kong. In the meantime the species has also been detected at other places in Guangdong (Canton) in south China. This species of macropodus was con-sidered as a variant of the black macropodus at first. But in the meantime it has turned out that the fishes are much closer to the paradise fish. Since further imports of this species to Europe are not to be expected, we should intensively try to preserve it by breeding. If this species will per-manently survive in our tanks we will see. It is said to be very aggressive and less attractive. The latter I don’t want to leave as it is. Even though they do not show loud colours, they are attractively coloured in a tank. In a harshly lighted basin at the retailer’s they certainly do not show to advantage and should most likely become non-sellers. Another problem is the extreme sensibility against bacterial fin rot. Several breeders reported about heavy losses caused by this disease.They are supposed to be very aggressive, but this is relative. Against other fishes they are even very friendly. Over a longer period I had co-housed two cou-ples of Hong Kong paradise fishes and two couples of Macropodus sp. ”rotrucken” without any problems even if all four couples



to purchase relatively young fishes which grow up together. Then grown-up macropodus will be less aggressive, because they know one another. The epony-mous red colour on the back is very much intensified when you feed the fishes with frozen krill. A cold hibernation also seems to intensify the blaze of colours.

The black Macropodus – Macro podus spechti sCHreitmüLLer, 1936

This species has already been known for a long time. For ages it has been assumed that the black macropodus come from the environs of the old imperial town Hue in Vietnam. However since it is possible to visit Vietnam again, wild macropodus have been imported, too, which clearly differ from the tank stock known by now. These fishes are abso-lutely not colourless as the name lets us assume. The body shows a more or less strong blue glim-mer when lit it up at the sides. The back is dark reddish brown. All in all, this form from the envi-rons of Hue appears as a darker copy of the Macropodus sp. “rotrucken”. It is interesting to see that the wild form from Hue has primarily got a tail as a fork with elongated outward fin rays whereas the rays of the fishes living in tanks are also elongated but situated more in the middle of the back.

Further in the south, but still northern of the Sea Cloud Pass in central Vietnam, you find another kind of the black Macropodus. Normally these fishes cannot be differentiated from the one from Hue. However they show a very interesting change of colour when mating. Both sexes get black and light grey vertical binders so that they almost look like black and white paradise fishes! That was the reason why they have been called “Black Tiger” for a long time. Jens Kühne and Dietrich

Macropodus spechti var. erytroptherus (Photo: T. Seehaus)

M. opercularis „albino “isn’t as robust as wild ones. (Photo: Dr. J. Schmidt)

Dong Hoi in North Vietnam. This species make similar demands on being kept outdoors like the other North Vietnamese paradise fishes.

The Macropodus sp. „rotrucken“ is supposed to be very aggres-sive, too, what I cannot confirm without restriction. The behav-iour of these fishes is strongly dependent on the conditions in the tank. Permanently high tem-peratures often cause aggressive

behaviour. A cool phase below 15 degrees during the winter months does the fishes good and prevents conflicts reliably. In spring, when the temperatures rise again, the fishes get in the mood fpr mating and the quar-rels increase. Now it is time to separate them, if necessary, in order to avoid severe injuries. When the tank is well structured and offers enough possibilities to hide, it is possible to keep two pairs in an 80 cm tank. It’s ideal



Schaller were able to identify more precisely the place where the “Black Tiger” was found. It is in a valley in the north of the Sea Cloud Pass near the village Noi Tron. Even though it has been doubted for a long time, it could be proved that the black macrop-odus was also found in the areas in the south of the Sea Cloud Pass from where they were then brought to Europe (Jörg Töpfer, Jens Kühne). Offspring of two location variants has been dis-tributed to members of the IGL in the meantime, Lam Co (Sea Cloud Pass) and Nam O (in the south of the Sea Cloud Pass). It is exciting to realize that the males of these two variants have got the same fin forms as the old tank stocks! These points very much to the theory of Schaller that the first imports to Europe came from the environs of Da Nang and not from the environs of Hue area.The black macropodus are quite thermophillic and should not be kept below 15 degrees for a longer time.

Keeping outdoors

Aquarists especially like garden ponds and tubs or tanks on the balcony, as they offer the pos-sibility to arrange the garden or the balcony in an attractive manner and to set special effects. Since we, the aquarists, tend to populate each vessel which can be filled with aquatic life-forms, it is not astonishing that these waters are often populated by tank fishes resistant to cold.We have to distinguish between all-year and seasonal outdoor keeping only during the summer months. As aforementioned, the stocks from the most northerly distribution area in the north and the middle of China also cope with longer frozen waters. The decisive factor for the success of a planned outdoor hibernation is on the one hand the length of the frost period and on the other hand the depth of the water.

Macropodus spechti from the botanical garden in Halle. (Photo: Dr. J. Schmidt)

Garden ponds which reach at least at one point the depth of approx. one metre do normally not freeze up during German win-ters. The water is deep enough so that a zone with a tempera-ture of 4 degrees can develop at the deepest point in the water. The fishes are capable of hiber-nating in this zone without any problem. Normally macropodus meet their need of oxygen by breathing atmospheric air like the most of the other labyrinth

fishes. In fact this is impossible in a frozen pond, but usually that is not a problem at all, because the metabolism of the fishes at 4 degrees is in such a way reduced that the gill breathing is sufficient. If you over winter macropodus in the cellar at temperatures well below 10 degrees you observe that the fishes only rarely take a breath at the surface. In case that the pond is not very large you should remove the leaves and the rotten plants before the frost

M. spechti from Hue. (Photo: T. Seehaus)



bigger wooden boxes filled with sand are very nice too. They can be covered by plants, too. The plants covering the tubs serve as decoration as well as practical purposes. On the one hand they reduce the danger that the fishes jump out and on the other hand they attract a lot of vermin, some of which will fall into the water and serve as a welcome delicacy for the macropodus.

As substrate one can fill in some gravel into the tubs. Small water lilies and water marginals are suitable for being planted. Rigid hornwort, pondweed or other aquatic plants fill out the body of the water and give the fishes the possibility of shelter. Water cab-bages, water hyacinths, water chestnuts and floating water mosses are more adequate plants for the tubs of course for a tank which is placed in the shadow on the balcony.

When the plants are grown, the summer visitors can be put in. Macropodus continuously spawn in tubs, too. Since the young fishes do not find so many oppor-tunities to retreat as in a pond one has to be more attentive. In general macropodus do not hunt their own young. It is more or less the elder young that deci-mate their younger brothers and sisters.

The big advantage of tubs over garden ponds is that they can easily be fished out in autumn. The pure water plants can over winter in tubs. As tubs mostly stand free, they totally freeze up during longer and stronger frost periods. This would be fatal for the fishes. However it also hap-pened to me two times that I overlooked a female of the Korean round tail macropodus. Once there was a long period of per-mafrost even at the Bergstraße. It lasted several weeks so that I really thought that the tubs con-tained massive ice. But the fishes survived and started with much

more spawn than the females which hibernated in the cellar. So it did not even hurt them. Most other macropodus should not survive such handling, but the fishes from Korea must also get through hard winters in their country. In case that fishes shall hibernate outdoors, one can try to keep a part of the tank free of ice by means of a small heating rod.

But please notice the following!As nice and interesting Macropo-dus are they are not part of our local fauna and don’t belong into water outside of our con-trol. Please take care that your Macropodus do not get from your garden pond into natural waters. It is not very probable that they can settle here in the long run, but it is not to be excluded, too. Our remaining nature has enough to fight against adulterations of fauna.

Literature

FreyHoF J. & Herder F. 2002. Review of the paradise fishes of the genus Macropodus in Viet-nam, with description of two new species from Vietnam and southern China (Perciformes: Osphronemidae). Ichthyol. Explor. Freshwaters, vol. 13(2): 147-167. PaePke H.-J. 1994. Die Paradies-fische. Die neue Brehm-Bücherei Bd. 616, Magdeburg. CHan B.P.L. & töPFer J. 2000. Bemerkungen zu einem neuen Fundort des Schwarzen Makro-poden, Macropodus conco-lor Ahl, 1937. Der Makropode, 22(9/10):115-117. seeHaus t. & sCHmidt J., 2002. Ihr Hobby Makropoden – Paradiesfi-sche. Ruhmannsfelden. seeHaus, t. 2005. Makropoden Fische nicht nur für das Aqua-rium. Aquaristik, 12(6): 60-65.seeHaus, t. 2006. Makropoden Teil 2: Die Haltung im Freiland. Aquaristik, 13(1): 54-58.

period starts in order to reduce oxygen consuming processes. If the mentioned needs are fulfilled you can keep the Korean round tail macropodus outdoors all year round for example. As far as they do not have any competitors with regard to other fish species, e. g. sticklebacks, they will continu-ously reproduce themselves. If one can forego the feeding is to be decided individually. In case that the pond is large enough and the stocking rate is not that high, the macropodus will find sufficient food. Of course the pond should be well planted, ideally with water lily and other water plants with floating leaves. It should also be equipped with a marsh zone with a low water level which can be planted with fontinalis and other closely grow-ing marsh plants. Now you have the ideal whereabouts for young fishes. Many infusorians and crustaceans grow in fontinalis which serve as food for them.

Scavengers with a minimum length of approx. 3 cm are good companions over a longer period. I co-housed macropodus and cloud mountain minnows (Tanichthys albonubes and T. micagemmae) without any noticeable losses among the barbs.

Additionally to the ponds, tubs are a good solution as a summer domicile for other less tempera-ture sensitive tank fishes being. Mortar tubs are available in dif-ferent sizes and for less money in the building centres. They should be placed where they are not exposed to the solar radia-tion the whole day. If necessary, they can be enclosed by plant tubs, providing shadow during the hottest hours in the summer as well as avoid that the water will be overheated. Moreover the less attractive tubs can be hidden a little by plants. Clever do-it-yourself men can coat them with various materials like reed matting or planks. Little plas-tic ponds which are placed into



Team Betta

Species determination in the group of the stocky, bubble nest building fighting fish (group of Betta splendens) By Martin Hallmann & Michael Scharfenberg

We would like to ignore all human cultivated forms and populations originating from those, even though it is almost impossible in practice. We cannot always notice, if a human hand is involved or not. In obvi-ous cases one should not judge the appearance because this would only lead to further fal-sification and confusion when comparing them with wild ones. Thus, highly glittering, rudimen-tary veil tailed and pit-bull like fighting fishes are pets and crea-tures created by human hand even though, they were caught in the field. In the course of time you have an eye for it. The natural distribution area plays only partly a role regarding this

species complex, since it has mostly been adulterated. While Betta imbellis is a type spread to the tropics (southern race), B. smaragdina/B. striktos is a northern race from the subtropi-cal areas with strongly varying daytime and seasonal climate fluctuations. Betta “splendens” is not to be defined anymore due to cross breeding with B. imbel-lis and B. smaragdina as well as due to selective breeding. The influence of pets looking like splendens, on the wild forms by transport and by exposure is obvious. We are only able to guess the look of the wild form of Betta splendens. In fact this as species description is con-fused by types developed from a

mixture of Betta imbellis, selec-tive breeding and wild forms, no clean definition has been done by now.

At first confusion! Betta imbellis and Betta splen-dens hybridise,and there are

from the leftBetta imbellis, Khao Lak, Thailand

© Martin HallmannBetta imbellis Koh Samui, Thai-

land © Michael ScharfenbergBetta „splendensimbellis“, Taling

Ngam, Koh Samui, Thailand © Martin Hallmann



transitional populations which are stable with regard to their genetic constitution. In the meantime we have obtained a number of location variants of Betta imbellis in the course

of the years and we have also caught many of them ourselves. There is no other wild form with a comparable variation ( apart from the reintroduced B. splen-dens). There were 5 or 6 distin-guishable forms of B. imbellis from Ko Samui within the IGL. Both authors caught at least three clearly different forms on Phuket Island partly in the same habitat.

Differently varying types attracted our attention in Kha-olak, Ko Samui and Phuket. We would like to call them an interim form from Betta imbel-lis to B. splendens. While there were fishes clearly correspond-ing to the”standard“Betta imbel-lis, we also caught strong males with saddle-shaped mouth. The colour of the body was dark grey, relatively poor in shining scales and the red band of the caudal fin was indistinctly bordered towards the middle of the caudal fin like the body of B. splendens. The females showed a magnifi-cent light brown colour without any shades of red in the caudal

fin. In contrast, it is interesting to see the Betta imbellis which we caught in the west of Malay-sia appear absolutely homoge-neous per location (Kemaman, Cherating and in the south of Kuantan).

These fishes varied minimally, but the single individuals only differed within the scope we know for example from the slim red Betta. And what can we now deduce from this?

Still nothing! There is only the fact that it is not easy to describe the species of Betta imbellis. At first you have to comment on the similarities of the forms clas-sified as Betta imbellis, then to exclude more strongly deviating ones and finally to define ”imbel-lis” herewith:

Magnificent coloration of Betta imbellis

The magnificent coloration of the male Betta imbellis shows a nearly dark grey to black basic

from the leftBetta imbellis, 3 km from Don,

Phuket, Thailand © Michael ScharfenbergBetta imbellis, Klong Kala,

Phuket, Thailand © Michael ScharfenbergBetta imbellis, Bang Tao, Phuket,

Thailand© Martin Hallmann

from the leftBetta „splendensimbellis“, Khao

Lak, Thailand © Martin HallmannBetta „splendensimbellis“, Bang

Tao, Phuket, Thailand © Martin HallmannBetta „splendensimbellis“, Bang

Tao, Phuket, Thailand © Martin Hallmann



colour for body and fins with lines of shining scales, red ven-tral fins with white and black point, a red anal fin point and a bordered bright red half-moon in the caudal fin. The fin mem-branes of the anal as well as caudal fins are patina coloured (Horst Linke uses this term in his book Labyrinthfische – Farbe im Aquarium for a good reason). These rays can partly overlay respectively supersede the red colour in the caudal fin fringe. The dorsal fin is patina coloured, too and it shows the pattern of a ladder. A slightly reddish touch can appear outer part of the dorsal fin. Most of the caudal fin, and sometimes the anal fin, too, is bordered in black. The patina colour of the shine scales inten-sifies to a partly flat shimmering colour at the pectoral fins. The operculum are also coloured in that way.

With the definition of patina we now come to talk about inner specific differences! Although Horst Linke certainly herewith thought of the turquoise colour of corroded old copper surfaces (verdigris), Betta imbellis can show shimmering colours from light green over turquoise and clearly blue. There are also dif-ferences in the form of the red moon in the caudal fin. I did find a location form which didn’t show a touch of red in the caudal fin anymore. The B. imbellis “Kuan-tan” (location MK 316) as well as a location form from Phuket (see photo 5) show the red half-moon which is strongly over-laid by radial rays. The same applies in principle to the red spot in the caudal fin which can be very small or which can take over almost the whole caudal fin as for the location type (Flora Bay) from Phuket. So there is a significant variation. Even the “safest” and assumed clearest distinctive mark – the colour of the operculum – is not uniform. I had fishes from Laos (commer-cial importation) with red oper-

cula. Apart from this, they were typical B. imbellis and consis-tently coloured in their filial gen-erations. There are all kinds of transitions of the habitus, from the typically slim, small stub-headed type to the high respec-tively saddle-dorsal type with big head. There are also certain stocks besides the short fin types which tend to long fins like Betta smaragdina. The maximal size of 4 – 5 cm (Ko Samui) is a little smaller than the southern spe-cies presumptions (B. imbellis)

Before it is becoming more con-fusing we ask the question of the evenness.

At first Betta imbellis seems to be a variable species. A “stan-dard” form of Betta imbellis is defined by certain similarities. Differing from this some forms tend against Betta splendens. Infrequently we also find types showing only very few parts of red and tending to B. smaragdina (e. g. a type from KhaoLak).

Magnificent coloration of Betta smaragdina In contrast to B. imbellis and B. splendens, B. smaragdina gen-erally shows a very homogenous form, pattering and coloration. The magnificent coloration is to be seen in the photos. The complete head and body of the forms of Betta smaragdina that we know appear flatly green (i.e. there are no individual spots on

from the leftBetta imbellis, Kuantan, West-

Malaysia © Martin HallmannBetta smaragdina, Nong Bua

Lam Phu, Issan, Thailand © Michael Scharfenberg

from the leftBetta smaragdina, Khong, Laos

© Martin HallmannBetta stiktos, Stung Treng, Nord-

Ost-Kambodscha © Michael Scharfenberg



the operculum). The metallic lustre of the whole body is typi-cal for B. smaragdina. You only see the grey to reddish brown body colour on the forehead and in the scales framing which is reduced to a small net structure. The rays of the dorsal, anal and caudal fins are wine red, the membranes of the fins shine in green, and the anal fin shows steel blue colours on the base. The dorsal fin shows a ladder marking, the caudal fin and the anal fins show lines with dots. The ventral fins are dark salmon with a white point. The first ray of the ventral fin is black. Betta smaragdina is often very slim and long finned. Some location forms (Yasothon) reach a length up to 7 cm.

Magnificent coloration of Betta stiktos

Betta stiktos was only described in 2005 (Tan & Ng), because there obviously is a demarcated occurrence in Cambodia (Stung Treng, North- East Cambodia). At the first view you realize an astonishing similarity with regard to Betta smaragdina. The coloration of the fins leans con-

siderably to the blue. This spe-cies is smaller and stockier. The profile of the head of Betta stik-tos is flat compared to that of of B. smaragdina and it does not seem to tend to long fins as B. smaragdina. Since we know this form in the hobby only for a very short time, it remains to wait for how far “stiktos“ will adapt to Betta smaragdina within the next generations. Therefore we rather consider B. stiktos as a local variant respectively as a colour variety of Betta smarag-dina. A definition in the mean-ing of a species position seems to be rather questionable.

Now the problem

The species of Betta splendens is actually even more difficult to define as B. imbellis. Firstly this results from the influence and the “mixture” of breeding forms (which can be hybrids them-selves) with wild forms. In face of it we do not know how much influence exposed fishes have on the natural occurrence and how the wild “splendens” once looked like. Secondly the already mentioned transitions to “imbel-lis” confuse things as well. Besides the (short fin) breeding forms we however know a set of location forms (wild forms or exposed renaturalised forms?) of Betta splendens which you can describe as follows:

Magnificent coloration of Betta splendens (construed by

common characteristics of pop-ulations far away from settle-ments)

Male Betta splendens show a magnificent coloration of an almost reddish brown to brown-ish grey regarding the colour of body and fins with none or few shimmering scales, red ventral fins, a lacklustre red anal fin and caudal fin. The membranes of the caudal fin now reallyshim-mer with turquoise; the caudal fin shows a turquoise to true blue hem. The dorsal fin is tur-quoise and shows the pattern of a ladder, the point of the dorsal fin can be clearly red. Sometimes the caudal fin is bordered in black. The opercula are coloured in brownish black like the colour of the body. Sometimes there is a red dot respectively band on the operculum The characteristic of blue and red colours strongly varies according to the locations. Mostly the body is relatively not very high (photo 15) in the remote location forms (not very much influenced by exposed fighters), but not in to all of them. Betta splendens reaches a total length of 7 cm. Their body mass is mostly clearly higher than that of of Betta imbellis. We also know extremely slim and long-ish forms which do not differ from the forms of B. imbellis or B. smaragdina. The, mostly very bull-like forms, which show a flat shimmer on the back are not considered here, because they can be explained by to expo-sure to splendens. Effectively the species name “splendens = shiny” is only correct for breed-ing forms which indicates that the describer did not find really wild Betta splendens. These are not very coloured and absolutely not shiny. All in all you can rec-ognize a (constant) influence of the “wild forms” by exposed tank stocks. It is to assume that – in the course of the generations – they will re-develop towards the archetype. But certain char-acteristics of the breeding forms

from the leftBetta splendens, Nonthamburi,

Thailand © Michael ScharfenbergBetta splendens, Rayong, Thai-

land © Michael Scharfenberg



will obviously survive over many generations.

Definition of species and mixture

Due to the variation of B. splen-dens, this “species” is most dif-ficultly to define. Morphological characteristics are not sufficient in order to clearly define the forms of B. imbellis, B. splendens and B. smaragdina. We assume that the types that we name B. splendens often bear genes of pets which were reintroduced into the wild. The breeding of fighters has a centuries-old tra-dition in Thailand and Betta imbellis are certainly affected by this in the south of Thailand, too, where the line from Khao-lak (west coast, in the north of Phuket) to Ko Samui (border in the east) describes the north-ern distribution border of Betta imbellis. These fishes live here in a clear and white water and they consequently share the biotopes of Betta splendens. Fur-ther in the south, in the west of Malaysia, Betta imbellis typically populate slowly flowing black water streams and flood areas i. e. the typical Betta imbellis is actually a fish living in tropical areas. You find it in black water whereas Betta splendens and Betta smaragdina inhabit the subtropics. In the border area, the climatic conditions may be excellent for both species. This fact would explain a transitional zone where both species can live and form a hybrid. You find an untypical hybrid zone in the (subtropical) area of Siem Reap in Cambodia where B. splen-dens and Betta imbellis form hybrids and generate a varying transitional type. In contrast to the Malaysians, who are rather uninterested with regard to this item, the Thais and obviously the Khmers, too, are great breeders of fighting fishes and they surely do not ignore the local fishes. Pla Kat exists all over Thai-

land, on the markets as well as “wild” fishes in the fields. Nor-bert Neugebauer reported that B. imbellis from Ko Samui were found/availableon Phuket! The same certainly happens to the B. splendens with short fins which you can buy on the markets of Ko Samui or Phuket. The hybrid-ization of the fauna due to unin-tentional or deliberate exposure leads to genetically inhomoge-neous types and to the types which deviate from the stan-dards. Although the species of B. imbellis, B. smaragdina and B. splendens can still be crossbred, the existing crossing barrier and accommodation to the current climates as well as water types prevent the complete mixture. The standard types differ clearer from each other as many other fishes which are differentiated as species, for example Betta brownorum and Betta rutilans. It is just impossible to definitely differentiate the distribution areas because of the transition zone.

All this should not spoil our fun. It shall make clear how difficult it is on the one hand to establish clear criteria for “species” and on the other hand how impor-tant it is to separate the local forms. Nowadays we do not find B. imbellis anymore ? n captiv-ity with this slim black form and blue (not turquoise) fins which we all know from many pictures. They were lost in the mass of different colours.

Exemplary examples of unclear forms:

1. Betta sp. „Mahachai“

Fishes which are not fully coloured resemble Betta imbellis in their (normally) striped color-ation, in the length of their fins as well in their stature. The col-oration of their head shows two clear blue operculum bars like B. imbellis. Males and females have 1 -3 rows of shining spots on their back and three faded vertical stripes in their normal coloration. In flagrant contrast to B. imbellis there are not any pure shades of red in the fins. The patterning of the dissimilar fins reminds of Betta smarag-dina, even though the coloration looks less green than blue. How-ever the magnificent coloration is only superficially similar to the one of Betta smaragdina. On the brown almost black body colour (like B. imbellis) you see vertical stripes of shining spots and not a flat coloration. Furthermore B. sp. “Mahachai” show a light green first fin ray in the ventral fins. When you take a closer look they also show clear deviations from Betta smaragdina. We do not know anything for certain

from the leftBetta splendens, Siem Reap,

Kambodscha © Jens KühneBetta „splendensimbellis“, Siem

Reap, Kambodscha © Michael Scharfenberg



yet, we can only guess. Scien-tists rack their brains over this form with the relatively isolated distribution area in the south of Bangkok. In the simplest case it is a hereditary solid breeding form of the Thais making them independent. Influences of B. imbellis and B. smaragdina are to be recognized from our point of view, because Betta sp. “Maha-chai” resemble the types of B. splendens at first sight. Never-theless I know pictures of breed-ing forms (B. splendens possibly crossbred with B. smaragdina) which show fishes with simi-lar structure of the patterning respectively coloration.

2. Betta sp. „Siem Reap“

Fishes from this group were independently caught by Linke/Hermann and Kühne in the sur-roundings of Ankor Wat/Cambo-dia. It is difficult to describe them as they vary from “splendens” to “imbellis” in all facets. Therefore we find here the rather reliable evidence that Betta splendens and Betta imbellis generate

hybrids and that variable inter-mediate forms arise. Please com-pare the two photos concerning Betta sp. “Siem Reap”. It is not possible to reconstruct anymore which form originally existed or if both were created by human hand.

Parallel there are still some pecu-liarities.We have two peculiar forms whose coloration we could not explain at first: a colour form of Betta imbellis from Penang which was caught by Bernd Keiler in the 80s. Some of the offspring showed yellow spots instead of the red colouring. At that time we assumed that this would be a mutant with a colour deficiency or the influence of exposed Pla Kats. The second peculiarity is a Betta “imbel-lis” from Ko Samui (compare the photos) whose appearance in the youth indeed corresponded to the attached photo 1. When the fish grew older it completely lost its red coloration and today it shows flat turquoise fins. The fighting fishes which we found in the near of settlements are neverheless obviously often hybrids.

Summary

It is only sometimes unambigu-ous to compare definitively the forms that we know. It mostly becomes more difficult when you take a closer look. Every-body knows how easy you may

go into a skid when you want to differentiate the “species” of Betta splendens, Betta imbellis and Betta smaragdina/striktos. You would have to define the cri-teria of the described species.This is not easy, since the spe-cies occur in geographic breeds with different forms of fins, col-oration and habit. (Varying col-orations depend on the mood and the influence of light can of course mislead).There are obviously intermediate forms in neighbouring distribu-tion areas. Here you particularly find aggravating individual dis-tinctions. They scatter between the extremes or they approach another species in many points (Phuket). We have to start from the fact that there is a potential and unintended hybridization in the inhabited areas (which are not concerned here?) of the “wild forms” with former “pets”. The Thais are great breeders of fish and enthusiasts of Pla Kat! They have already inserted active or passive gene material of all three species. While the appearance of Betta imbellis and B. smaragdina is plainly to be defined at a large extent, it is very unclear with regard to Betta splendens. Here we have many colour races and breeding forms that can again be caught after being exposed. We can only guess which form of Betta splendens is said to be the original one. Because of the global popularity of Pla Kat (the fighter B. splendens) and pot fishes (pets) – also in the distri-

from the leftBetta sp. „Mahachai“ (Photo: T. Kemeter)Betta imbellis, gelbe Variante,

Bildsimulation © Martin HallmannBetta imbellis, Koh Samui, Thailand © Martin Hallmann



Simple identification key for stocky, bubble nest building Betta – wild forms (only males in magnificent coloration to be determined), without breeding forms and hybrids

By Karl-Heinz Roßmann

1 Head without shining scales, no black or red opercula spot Betta splendens

1* Head with shining scales 3

3 Shining scales flat on the whole operculum and on side of the head 5

3* Shining scales on the operculum in two clearly separated fields 4

4 Anal fin with red point, caudal fin with bordered red half-moon And black hem Betta imbellis

4* Anal fin and caudal fin without red sections with turquoise iridescent fin membranes. Fin rays wine red to grey. Betta sp. „Mahachai“

5 Fish with a length of 5 -7 cm, rather straight front line Betta smaragdina

5* Fish smaller with round front Betta stiktos

bution areas of B. imbellis and B. smaragdina – it is certainly usual to crossbreed different forms for embellishment or enhancement of the aggressiveness. Think of our small animal breeders.

Even though one can sup-pose that a species is formed and determined by its habitat (climate, water body …) and therefore – in terms of evolu-tion – most of the genes of the breeding forms get lost, we have to consider the following: it is

difficult to look the genetic his-tory of a Betta which was caught by oneself or even bought on the market. If the fishes remain somewhat homozygous (in the meaning of the visible charac-teristics of the corresponding species), they are listed in our stock list. Nevertheless we get surprised again and again.

Of course all these examinations are dependent on systematic def-initions. The moment from when a status of species is justified or

when you talk about a subspe-cies, is a question of adequacy and in the eye of the beholder and in practice of course in the dimension of the analysed col-lection of material (are there any intermediate forms or not) and in the used differentiation raster. Our “term” of species is a model that functions only roughly. Taking a closer look you recognize that our fighting fishes do not always stick to the rules. The Thai call all fighting fishes Pla Kat.



Meanwhile the scene is a classi-cal one: someone buys a pair of dwarf gouramis in the pet shop, beautiful big fishes. He still thinks: “Anyway, why are they called dwarf gouramis?” He puts them into a properly prepared tank and enjoys them almost for four weeks. Then the disas-ter takes its course, the fishes get big stomachs, goggle-eyes, ulcers and die a few days later. The poor aquarist thinks of a mistake in keeping these fishes. He tries it once again – with the same effect. Since our aquarist has done everything correct by now, it was probably the fault of the fishes. In future he well keeps his fingers off the goura-mis. Unfortunately not only off the dwarf gouramis, no, he gives

a wide berth to all species of Trichogaster.The elder aquarists surely remember that the small west-ern gouramis were not difficult at all in order to be kept in former times. You could buy Tricho-gaster lalius as small German offspring in each good pet shop and on many fish exchanges you could find T. labiosa as well as T. chuna after their late first import, whereas T. fasciata has never been offered often in pet shops.I can remember that T. labiosa was the first labyrinth fish which I bred and that was easy going in the 60s.Now we have two possibilities to explain: either the fishes have altered or the aquarists have. Maybe both are true and maybe this is also different with regard to the four species. Let’s go through the species according to their level of difficulty:

At first the one which is the easiest to be kept: Trichogaster chuna (HamiLton, 1822), honey gourami.

Despite contrary fears and leg-ends this fish is available in good and healthy quality in the most respectable pet shops which means of course that everybody who has not been successful with T. chuna has bungled it by oneself. After a hot and try period from February to May the monsoon follows with extreme rainfalls and then a cool and dry period from October to January. Therefore the honey gourami has to bear differences in tempera-ture between 10 and 30 degrees C and it easily bears even more. So the maxim for keeping honey gouramis has to be: rough but heartily.This applies to all Trichogaster except for T. labiosa. T. chuna tol-erates nothing worse than evenly “optimal” conditions. Therefore T. chuna was more stable with unreliable heaters and the feed-ing with dried daphnia in the past than today with a best-bal-anced feeding and heaters hold-ing the temperature at exactly half a degree. As all Bengalis honey gourami survive the best

Team Trichogaster/Trichopodus/Trichopsis

Gouramis of the genus Trichogaster – the new problematic fishes?By Karl-Heinz Roßmann

from the leftTrichogaster chuna-male (Photo: H.-J. Richter) Trichogaster chuna-female (Photo: K.-H. Roßmann)Trichogaster chuna a mating pair (Photo: J. Vierke)



in unheated tanks with distinct difference between winter and summer. In case that T. chuna are kept in heated tanks, the heater should at least be switched off at night. The food should be high-fibre; the best are daphnia and Cyclops. Concerning the water value nothing worries the honey gourami less. They are the best adapted to variations of the water values in habitats with very rainy and very dry peri-ods. One of the worst enemies of T. chuna is perfectly working reverse osmosis.T. chuna, T. lalius and T. fasciata feel most comfortable in garden ponds.With regard to breeding, the honey gourami is the easiest of all, quite simple, because it has the biggest offspring of all Trichogaster. But they are still tiny compared to young Bettas for example which means of course that they cannot immedi-ately be fed with fresh artemia nauplii. In the first days it must be nothing else but infusorians or rotifers.First of all you need a bubble nest in order to get offspring. The one of T. chuna is very big, coarse-pearl-shaped and in one layer, i.e. the male only builds one big foam carpet, large enough to be seen by the females even from a distance. Additionally the female will be courted to the nest by the male with vertical body and dis-tinct leading swimming. Attacks upon the female and wild hunt-ing which you can watch with other gouramis, do not happen

with T. chuna, mainly because the male is considerably smaller the female. After mating, the eggs are collected into a small clump that is kept floating by some fine bubbles. The original bubble nest crumbles. Now the male intensively cares for the clump whereas the female coop-erates in defending the area, however primarily against other females of honey gouramis.Trichogaster chuna are quite able to defend their territory. They can harry their associates in small tanks, but – and now comes the positive aspect – if you keep the modest T. chuna properly, they will thank it double and three-fold with their cheeky charm of a poison dwarf and their brilliant colours.

The next difficultis the Tricho-gaster labiosa day, 1878, the thick lipped gourami from Burma, where it occupies the lowlands at the coast near Rangoon up to the plateau of the lake Inle. This area is considerably further in the south than the distribution area of the Indian gouramis. There-fore T. labiosa prefer it a little and more constantly warmer. After the honey gourami, T. labiosa is the most suited for tanks: long-living, resistant to stress and even in community tanks hardly to be stopped from spawning. If there only would not be the hor-rible oodinium! I think only choc-olate gouramis are even more sensitive to it than T. labiosa. Fortunately (and unfortunately for keepers of chocolates) oodin-

ium only occurs in soft water. T. labiosa which often live in rela-tive hard water in their wild life – in the lake Inle for example – is therefore best kept at a water temperature of about 15 degrees (15°GH). But it may also be 20 degrees (20°GH). Thus: Please keep away from this expensive osmosis system!If everything suits it fine, T. labiosa soon start to build their bubble nest without any prob-lems in community tanks, too. These fishes are similarly as assertive as T. chuna, but due to their size of up to 8 cm, they have clearly more drive. The males of T. labiosa which defend their

from the leftTrichogaster labiosa (Photo: E. Sänger) Trichogaster labiosa (Photo: Dr. J. Schmidt)Trichogaster labiosa (Photo: Dr. J. Schmidt)

Trichogaster chuna „Gold“ (Photo: Dr. J. Schmidt)



territory can even make dwarf cichlids’ life hard. So, even in the time of nano-aquaristics: big tanks! For two pairs of T. labiosa it should really be a tank of one meter. It cannot do any harm if the tank has got a reasonable water level so that the females can take shelter near the sub-strate. The thick-lipped gourami builds a simple, flat, coarse pearl-shaped bubble nest with bubbles blown some distance to the nest and then brought to the nest. Floating plants which grow directly near the nest are pushed to the nest with the mouth. You cannot observe any courtship display; perhaps this is only because the fishes cannot

live outside the big space they require in normal tanks. In case that the female which is in the vaccinity of the male anyway, she cannot be mated outside and then led to his territory. After many observations I have the impression the courtship display of Trichogaster labiosa and the nearly related T. fasciata is that the female approaches the terri-tory of the displaying male until she has been noticed. Thereupon the female is “welcomed” with raised fins and then very heav-ily chased away. This behaviour does not keep the female from returning a few minutes later and this can last several days before spawning. It has nothing to do with the fact that the bubble nest has not been finished yet. In case of emergency, this procedure could take half an hour. What is more, the conflict of encounter will hereby be moderated and the maturity of the spawn will be synchronised. The spawning can only take place when the female responds to the male’s display behaviour in the right way. She has rapidly to swim in the male’s flank and to show her intentions with some bites. The female only behaves that way when the time for spawning has arrived. Each hesitation means the time for spawning has not come yet and will be answered by an immediate attack. Just like in real life, the gourami which raises the children wants to be asked a little. In contrast to Betta, Macropodus and the most other labyrinth fishes the female has to leave the nest after spawn-

ing in a hurry. After a successful spawning, the female disappears from the territory of the male. It has nothing to do with the fur-ther care of the spawn and she is well advised to hide in the tank until it is ready for spawning again and to get in touch with the male “to be driven away” again. Young T. labiosa are very small, like all gouramis and they have to be fed with infusorians or rotifers for a few days until they begin to take artemia nau-plii. The biggest problem with the young is their proneness to oodinium. There is no oodinium in hard water. If you want to breed T. labiosa in soft water, you should add one teaspoon of common salt per 5 litres of water to the breeding tank. Then the Artemia live longer, too.If you have engaged yourself with aquaristics for a while, you know: the more tropical the fish, the easier it is to keep. And the further north the native land of a fish, the more difficult it can be. Nothing is easier than to keep the conditions constantly at an optimum by the correspond-ing technical equipment. It will be difficult, if an optimum does not mean constantly. This is the problem we have with the two most northern gouramis Tricho-gaster lalius (HamiLton, 1822) and Trichogaster fasciata BLoCH & sCHneider, 1801. Their common distribution area is in the north of India, the south of Nepal and in Bangladesh. Occurrences in Pakistan are probable, alleged locations in Burma, Thailand and Malaysia - as mentioned in Mak-

Trichogaster lalius (Photo: H. Linke)

from the leftTrichogaster lalius „blue“ (Photo: Dr. J. Schmidt) Trichogaster lalius (Photo: K.-H. Roßmann)Trichogaster lalius „red“ (Photo: H.-J. Richter)



ropode 3/08, page 77 – are based on mistakes.The most northern habitats of both species in the Indian and Pakistani Panjab are approxi-mately in the latitude of south Turkey, where the continental climate in India still intensifies the differences between winter and summer. In Delhi ,the Indian capital, there are such night frosts in January every few decades so that even homeless persons freeze to death on the streets, whereas in summer the temperatures regularly rise up to more than 40 degrees C.Fortunately the imported T. lalius and T. fasciata do not come out of this hell, but from such a comfortable place like Calcutta where the winters are at least not so cold.

This means that the aquarium temperatures for T. lalius and T. fasciata have to be managed in the same way as for T. chuna, but here we are not yet out of the wood. It is difficult to purchase striped gouramis, Trichogaster fasciata; in good health (I am going to ignore the discussion regarding T. bejeus this time). We find offspring from Southeast Asia on the market. I will report about the problem with these fishes later in connection with T. lalius. Most commonly, wild gouramis are casually imported from the area of Calcutta. They are mostly not very attractive, very shy, very sensitive to stress and very aggressive against females. I was only once suc-cessful in breeding such fishes

and this happened in a garden pond. The wild ones looked like the T. bejeus which we know from pictures, but the offspring could hardly be distinguished from those you can find on the market. I failed to continue to breed them mainly because they were all males. You must take a very close look at the offspring of T. fasciata you acquire on the market. You are on the safe side when you persuade your per-sonal pet merchant to receive the fishes from the wholesaler and to pick them up without being unpacked before. Nothing is worse for T. fasciata than the barrage of germs in the tanks of the pet shops.

The breeding of T. fasciata is not that easy, too. You can very well consider these gouramis as the most sensitive to stress. Newly bought adult fishes mostly need a longer time until they trustingly come out of their covering. They often remain invisible for days after you have worked on the tank or even altered the equip-ment. It mostly helps to add a little swarm of fishes which like to swim a lot without being too hectic. White cloud mountain minnows or other small cyprin-ids are well suited. While other gouramis define a territory and spawn in a correspondingly equipped and occupied com-munity tank, T. fasciata must stay alone. It is very stressful for them to be moved into another tank and to settle there again. The breeding tank has to stand calm; otherwise you only notice

the ugly noise of your T. fasciata when they swim in fright against the rear window. Above all they are extremely rough against females.. It seems that wild hunting of male to female belong to the normal courtship display of T. fasciata and T. labiosa. The females actively expose them-selves to this situation again and again. They probably test the fit-ness and the willingness of the males in order to defend their territory in this way. Sometimes it ends fatally for the female in tanks without enough space to escape which means that you should never keep the very viva-cious T. fasciata in tanks which are too small for the breeding. A length of 50 cm is the minimum, 60 cm are better.Trichogaster fasciata build the “sloppiest” bubble nest of all gouramis, but they use a ridic-ulous amount of effort. They form rough bubbles with their mouth and expel small ones out of the gills, only to find that they decompose half an hour later. Finally, they probably spawn somewhere completely different. Just as for Trichogaster chuna, it seems that T. fasciata build the bubble nest more for courtship than for brood care purposes. We also know this from some chi-

from the leftTrichogaster fasciata (Photo: H. Linke) Two T. fasciata-males (Photo: K.-H. RoßmannTrichogaster fasciata-male (Photo: K.-H. Roßmann)



clids whose males dig gigantic spawn holes although the care of the brood takes place in the female’s mouth.

Young T. fasciata are very small, like all young of Trichogaster. They must be fed with rotifers or infusorians a whole week long before they begin to accept artemia. Then you have won, they grow very quickly. After the first phase of development, when the young start to look like their parents and to breathe with their labyrinth, it is advised to keep themcolder, 22 degrees C is enough. The same applies for all other species of Trichogaster. We remember that a colder period begins in India after the monsoon when the fishes start to spawn. According the old literature and to my experiences we herewith avoid the high death rate which threatens the fishes during the development of their labyrinths, but which has in fact absolutely nothing to do with the devel-opment of the labyrinths. Kept like this the fishes are sexually mature after six months.

The dwarf gourami Trichogaster lalius (HamiLton, 1822) is a spe-cial one. Without any doubt they are the most beautiful ambassa-dors of their species. Francis Day called them “the most beautiful little fish I’ve ever seen”. There is nothing to be added. But they are the most problematical ones, too. Despite every pet shop offering them, even in different breeding forms whose aestheti-cal value is much disputed. How can it be? The magic word is free-range husbandry which is of course possible without any difficulty in Bangkok, Hong Kong or Singapore all year round. The fishes are separated according to their sex as soon as possible and raised in big and bleak concrete tanks. Since all impulsion for a courtship behaviour is missing, the fishes grow up to a size that wild fishes and also tank offspring would never reach. When these

double-sized fishes are offered on the markets, they are only 9 months old and have already lived most of their life, since T. lalius is a short-lived fish. More than one year is normally not possible, unless you keep these fishes in an environment which is free of stress and without “sex and drugs and Rock’n Roll”. But who wants to live like that?Kept as pairs in an equipped tank, the fishes are hardly to be prevented from spawning. Most of the time they begin to spawn immediately the next day or the day after tomorrow and then again and again in the interval of a few days. After four weeks the fishes are burnt out and become victim of the several infections that they have brought from Asia or from the European pet shops. If there is now a clever aquarist who seizes the opportu-nity with both hands and tries to rear this offspring, he will mostly suffer an unpleasant surprise. The young which developed well initially start to get ulcers. They have saucer eyes and big bellies. Not only one fish reaches the sexual maturity. It seems that the commercial stocks have been kept under very clean con-ditions lasting for decades with plenty of antibiotics so that they are unable to resist the normal stress in the tanks.

The only possibility to get healthy breeding stocks is either to start with wild ones which are actu-ally imported from time to time, or to try to keep fishes from old tank stocks. Some time ago you could more and more find very nice and healthy animals on the markets which came from Poland or the Czech Republic. They had the advantage over the wild ones from India that they are not so shy. You see them very rarely in the tank and this shyness eases up only slowly despite several generations of offspring. At the moment dwarf gouramis from Bangladesh are bred within the IGL which are oddly enough

absolutely not shy, not even the wild ones.The small size of the wild fishes and their European offspring is remarkable. When looking at these fishes you can understand why the old aquarists called them dwarf gouramis.Trichogaster lalius are hard to prevent from spawning under good conditions. As fishes which spawn during the Mon-soon, within hours, they quit the standby mode in which they await the rainy season under natural conditions. When you start with healthy fishes you nor-mally have the first clutch within 48 hours and others will very quickly follow.

Dwarf gouramis are masters of building bubble nests. They build a nest approximately 5 cm in diameter by means of a few bubbles of using alga filaments, moostwines, roots of floating plants and all other possible materials which they sometimes gather from far distances. This creation is so solid that you can take it out of the water with your fingers without damaging it. Females that are ready for spawning are lured by the male’s impressive behaviour. In order to lure her under the nest the male – swimming sideward - spreads its fins so that his “girl” can see the whole brilliance.

Newly-hatched dwarf gouramis really are the smallest exist-ing labyrinth fishes. They need powder food during the first ten days until they greedily accept the first artemia nauplii. From then it is easy. All gouramis do not make heavy demands on food. It should only be high-fi-bre. Gouramis devour a lot and they are good doers. It is recom-mended to feed them with “the handbrake on”. This is the only way how you get small, “well-formed” and colourful fishes. Alas - Yep! Dwarf gouramis do not think much of reverse osmo-sis systems.



Team Prachtguramis – Parosphromenus and Malpulutta

Licorice gourami in tanks: Basic facts and recommendations

By Peter Finke

1. Requirements

The team of licorice gourami pri-marily works on labyrinth fishes of the genus of Parosphromenus, a relatively unified group of small fishes (the maximum size of most species is 4 cm). In the courtship dress of the males they are excep-tionally gorgeous fishes coming from virgin forest streams in Malaysia and Indonesia. A lot of aquarists do not know this spe-cies, because you rarely find them in pet shops. They are even not mentioned in most books about aquaristics. Moreover these are fantastic fishes which are ideal for being kept in tanks in a way. How-ever they are almost all threatened in their existence. So we have to pay them special attention. The monotype Malpulutta was added to the team of licorice gourami only for pragmatic reasons. This genus is not closely related to Parosphromenus, but demands similar keeping conditions. Since you need a certain effort for this, it is likely to entrust Malpulutta kretseri to this team.

At the beginning of the engage-ment with “Paros” you should get straight one thing in your mind: Licorice gouramis demand a partial change in thinking. Our other aquarist customs are not necessarily suitable for these fan-

tastic fishes. The model of the brightly illuminated community tank which contains many kinds of plants and large-scale technical equipment, fails here. Even the wish only to keep these rare and threatened fishes is not a good idea at all. They are life-forms for small, even very small tanks of their own where they multiply nearly without our assistance and only then they show their inter-esting behaviour.

2. The species

At present 18 species of Parosph-romenus are scientifically described, but we still know quite a number of further species/forms which have not been described yet. How many of them are real species, is actually hard to say. In the last Paro census from autumn 2008 we distinguished 64 forms from which we found 49 in the team; in the meantime we have got 50 forms in the tank stock. (For the general systematology of licorice gourami cp. M. Hallmann, 3/2008, p. 95-99; tbc). You can roughly distinguish two groups. On the one hand the two small species with very slim bodies – P. parvulus and P. ornaticauda – and on the other hand all others. In some ways P. sumatranus medi-ates between both groups. In the

big remaining group you find the largest species which is known by now P. quindecim (the males can reach a length up to 6 cm)), species with drawn-out caudal filaments (et al. P. paludicola, P. filamentous, P. deissneri), with monochrome fins (P. anjunganen-sis) and with spotted unpaired fins which also show dots on the side of the body (P. linkei, P. pahuen-sis), as well as the large group of animals with round caudal whose ribbon like pattern takes up the one of the unpaired fins. Particu-larly one subgroup of this group strikes here as very homogeneous, the so-called group of P. harvey (among others with P. harveyi, P. tweedei, P. bintan, P. rubrimontis, P. alfredi) whose species classifi-cation is partly especially difficult and controversial. Almost every year variations are discovered whose classification cannot be determined (e. g. only in 2008 the forms from Sumatra: spec. Dabo, spec. Danau Rasau, spec. Lang-gam, spec. Sungaibertam, spec. Danau Calak, spec. Pematunglu-mut; all these were caught for the first time and imported by Horst Linke).All species may die out, because of their binding to shadowy, acid streams of the tropical rain forest which quickly collapse by the demolition of the virgin forest through fire or for the building



of plantations. Unfortunately it is probable that some species have already disappeared which we have not known by now and it is to fear that this will happen to other unknown forms because of the bad exploration of many areas – especially in the east parts of Borneo. Dependent on the Rains and the accessibility of the known habitats which have not been destroyed yet, Paros are caught in quantities and exported particu-larly to Japan and Europe whereas the characterization of the species is often not sufficient and also deliveries of mixed species occur under only one name. Mistakes as will as mixings (the females are often only hard to distinguish) are frequent. All in all the commerce with Paros makes up an infinitely small part of the international business with ornamental fishes whereas Bangkok and Singapore accommodate the most important stations of export.

3. Two important factors: the right water and food

Two elementary factors have to be cleared once and for all before you start to keep licorice gouramis: you need very soft and acid water as well as varied life-food. Before these two problems have basically not been solved, you shouldn’t go ahead. There are good solutions for both nowadays; however you

have to put in a certain effort for this purpose.Water with a carbonate hardness over 1 -2 is not suited; the conduct-ibility should not exceed approxi-mately 60 micro siemens/cm. It is not important how you achieve this. The pH value should be in an acid or strong acid range (approxi-mately 4 – 6.5, the last one is often sufficient, but not with regard to a few species such as e. g. P. parvulus). Acidification by peat is good, but other methods are suc-cessful, too. The use of some alder pinecones is recommended, a leaf of the sea almond tree helps to reduce the germs. (see below).Cyclops, black and white glass worms, moina and artemia serve as a good food for Paros; the last two ones can easily be bred at home. Please avoid one-sided-ness. Frozen food is not always accepted. You should do it without it anyway, because you herewith may risk stretching the water of the small Paro tanks. From time to time you can feed grindal worms or small daphnia. Flying food is normally not accepted, since Paros do not swim on the surface. They despise every dry food.Both factors are not only pre-con-ditions for a successful aquaristic of licorice gouramis; they are con-nected in the matter, too. As Paros are well to be kept and to be bred in very small tanks (see below), it is important to show discipline in feeding in order to not overstrain these small water bodies in the tanks. How to feed them in an eco-nomic and adapted manner should be learnt in any case; it helps the fishes to preserve their health.

4. Where can I get licorice gouramis?

First of all: all species are interest-ing. You should not insist on one definite species which then is not available for a longer time, but you should be open for those which are currently offered in good con-dition. At present most species/forms are basically available from the experts of the “Paro team” (see below) in Europe (mainly in Germany, Denmark, England, the Netherlands, France and Japan).The usual source for buying orna-mental fishes is the pet shop. How-ever pet shops are tailored to the general request and only rarely offer such fishes for special inter-ests; the offer them anyway; they are almost exclusively wild ones that are rarely in good condition. In case that the fishes are weak-ened by exhausting fishing and keeping conditions, an effective oodinium quarantine with 2-ami-no-5-nitrothiazol is recommended (the preparation for the treatment of the so-called “Lochkrankheit” is sold under trade names like “Hexa-Ex” or “Spirohexol”. It is also an extremely effective medi-cine against oodinium).The best is when you purchase your fishes directly from a breeder in Europe. Experienced breeders of licorice gouramis are the opti-mal address for good fishes. Here you normally get young, healthy and vigorous animals. Sometimes you have to pick them up by your-self, because the shipment of sensitive living fishes is always a risk. On the other hand especially licorice gouramis hold out well the transport in small boxes. The most dangerous factor is the cold.Most breeders of licorice gouramis joined the “team licorice gourami” which the author founded with the active assistance of Martin Hallmann about three years ago. Their major task is to play a part in maintaining the stocks of these fantastic fishes in the long term (see below “affix: information about the team licorice gourami (team Paro)”. If you are registered

from the leftMalpulutta kretseri (Photo J. Schmidt)Malpulutta kretseri (Photo H. Linke)



here, you generally do not have any difficulties to get the Paros you would like to keep sooner or later. Since the team Paro features some nice successes. Before its founda-tion almost all licorice gouramis were again extinct within a few years, in spite of some consid-erable offspring. Now this is an absolute exception by means of a coordinated agreement on distri-bution, offspring and passing on.

5. The tank of licorice gouramis

The ideal tank for licorice gouramis is smaller than one hundred litres. Tanks of 25 and 40 litres with a slightly streamed mat filter which take one to two pairs each are well appropriate. You only need a substrate as settlement for bacte-ria, a very thin layer is sufficient. Layers of leaves (washed autumn foliage, in particular leaves of oaks or beeches) are good as sup-pliers of humic substance, as cave labyrinth and as hidings for the young. One leaf of a sea almond tree per tank seems to be hygieni-cally advantageous.In any case one small cave per pair is the centre of the tank. Material, colour and position seem to be less important. They willingly accept very small film tins which swim on the surface, but most of the caves are on the bottom: small caves of wood, stone or clay in differ-ent forms and colours. The caves should be placed well visible; for this purpose you should hold ready a torch. The fishes spawn in these caves; both partners try to collect the eggs which are heavier than water and fix them to the ceiling. They often gather a few bubbles in order to partially build a rudimentary bubble nest.Paros are fishes of the riparian undergrowth, they are in need of company and do not like any big light. Therefore it makes sense to structure the free water space with branches of moorkien wood and water plants. Shady floating plants (very good: Ceratopteris, but also others) are recommended

as well as to darken the side panes.Another selection of plants is very limited because of the extreme water values and the lack of light. Above all Java moss and Java fern are suited but also single stalk plants and Cryptocoryne. Plant fertiliser and carbonic acid are out of place. Some small and calm com-panion fishes (e. g. species of Bor-aras) or prawns can convey safety to the Paros, but they also prevent the raising of young fishes. If you want to make this experience, you have to do without accompanying fauna.

6. The breeding of the young

During the courtship, which is well worth seeing, the males shine resplendent in really mag-nificent colours; the females mostly become monochrome bright pale. They are chased away after spawning, but in the sur-roundings of the cave they are tol-erated as guard outside the cave. The male looks after the eggs and the freshly hatched larvae during the first seven to ten days. The ceiling of the cave may not be so sloping that the attached clutch could slip out of the orifice. After becoming free swimming, which may sometimes take ten days, the tiny young Paros swarm out. Some adults have to learn in the course of some spawns that it is not a new kind of food; others seem to know it from the first time and so they let their offspring unmolested. Therefore hiding places are very important, namely on the bottom (e. g. layers of leaves) and on the water surface (floating plants). So, in a calm, strongly structured tank, offering many hiding places a few or even many young fishes have the possibility to grow up together. After one or two weeks of feeding with rotifers the young can get the smallest artemia nau-plii.The small tanks basically con-strain to discipline the feeding, also when feeding the adult fishes.

A good maxim is to feed rather scarcely than a lot what helps to keep the water quality and – as it seems – the health of the fishes, too. This applies all the more when the young also grow up in the tank. Strong floating plants such as Ceratopteris are of a big hygienic value now. This plant helps to clearly reduce the danger of an overloading of the water by traces of food and products of metabolism. At these times it is proved to use filters and to regu-larly exchange parts of the water. Otherwise Paros are well to be kept in tanks without any filters.If larger groups of young fishes grow up (one clutch can contain between 15 and 60 (or more!) eggs) they later need a bigger tank. Paros need a long time until they reach their sexual maturity, mostly approximately 9 months. The males are often to be distin-guished beforehand according to the colourful pattern of the unpaired fins. The dorsal fins of the females are often flatter and not so long on the tail; you see this difference relative early, too. There are always some young in the groups of young Paros which grow faster than others. They are not necessarily livelier or healthier. It is a question of natural spread-ing combining the advantages of the fast growth with the advan-tages of the slow growth.

7. Summary

If you develop a routine in order to fulfil their needs, you get to know a new, very attractive form of the aquaristics with small tanks. They can also be arranged in a nice and different manner, too. They can easily be maintained, if you have solved the problems you have with the water and the food by yourself. In a certain way licorice gouramis are the ideal fishes for tanks, because they do not neces-sitate any technically large-scale constructions with a high con-sumption of water and energy. Their petiteness, their peace-



ful character, their interesting behaviour and their rich colouring emphasise the aesthetics of small and nice tanks with biological focus which are not dominated by a big display of equipment. The fact that they do not accept tap water and that they force us to feed them with live food will limit their large distribution. But they reward the necessary efforts with the special charm of the particu-lar. It is worth to play a part in pro-tecting their population.

Many aquarists are learning today that small tanks can also be most attractive, after a phase of bigger and bigger tanks which are more ingenious from the technical point of view. In the meantime the one or other prefers to occupy various small tanks which are very differ-ently arranged and without too much technical equipment, with several kinds of Paros instead of keeping a very big tank with a mixed population of medium-scale or big fishes and an immense tech-nical display.

Affix: Information about the team licorice gourami (“team Paro“)

The aforementioned “team Paro” acts as team licorice gourami within the IGL as well. But the

members also work closely together with other associations (e. g. the team labyrinth fishes/European Anabantoid Club, the French CIL, or the Anabantoid Society of Great Britain), because there aren’t so many friends of lic-orice gouramis so that you could afford a split-up. Everybody who is interested can join this group free of charge notwithstanding his membership to other associations and so receive the information about Paros at irregular intervals. Since most breeders live in Ger-many, the “Paro Info” has been published in German by now, however with a short abstract of the topics in English. The group collects the stock according to species, variations and location forms in a very detailed way twice a year (in spring and in autumn, before the respective conference of the IGL); the evaluation will be distributed to the addresses of the group members by the “Paro Info”. Recently the hitherto last and especially extensive stock evalua-tion (in anonymous form) has been published to the first time: cf. P. Finke, The stock of licorice goura-mis in our tanks in autumn 2008, in: Der Makropode 4/2008, p. 119 –128). On the exchanges at the conferences you can always buy some species of licorice gouramis, among them rare ones, too. The same applies to the meetings of the friendly associations. Aquar-ists who cannot get Paros some-where else are well advised to participate in a conference of the IGL where he will find what he is looking for. As already mentioned

the stock of Malpulutta has been taken “by the way”; it seems not to be endangered at the moment. At the medium term it would cer-tainly be meaningful to encounter more appropriate classifications from the systematic point of view. Most of the breeders can be con-tacted via the address of the group “Parosphromenus”; for this purpose please write an email to the author of this text who is the leader of this team: [email protected].

If you only would like to be added to the mail group of the “Paro info”, this is also recommended. Most members of the Paro team keep Paros themselves and most of them breed already the next generation, however the friends of Paros are welcome, too, if you do not have the possibility (interim, presently, currently) to keep these fishes, but if you want to take part in this communication network. In either case the group would very much appreciate it, if further friends of licorice gouramis joined them due to this publication.

By now the work of the team has been extraordinarily successful: no species in our tanks has become extinct since their establishment, all described but missing species by now could be found and bred, most of the existing stocks of the different species can/could sur-vive by offspring. Many unknown forms could be newly brought in and bred. But for the future it remains uncertain, if this good balance can really be held out at the long term. Also in future we are dependent on imports. Nearly one hundred active friends of lico-rice gouramis are still too few in either case to assure the preserva-tion of the stocks which have been very much differentiated in the meantime in the long run; for this we need triple this number, then we will have a realistic chance. But there is a chance! Well: Let’s tackle it together! Everybody can help to preserve these nice little fishes!

from the leftParoshromenus anjunganensis (Photo H. Linke)Paroshromenus tweediei (Photo G. Kopic)



Team Ctenops/Spaerichthys/Parasphaerichthys/Luciocephalus

Sphaerichthys vaillanti – the red chocolate gouramiBy Anke Binzenhöfer

My first labyrinth fishes were chocolate gouramis and as it is with your first love…, they are still the fishes “of my dreams”.

Actually four species belong to the genus of Sphaerichthys in general:

Sphaerichthys acrostoma vierke, 1979 with a total length of more than 6 cm. The species is the biggest of this genus. The colour of their body is a very light brown. Dorsal, caudal and anal fin are bordered in a slightly light blue. The form of their head and body resembles Spaerichthys vaillanti. An aquarist who is a friend of mine described it as follows: “Actually it looks like a vaillanti whose colour has been forgotten”. It came from the black water areas in the southeast of Borneo.

Sphaerichthys selatanensis vierke, 1979 with nearly 5 cm, the smallest one of the genus resem-

bling very much Sphaerichthys osphromenoides. Sometimes this species is considered as a subspe-cies of S. osphromenoides.

Sphaerichthys osphromenoides Canestrini, 1860, the most famous one of the chocolate gouramis.This species is full-sized with almost 6 cm. The animals which you find most frequently on the markets are brown like chocolate with beige bars. The borders of the fins are also inscribed with this light beige. The males most distinctly the dominate male, have longer caudal fins which can show a light reddish colour, too. It is pos-sible that you may find numerous local variations which differ very much in detail with regard to their coloration.

Sphaerichthys vaillanti Pellegrin, 1930, Oliver Perrin brought some photos of his journey to West Kali-mantan for the first time in 1996. The fishes can also reach a size of almost 6 cm. They do not have a

back which is as high as the one of S. osphromenoides. Therefore they seem to have a body form which is a bit more long-drawn out. The coloration of the males is slightly brown, in the middle of the body appears a beige coloured stripe, the hollow is beige, too. You could also call it gold coloured. Dorsal and anal fins are spotted in beige brown and bordered with a light stripe. The caudal fins are nearly transparent. There is a dark line which runs from the peaky mouth through the eye to the operculum.However the real eye-catchers are the females. The black eyes are bordered by a red ring. The cross stripes on the body sparkle in purple red and emerald green,

from the leftSphaerichthys acrostoma-male

(Photo: F. Schäfer) Sphaerichthys acrostoma-female

(Photo: F. Schäfer) Sphaerichthys acrostoma (Photo: O.M. Nann)



especially during the courtship display. The fins are also coloured through and bordered by a white line.The animals live in black water and in their waters of origin you find a pH value below 5 and a con-ductance far below one hundred micro siemens. By using a reverse osmosis system you extract the hardness from the tap water. Another option would be to use rain water. Since the pH value lies in the neutral range

with these methods, the pH of the water should still be reduced, for example by means of appropriate peat. A further possibility would be to use a demineraliser chang-ing cat ions against hydrogen ions and anions against sodium ions. Then you have water with a con-ductance below 10 micro siemens and a pH value around 4.3. About four years ago I discovered some photos of chocolate goura-mis in the internet and I knew at once: I must have them! Then I got hold of a special edition about labyrinth fishes with an article by Klaus Weißenberg “Chocolate gouramis … nice and difficult?” the name of the author did not tell me anything in those days, but the article confirmed my wish to possess these special fishes.In May 2006 the time had come. After endless enquiries, telephone calls and emails six Spharerichthys vaillanti moved into my house. The animals were six months old at that time and they had the typical coloration of young fishes, beige brown patterned with light cross stripes. It had not yet been pos-sible to differentiate their sexes.

The small vaillantis moved into a tank measuring 1.20 x 0.40 x 0.35 m which had expressly been constructed for them. Light sand served as substrate. Herewith I made good experiences in other tanks, particularly in order to pro-tect the substrate from rotting. This is the same reason why I always put some Malaysian live-bearing snails into my tanks.The tank was well structured by a big filigree root provided with anubias and java moss forming shelter and hiding places at the same time. A vallisneria and java fern have survived until today, in spite of the soft acid water values. Floating plants offer security to the chocolate gouramis from above, but complicate the feeding with drosophila, a species of fruit fly with stumped wings. Since Sphaerichtys vaillanti need soft and acid black water for their well-being and their reproduction I use an ionic exchanger system. I utilize the water that I then obtain to change the water without blending it. In order to give the water the dark brown colour, you can use leaves of native beeches

from the leftSphaerichthys selatanensis (Photo: F. Schäfer) Sphaerichthys selatanensis (Photo: H. Linke)Sphaerichthys osphromenoides

(Photo: F. Schäfer)

from the leftSphaerichthys osphromenoides

from Jambi (Photo: F. Schäfer)Sphaerichthys osphromenoides

from Malaysia (Photo: F. Schäfer)Sphaerichthys vaillanti (Photo: A. Binzenhöfer)



or oaks, alder cones or the leaves of exotic sea almond trees. The temperature in the tank is 25 degrees C.At the beginning the six small vaillantis were very shy. They hid in the rear corner of the tank - pale and in shock coloration (the front side of the body in light beige, the backside of the body in dark brown). However this behaviour quickly abated and then they curiously swam across their new kingdom always looking for food. Their eyes were always moving in order to not miss anything and as soon as they had found something to eat they picked it with their pointed tubular mouth. I fed them once or twice a dayas they clearly preferred live food. They espe-cially loved artemia nauplii, grin-dal worms, black and glass worms as well as drosophila, but they also did not despise granules. Initially I was surprised at the quantity these seemingly quite slim and delicate animals could demolish. After a while it turned out that I had one male and five females swimming in my tank which wor-ried me in some respect, since I had heard about the aggression within the species, most notably among the females. To my sur-prise the fishes amazingly came to a very good arrangement with each other. A pair was quickly found which stayed together from then onwards. As far as I know the male spawned only with “its” female. Even when I could never observe the spawning by myself, because it seems that it always took place in the late evening or in the early morning, the pair formed a solid unity. The other females were on their way in a loose com-bined system. They were not allowed to come too close to the male and quarrelled among each other again and again, mutually picking and pushing against the middle of their bodies, which how-ever never led to any injuries.In January 2007, thus one year old, one morning I detected the male with a thick throat sac under dense leaves under the water

surface – strongly guarded by its female. Within the following days it stayed somewhere in the plant thicket most of the time, it did not eat anything and moved the offspring in its mouth with constantly repeating chewing movements. The female was mostly at its side and emerged only shortly for food whereas it ate quite a little.I admit that I quite scantly fed at that time in order to not lead the carrying male into temptation. It bravely held out to the end and after 20 exciting days, I seized the opportunity to take it out when it showed itself in the front part of the tank. In a 30s tank without any sub-strate with some leaves of sea almond trees and water of the big tank it started to spit out bit by bit its young on the 21st day of the mouth breeding. This dragged on for two days, at the end there were 42 young fishes with a size of nearly 3 - 4 mm in my tank. Imme-diately they took fresh artemia nauplii. I put the father back into the big tank after it let out the last young, because I did not want to risk that it looked upon them as a prey. Concerning a later brood I was not quick enough and so I had to observe how fast it was after its young when it had let out the last one – Not a chance to pro-hibit feeding!The small vaillantis are divided in two colours during the first weeks, similarly to the shock coloration, front light, back dark and the fins completely transparent.I kept them in small 10 litre breed-

ing tanks without substrate, fil-tered by air lifters. One or two small Malaysian trumpet snails recycled the remaining food. However the bottom should daily be aspirated by a thin tub. Every day I changed the water of the tank. I took half of the water of the parents’ tank and filled it up with fresh water.From the beginning the young fishes took artemia nauplii, micro worms and very small moina or Cyclops. Small black worms (if available) are a very good food for the young, too. If you regularly pay attention to a good feeding and a consequently good water quality, the breeding does not cause any problems.Meanwhile Sphaerichtys vaillanti swim in all stages of life and sizes in my tanks. I could give many young fishes to fanciers of these wonderful, fascinating fishes and my conclusions after almost three years with my “strawberry chocos”…, a labyrinth fish which is not that unpretentious but mar-vellous and interesting!

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank so much Frank Schäfer for the photos.

from the leftSphaerichthys vaillanti-pair (Photo: O. Perrin)Jungfische von S. vaillanti

(Photo: A. Binzenhöfer)



Literature

sCHäFer, F. 2008. Farbvarianten beim Schokoladengurami. Aqua-ristik Fachmagazin Nr.199, 40(1): 38-41.

The young of S. vaillanti (all photos: A. Binzenhöfer)

WeissenBerg, k. 2005. Schokola-denguramis - schön und schwie-rig? Aquaristik aktuell Sonderheft: 48-55.

www.weichwasserfische.de

Translated by

Carmen ScharschmidtJacqueline Faust

Workgroup Anabas/Ctenopoma/Microctenopoma/Sandelia

Observations regarding gender characteristics of Dwarf Bushfish, Bushfish and Kurper bushfishBy Jürgen Schmidt (Weißwasser)

I‘ve been tied to the aquarium-hobby since I was 7. At that time I was given my first tank by my father, who himself has kept fish since his childhood years. Natu-rally pretty soon gouramies were also swimming in this tank, and ever since that time Labyrint fish have always been part of my per-manent fish stock.About 30 years ago I was able to admire the first Bush fish I

ever saw at an aquarium friend‘s house. He got them through medi-ation by the former Central Group (ZAG) labyrinth fish of the GDR. One year later I was able to take care of the first Ctenopoma in my own tanks, but sadly attempts to breed them remained futile in the first years. Still I was fascinated by the somewhat different behav-iour of this group of fish, and this has never changed to the present

day. After the German reunifica-tion I had better options to obtain species that were new to me from the family of Climbing fishes. But because there were always dif-ficulties with importing specific African ornamental fishes, and Bush fish only came to Europe as by-catch fish, it remained dif-ficult to obtain these species and that probably won‘t change in the fture. Through years of effort



however meanwhile my small fishroom in the basement is popu-lated with very different Cteno-poma, Microctenopoma and by Sandelia.Sadly in literature and on the inter-net one can hardly find any infor-mation on this group of fishes. Only pathes of information on the keep-ing and breeding of these species is described, and in my experience the information is highly dubious. With these conditions, especially the determination of the gender, particularly in Ctenopoma, is still a „closed book“. So at this point I will elaborate on the gender char-acteristics of bush fish that I have made through years of observa-tion.

Let us first turn to the , with a maximum of 8 cm body length relatively small, bubblenesting Microctenopoma Here are a few gender-specific references to the best-known species of this group of fish:

Microctenopoma ansorgii: Already in juveniles with a body length of less than 2 cm one can already observe juvenile males displaying with very intense colors. In adult M. ansorgii it is in general really easy to determine the gender. Males have elongated dorsal and anal fins and are more intensely colored while display-ing and courting. Females on the other hand can almost always be identified by their swollen abdo-men. Still even experienced Bush fish keepers have problems to determine the gender , even in fully grown fish. This is caused by

the fact that in every spawn males with shorter fins and less color occur. On top of that very colorful females also occur.Approximately two years ago “ Microctenopoma ansorgii was imported by Aquariu Glaser, who differed from the fish known until now, by a few different charac-teristics. The overall appearance of these fish was bigger and stronger when compared to the slim fish known until then. Also there are differences in the col-oration. Especially in the males the following can be observed: in the normal coloration the trans-verse bars are clearly visible and ordened, meaning that they do not branch like in the ansorgii we know. When the fish display their mating colors, they completely loose the bands on their body and instead of that display a uniform orange/brown. Only the fins are still clearly banded similar to the form we already know. Overall this concerns a coloration that is very unusual to Bush fish experts.Microctenopoma fasciola-tum: Regarding the gender determination this is more a „classical“Labyrint fish. Males are a little bit bigger, with elon-gated dorsal and anal fins, and are more colorful.Fully grown females on the other hand are recogniz-able by their continuously swol-len abdomen. Based on the above mentioned characteristics it is easy to determine the early pre-cocious males in a group of juve-niles. However, other males do not show any of these character-istics prior to reaching the almost adult stage. This makes it hard to

balance when purchasing juvenile fish, only when the animals are fully grown it‘s often seen that far more males were purchased than females.In female Mct. fasciolatum fre-quently a light gray longitudinal band can be observed, which extends over the middle of the body from the head to the caudal fin. Especially females that are ready to mate show this character-istic very clearly. Still this cannot be used as a distinctive feature for the gender, as males sometimes also show this longitudinal stripe during normal coloration.Sometimes very colorful females can be seen, especially in half grown fish, who rival amongst eachother and are easily mistaken for males when only examining the fish superficially. Depending on the mood now and then one can see beautifully light-blue col-ored males, but I won‘t discuss that further at this point.

Microctenopoma damasi: These animals are difficult to distinguish as juveniles, and also in adult fish one has to look closely to be able to recognize the gender character-istics. Females have a more pointy head, and a more developed stom-

from the leftMicroctenopoma fasciolatum-

female Microctenopoma fasciolatum-male

(Both pictures: J. Schmidt, Weißwasser)

Microctenopoma damasi-male (Picture: H. Hensel/J. Schmidt, Weißwasser)



ach. Males are a bit larger, leaner and when they are in the mood display intense bright/darkblue colors. Besides that in elder males the frontal regions appear remark-ablt round. Weibchen sind hier spitzköpfiger, mit stärkerer Bauch-gegend. Männchen sind etwas größer, wirken schlanker und sind in Stimmung intensiver hell-/dunkelblau gefärbt. Außerdem erscheint bei zahlreichen älteren Männchen die Stirngegend auffal-lend rund.

Some Bushfish loving friends pointed out to me that there are some different color forms of

Microctenopoma damasi from dif-ferent regions.

Microctenopoma nanum: These fish too can only be distinguished from one another when almost fully grown. Males have some-what elongated fins and displat brighter colors especially when breeding or displaying, females on the other hand are a little bit smaller with a more developed stomach..

As discussed at M. fasciolatum female M. nanum can also display, depending on mood, a longitudi-nal stripe. Supposedly there are

many different forms of M. nanum which sometimes strongly differ from other forms, from different origins. To discuss these fish in more detail would require more comparative data and personal experience, which at the moment is unavailable.Other Microctenopoma-species like M. congicum, M. intermedium etc.. (provided these are separate species) are comparable in gender characteristics to M. fasciolatum or M. nanum.Let us now look at the Ctenopo-ma-species, a group of bushfish, where there is even less knowl-edge on the keeping and breeding as in Microctenopoma.Ctenopoma are fish, which lay eggs in open water and with a body length of twelve to 20 cm are significantly larger than the spe-cies from the previously described group of fish. If one has the possi-bility to purchase such fish at the dealer (which is very rarely the case), the desire to obtain a gender parity is immediately disposed of as completely impossible. Even aquarists that worked with the genus Ctenopoma for prolonged periods give mostly only body fullness as information, if any, on gender differences in fully grown adults. Basically, I can confirm this, but I must point out that this requires, of course, the proper care and feeding over a long period of time. Even if these conditions are met, gender determination is only pos-sible in a few individual animals and also fraught with many ques-tion marks. In addition to this rather vague method to determining the gender in Ctenopoma species there is another that seems more promis-ing. The available literature in this context repeatedly mentions the so-called spike fields in the area of the eyes and tail. For some years I have used these spike fields suc-cessfully to determine sex in large Ctenopoma species.

The spike fileds, which are in a dense crescent shape under the

Ctenopoma petherici during spawning (Picture: J. Schmidt, Weißwasser)

Ctenopoma ocellatum-pair (Picture: H. Hensel/J. Schmidt, Weißwasser)



eyes of male animals, can be felt easily with fingertips. To do so it is of course necessary to remove the respective fish from the aquarium for sex determination. When this is done with sufficient caution this does in general not result in damage to these rather robust Ctenopomas. Now slowly go with your fingertips from the gills towards the eye. If it‘s a male one clearly notices that the fingers stick to these thorny spike fields. Females have usually no, or some-times very much smaller thorns as compared to males. They can hardly be felt.

This method of determining the gender can be used in fish that are 8 cm or longer. The older and the bigger the fish are, the more clearly these secondary gender characteristics become apparent. Frequently Ctenopoma-Males get entangled into the net with their spike fields when catching them. In some species (for example. C. acutirostre or C. ocellatum) the spike fields behind the eye can easily be seen when looking care-fully, so the fish can be spared the unnecesary stress. Using the „feeling-method“ one can cer-tainly identify C. kingsleyae and C. petherici (also C. argentoventer and C. breviventrale, if these are valid species). A little bit more dif-ficult, butwith a little practise also do-able is the gender detrmina-tion in Ctenopoma weeksii. The prevalence of spike fields in the caudal fin base I was unable to

Easily recognizable spike fields in a male Ctenopoma kingsleyae. The arrow shows the direction in which one should feel when checking the sexes..In female Ctenopoma kingsleyae the spike fileds are mostly much more unnoticeable as compared to males, or completely non exis-tent. In this male of Ctenopoma ocel-latum the spike field can clearly be recognized as a half crescent behind the the eye.



Here I place for example C. mul-tispinis, C. pellegrinii or t. nigro-pannosum.

Of this group sadly I only keep C. pellegrinii . In this fish it is really hard to distinguish the genders, even in fully gron specimens, since it is only possible to deter-mine that based on the larger bellies in females. Ofcourse this requires optimal feeding of the entire group of fish.

The in the literature frequently referenced occurence of spike fields in male animals behind the eyes and in this group especially in the base of the caudal fin I cannot confirm. Despite detailed examinations I could never estab-lish the existence of spike fileds in C. pellegrinii.

Still I did manage to make another very interesting observation. During dispay between male specimens the fish extend their throat sacks significantly. When this occurs it appears as if one is looking at mouthbreeders(like for example mouthbreeding Betta).A few final observations on the free-spawning species Busch, which will not help in sex deter-mination, but which I still would like to raise.

A very interesting color scheme can be observed frequently in adult Ctenopoma kingsleyae during courtship and display. The whole body turns remark-ably bright gray. All scales seem strongly black-rimmed - an inter-esting overall appearance, which appears more intense in older and larger fish. According to my observations both sexes so recolor when in the mood.

After a water change, but also when the fish are in “mood for love” one can frequently observe in large bush fish clearly scarlet colored points at the base of the pectoral fins. This phenomenon is known also from commercial freshwater fishing. The Siberian

establish in all of the before dis-cussed Ctenopoma-species.Being the smallest of the Cteno-poma species, C. muriei is some-what special. In these bushfish I was unable to detect spike fields uptill now. But despite that deter-mining the sex is really easy in adult C. muriei, since females are

much rounder and with 12 cm become significantly bigger as the males with a maximum size of 8 cm.

A Ctenopoma-Group, which strongly resmbles Anabas, is the elongated group( sometimes referred to as the cigar group).

Male Ctenopoma acutirostre with clearly visible spike fields. The arrow shows the direction in which one should feel when checking the sexes..

In this female Ctenopoma acutirostre the spike field is minimal and can hardly be observed with the bare eye.



sturgeon (Acipenser baerii) also colors ,in stressful situations, to blood-red.

For some years I have made in different species of Ctenopoma males which are ready to mate an interesting observation. They show a clearly visible point / spot right at the foot tip of the mandi-ble. This is reminiscent of a newly healing injury. But why does this occurs in this phase and why only in male animals?

These and some other ques-tions can possibly only, if ever, be addressed in the next few years, only by continuously observing these, rather complicated and dif-ficult to spawn fish. Finally, some information about the third group of bush fish, on the genus Sandelia (Cape curp-ers: I have been working for some time with fish of the species San-delia capensis. Some of the fish I obtained at the autumn meeting of the IGL in 2007 in Hamburg. These are probably the remnants of a population that has been passed on for several years within Europe, from fish friend to fish friend friend. In January 2008 I managed to breed them. Since then, I had ample opportunity to occupy myself with the sex deter-mination in these fish.

In Cape curpers the males are more slender, with a stronger and larger head part. Females on the other hand are more full-bodied and resemble a little bit livebearer females when they are about to give. The males are also slightly larger than the females. These differences are already easily observed in adolescent animals. Male Sandelia capensis frequently show during display or when ready to mate a deep black or black stripes in the head and body regions. Females simply observe the behavior from a distance and as bystanders almost always show a brighter color scheme.

Only during actual spawning the female also shows this strong dark color. These are observations that I could make in half-grown animals when kept in entirely dif-ferent keeping conditions.

Due to the conservation policy export of Cape curpers from South Africa is strictly prohibited. It

is therfore up to us aquarists, to maintain a population of Sand-elia capensis outside it‘s natural range.

I hope in the future still a few more labyrint fish friends will occupy themselves with this highly inter-esting family of fish the climbing perches.

A pair of the species Sandelia capensis: male (Foto: J. Schmidt; Weißwasser)

Sandelia capensis female (Foto: J. Schmidt, Weißwasser)



You are now reading the first existing written report on the breeding of the snakehead Channa melasoma. Ah, ok, you might think. And why is this in the special issue of 2009? Well, in connection with the publica-tion of this article I’m also think-ing about the role played by the co-operation within the IGL, which enabled in the end a suc-cessful breeding. Read the report and tell me if you also know the passion they have with their fish and also with the IGL.

„Channa melasoma? – No idea, never seen“

Channa melasoma is a snake-head, which is rarely to never found in aquaria. The only speci-mens, which I heard existed

prior to my own possession of these fishes were a pair of Frank Schäfer – for which I presume, he didn‘t obtain them from the local fish store at the corner, but had to go to some more trouble. The previous images, which I gath-ered over the years, amounted to a lot of images of Channa stri-ata.

The IGL and her crazy people

The IGL was never a mainstream aqaurist community. This is cer-tainly caused by the fact that labyrinth fish, apart from a very few exceptions, are no main-stream aquarium fish. The exit-ing part of this marginality of the aquarium scene is in my opinion, that there are many „Exotics“ , who will muster the energy for

new things and bring about even more like minded exotics. So far my view on the IGL, now back to the fishes.

When in 2006 my highly esteemed association collegue and Channaholic Exotic Pascal Antler had the possibility to obtain C. melasoma from Thai-land, another wave of the above described excitement occurred within the Channa-WG .„Palle“ also managed to find a pair out of the 6 fish received and to breed C. melasoma for the very first time. I contend that „Palle“ is the all time best Channa breeder in the whole world. That‘s the second thing I love about the IGL, although she ekes out a marginal existence, it has gathered a lot of high-profile exponents of the labyrinth fish guild. Unfortunately, the couple died some time after spawning, so that only a few observations could be made by him. The few observations and experiences, which he shared with us by word of mouth (at that time without the films produced by him for that purpose) at a Channa-WG meeting. This article would not have been possible without the unselfish cooperation within the Channa-WG or the IGL. Since I am better at writing than at making photos, “Palle” contrib-uted his photos to my words for your reading pleasure.

Working group Snakeheads – Channa

Channa melasoma – Breeding, Exotics and the IGLBy Christian Kanele

Channa melasoma after Bleeker



Channa melasoma-breeding: Episode one

Since this type of fish reach a size of 30–35 cm, they require consid-erably more space than eg dwarf snakeheads, such as C. gachua. The first problem in the breeding of snakehead fish is to recognize the gender differences and the creation (or rather, the “coming together”) of a pair. “Palle” gave me at two different IGL meetings (Autumn 2006 and Spring Meet-ing 2007) one of the C. melaso-ma-animals he obtained to take to Switzerland.The requirements of the ani-mals regarding tank size, and the sooner or later occurring rivalry, for example during a “coming together” of a couple, who afterwards claim appro-priate space make the Channa-keeping a hobby that requires a certain environment of Channa-holics. The Channa-workgroup provides just such an environ-ment. Within the group, as well as within the IGL, the animals are exchanged or transferred, usually even without monetary compensation, because it con-cerns primarily the animals and the progress in breeding. First one fish occupied (themale, which I received at the second meeting and from which no-one knew the sex) the 450-liter tank (1,5 m long) and after a few weeks started to calculate, that the tank was actually large enough and offered enough hiding places to house two C. melasoma . Tubes, giant roots, large plants were present. I thought I could dare to place the two animals together. Well, (the tank novice, as it later turned out, the female) disap-peared after a brief exchange of blows in one of the many hiding places. Today we claim that the sexual differentiation in C. melasoma in adult animals is visible looking at the differ-ent head shape. The male has a much broader head, even if not wider between the eyes and gill covers, such as in for example C

gachua and also others. In addi-tion to that, the male shows a marbled black and white throat coloration, especially during the spawning season – was it always visible. Yes, but genuine joy did not occur, because there was neither the typical consequence of a notpair: Channa-rescue of an animal after a fight, nor was there a rapprochement between the two. Pair or notpair, that was the question.

Should I call it a disappoint-ment that I took the opportunity to adopt three beautiful adult Trichopodus microlepis into asylum, since they fit beautifully in the great quiet tank without fear of being attacked by the Channa. In fact, it remained after the deployment of the three new residents as quiet as before. The T. microlepis generated even more action and so the whole tank unopposed by the uncertain much larger Channa-male, who at the time was a length of about 25 cm. That was summer 2007.

In the following months I was busy with my new job in Bern, which added 3 hours daily com-muting. The room under the roof, where the tank stood, was now occupied by an au-pair girl , so I could spend very little time observing the fish, when I got home at night. Only when pass-ing by it was easy to see the light T. microlepis swimming. This was more difficult with the C. melasoma.

Peacefully September 2007 came to an end. As I walked past the tank one weekend I was startled, when I saw three very battered T. microlepis, which previously had not even had a crooked scale. For one of them it was already too late: „Oh no, what happened here“! I became suspicious (or hopeful) that this was somehow related to the C. melasoma. And indeed. In a corner, well separated by a root, as planned when I designed the tank, stood a C. melasoma under a school of newly hatched fish (in hindsight they must have been 2-3 days old). I was dumbstruck and electrified at the same time (For this you need to know, that breeding free spawning Channa, as opposed to mouth-breeding ones, only in recent years has shown better results). But the first failures presented themselves. Caring for the fry appeared to be a problem for me. On the one hand this was caused by time on the other hand by a lack of experience. This and three other spawns (September 2007 – December 2007) starved to death shortly after using up their yolk sac.

from the leftMandible muster in Channa

melasoma During transfer – size compari-

son (both pictures: C. Kanele)



Channa melasoma-breeding: Episode two

I will report on the now following successful breeding attempts in diary form.Oh, yes, before I forget, just a few comments on water values. In general labyrinth fish and especially snakeheads do not require specific waterconditions. Which is also what I do. I use our medium hard tap water and the water temperature ranged from 25 °C to 28 °C, depending on the season. Water changes were carried out infrequently. So that is all I can say on this subject. In other words, this isn‘t the impor-tant part for breeding Channa‘s. The diary begins with the second successful breeding. At this time the first brood is two weeks old. Since the first brood in Septem-ber, I have improved the Artemia supply, and found a source for live Cyclops, and as such ensured a proper food supply. The au pair girl I have introduced to the suc-tion and feeding of brine shrimp, so that the feeding was guaran-teed 2 to 3 times per day. Artemia / Cyclops can be fed directly after the the yolk sac is used up.

Week: 17.03.08 – 22.03.08Saturday or Sunday: During the feeding of the fry I saw that the pair had spawned a second

time. This occurred like all pre-vious times in the usual place (behind the large roots) in the corner. A rough estimate of the total number of eggs is 300.. M. guards the eggs, i.e. is below the raft. F. is in the other half of the tank. She is never involved in the guarding of the brood, which means that C. melasoma is no exception, it is a Father family. The fry is also located in the other half of the tank and is either hidden between float-ing plants or located just above the bottom looking for food. They stay in a loose group, but becomes a really tight group for example during feeding in the vicinity of „the place to be“. The female has been swimming approximately 3 to 4 weeks now with a torn caudal, dorsal and anal fins and she‘s always hungry. Sometimes some of the larger fry „make a mistake“ in which spawn they belong, and the father makes an almost endear-ing attempt to drive them away, biting in the water and by expel-ling air from the labyrinth creat-ing loud „threats“. He doesn‘t really succeed in driving away these juveniles from the eggs, and they eat away the eggs.Monday: The brood starts to hatch. One can see little tails dangling from the eggs. Tuesday: The fry have hatched completely and are hanging from the surface, belly up. Size ca. 2-3 mm.Wednesday: fish have turned

over and are currently lying like a raft on the surface. Color: black. Start with feeding. There are no juveniles on the hunt for younger siblings. F. leaves the brood in peace. Thursday: Fish are free swim-ming in a school at the same location as always. Daily feed-ing. No more hunting parties are observed. Prior to feeding the fry, the others, F. and the older siblings, are fed. Based on the experience from the first breed-ing attempt, the Cyclops are no longer placed with a net in the tank, but given with a syringe along the glass. The M feels threatened or perceives threat to his brood by the net and “bites” at the surface in a way that a loud noise is generated (This repeated observation made the author believe that this is a defensive strategy). Friday: The juvenile fish of the 2nd spawn go to the bottom of the tank (water depth 50 cm) to search for food.

Week: 24.03.08 – 30.03.08The young develop in the begin-ning of the second week bright points in the two upper parts of the eyes. By the end of the week, they lightly show a longitudinal youth coloration: black on the top and bottom, beige, yellow gold along both sides of the body between the two black bands. M. “guards” the brood. W. stays in the distance, always interested in food. I removed for fear of predatory behavior the first brood for the most part. There remain approx-imately 10 to 20 animals in the tank, because they had hidden themselves very well and the effort involved in catching them, would have been tremendous (e.g.. dense floating vegetation).

Week: 31.03.08 – 06.04.08The fry develop the luminous dot between the eyes on the head. All fry now have the youth col-oration. It is incredibly beautiful to see the dark colored fish with

Channa melasoma fry (both pic-tures: C. Kanele)



only the luminous dot swim in the tank. Size of the fry is now approxiately 5 mm. The M. keeps „guarding“ the fry. The F. remains at a distance, always hungry. No hunting par-ties occur. The fry occupy the same corner as before at the other end of the tank. I feed the first brood and the female at the one end of the tank, and the male and the second brood on the other with chpped shrimp. The female and elder siblings no longer hunt the fry from the second brood (anymore). The M. doesn‘t react negatively towards his wife. When the male comes looking for food in the other corner, there are no conflicts or persecutions.

Week: 07.04.08 – 13.04.08Due to climatic changes, there are no more Cyclops, but only water fleas, which are much larger. The juveniles also eat the water fleas. Some of the water fleas are so large that the baby fish (from approximately 5 to 7 mm) that catches such a water flea is moved or „shaken“ by the flight attempts from the latter. The surface is covered with air-bubbles from the fry. They are caused by the breathing of the young fish and appear to be very stable.

Week: 14.04.08 – 18.04.08A small proportion of juveniles (first and second brood) is twice as large as their siblings. The remaining juvenile fish of the first brood in the tank have smuggled themselves in between the fry of the second during feed-ing to grab the fed water fleas, but not to eat the much smaller siblings. The M is still the same place, as is F. As soon as I give a glass with water fleas or brine shrimp (in the rear corner), the M. is aroused by the movement of water, and patrols the spawn to looks after things. “ The M. has a permanently dark throat - in con-trast to the female, which has a

much lighter throat. I think I rec-ognize a egg tube from W. too. I think the distance between the two jaws for F. is larger than in M.

Week: 19.04.08 – 26.04.08The gap in size has increased as compared to last week. The larg-est of the spawn is surely many times the length and size of the others. The largest fry is surely 1,25 – 1,5 cm , whereas a lot of the smaller ones are no larger than 0,5-0,7 cm. I think the basis for the huge difference (taking the first brood as a comparison) is the change in food. Caused by the extremely large water fleas, the availability of food for the fry will be scarce, and for the few larger fish it is an Eldorado.The group of fry (second spawn), who occupied up until now a single spot, temporarily dissolves and they swim in the entire tank, near the surface as well as in the vicinity of the bottom. The fry of the first and the second spawn mingle in the middle of the tank. After many observations and based on the constant number of small fish of the second brood, I can say now that there were no cannibalistic attacks by the older fish on the younger. I repeatedly observed the older fish attack and swallow water fleas and not the smaller siblings. The oldest fry show „Respect“ for the par-ents, where also the parents do not regard the bigger fry as food. The M. swims around this week with a very intense (darker) colored throat. I see a correla-tion with the tattered unpaired

fins of the female. During the first spawn, I could observe this already, and I would not be sur-prised if pretty soon again a new spawn would occur.

Week: 27.04.08 – 04.05.08I was away from home from Friday till Sunday. Early Friday afternoon I fed the fish extremely well again, to prevent notorious hunger outages. When I returned Sunday evening and looked inside the tank, I found the fry of the second spawn in the usual corner near the surface – all with stuffed bellies. I was surpised. But when looking more closely it was replaced by an even bigger surprise. The juveniles remained at te surface attrackted by the eggs of a new spawn that were just hatching. The seventh since September! The tail movement occurs two days after spawning. Die Bewegung des Schwanzes zeigt sich zwei Tage nach dem Ablaichen. The brood besieged the spawn site. With that my sus-picions that I had a week before in relation to a new spawn were confirmed. That the fish always spawn on Fridays is an obser-vation that I would like to state here, but I do not want to indulge in further speculation here.On Monday the fish had hatched. All of them were on teir backs in the raft. They still had a yolk sac, which could clearly be seen.

from the leftJuveniles with luminous dotJuveniles (both pictures: C.

Kanele)



Where the tail was still transpar-ent at the moment of hatching, now they were dark grey.Tuesday the fish turned from their backs to their bellies and were swimming in a group. The first Artemia addition was not disdained. .Wednesday the new brood was swimming top to bottom. The second brood I fed really well to prevent them from eating the new fry. In fact, I could see no more attacks. But the oldest fry from the first spawn, who were attrackted by the fed water fleas were strongly driven away by the father. On closer inspection, the first signs of the lighter longitu-dinal stripes could be detected. On Friday, the picture changed again abruptly. Both the father and the second and third brood had disappeared from the tradi-tional corner. I found the brood scattered in the tank. The father was suddenly no longer inter-ested in his paternity. This meant that the third brood dis-appeared Saturday. The older brood had fat bellies on a Satur-day night, so that the suspicion

fell on them. On Saturday eve-ning, the second brood, as well as the father, arrived back in the usual area. I have the impression that the younger ones have not found the road back.

Week: 04.05.08 – 11.05.08There are very distinct differ-ences in size among the fry. The largest is 3 times as large as the smallest. White mosquito larvae were fed.

Week: 12.05.08 – 19.05.08No events.

Week: 20.05.08 – 26.05.08The fry of the first batch show a dark edge on the unpaired fins, so now the fish have four dark logitudinal bands and in the middle a red-golden stripe. Both generations of fry form a single group. The M. has given up on his paternal duties, but still sows a mottled throat. F. is pretty trashed.

Week: 27.05.08 – 01.06 .08The constellation of the family has changed. The F. with her

torn fins is found in a corner of the tank. Her waist circumfer-ence is significantly decreased. The M. is in the other corner, but no longer in the corner where the spawns occurred, he still has a dark throat. I can change the filter nozzle in the tank without the danger of attack. The fry of both spawns swim together, without any harm done, despite the big differences in size.

Week: 02.06.08 – 08.06 .08The larger animals of the second brood lose their juvenile plum-age, the longitudinal strips. They are uniformly brown, and now show an ocellus in the dorsal, which at a size of about 10 to 12 cm disappears again. It is not the age but the size that determines the color. I was able to observe this due to the parallel breeds.

And how is everything today?

Actually, there is not much more to report since then . The rearing was very easy, the fish are always greedy, and everything else did not bother them. Today (Janu-ary 2009) the situation is that there are still some fry together with the father in the tank. The female I had removed after some time, because se always looked disheveled, and I was afraid that, as happened in “Palle”‘s case, it would end with the death of the female. “Palle” told me recently that his male paired with one of his daughters, and founded a new family.

I still do not know when I will re-unite the two again. On that, I will write another time, but I hope it will be before the next special issue of the Makropode. And what do the “channahol-ischen” exotics of the IGL do? They will meet for one weekend in November 2009 in Meppel, guest at our now-still President Auke de Jong. Let’s see which wave of excitement of this Euro-pean meeting will bring.



Strictly speaking they are still called Badis badis and they are also really nice blue, some forms anyway. Since the revision of the genus by Kullander and Britz, however, no stone was left unturned in the genus Badis. From a species with some sub-species, now there are fifteen (new) described species and several forms have not yet been described yet, of which some are surely also valid species.Here I will attempt an inven-tory of species and undescribed forms that are reasonably avail-able to aquarists. That is, I will limit myself to the forms that I’ve cared for and bred myself. For further reading I recommend the article by Stephan van der Voort in the Amazonas and of course the revision of Kullander and Britz.

Lets start with the Genus Badis. The fish can, with the excep-tion of two or three eccentics, from an aquarist point of view be treated equally. With tem it is a bit like Malawi cichlids, they all look very different, but they all behave the same and can ofcourse be treated similar in aquariums. Contrary to Malawi Cichlids they are not boring.The requirements, posed by Badis-species, are not high. Watervalues are not impor-tant. Watertemperature can be

between 22 and 26 °C, where the northern species such as B. badis and B. corycaeus can also be kept cooler, without demanding a really cold period. For breeding these species the tempearture sould be above 22 °C.What really makes the care and breeding of Badis stand or fall, is the feeding. The fish will not accept dry food and can also not be kept in a good condition when fed solely on frozen food. Food, which does not move, is not taken in sufficient quantity because of insufficient feed-ing motivation, and can only be used to overcome periods when no live food is available. Luck-ily freshly hatched artemia and older artemia are eaten avidly by all Badis, including the largest, and well tolerated. Badis can be kept together with other fish. Because of their feed-ing requirements and their feed-ing habits, they are slow and picky, this should be done with caution. Voracious eaters such as Poeciliids or barbs that inhabit te lower regions, will not leave the Badis any food to eat.Fishes that occupy the bottom of the tank with territorial behav-iour are not suitable as sidefish, since the Badis will be snowed under by them. The best expe-rience I have is with surface oriented Killies, for example the pikes that inhabit the same

natuaral habitat of te genus Aplocheilus or the livebearing Halfbeaks of the genus Dermog-enys. They will not interfere with the bottom oriented Badis. So is there always something to see in the aquarium whenever the Badis play “empty aquarium.” again. A frequently asked ques-tion from people looking at my Badis tanks is: „Nice tank, but why don‘t you keep some fish in it“?Badis need places to hide, the females not so much but espe-cially the males. These extreme cavespawners cannot be bred without dark and narrow shel-ters and the males will not dis-play, without the posession of a cave, it‘s most beautiful colors. The genders are easily distingui-sable in fully grown fish which show colors. The males show dif-ferent splendid colors depending on the species. The females are brownish with dark transverse bands and are usually only half as large.More problematic is gender dis-tinction in juveniles. Here the larger fish, even in groups that are still small, are the males. The most reliable difference is the body shape, when well-fed females have round bellies, while male bellies are sligtly concave, even when well fed.Badis are relatively easy to breed. They have no specific

Workgroup Badis – Badis/Dario

They are called Badis badis – the „blue“fish of the genus of Badis and Dario

By Karl-Heinz Roßmann



graciously allowed to spawn in the cave, and then the second and the third, or even all at once. That naturally results in fighting and therefore it is recommended to keep Badis in a group with more males than females. During the actual spawning the female is embraced by the male similar to Labyrinth fishes, and the eggs are glued to the wall of the cave, while the entwined pair slides along. After the laying of the eggs the female leaves the cave, but returns for as many times as necessary, to lay all of her eggs. After that she is not involved any more in the parental care. The male can spawn with several females, so that the eggs on the cave wall may contain spawns of different levels of development. The fry hatch in three days and remain anchored to the cave wall for three more days with their sticky heads, guarded and inten-sively fanned by the male. After that they enter the free swim-ming stage and leave the cave and then the adults stop looking after them.

Because adult Badis, albeit some exceptions (more on that later), do not eat the fry, the rearing of the young can be done in the aquarium with the parents. Young Badis can eat freshly atched artemia naupli, so raising the young does not pose a pro-blem. For a labor intensive, low-loss spawn I rinse the eggs or the not yet free swimming fry using a laboratory spray bottle to remove them from the cave and transfer them to a breeding tank. Eggs not yet developed I transfer into

a plastic tray to hatch. That can be done in two to three centime-ters of water without aeration. Badis eggs are very resistant to fungal attacks. When rearing the fry, only cleanliness should be cared for. Because young Badis always reside on a substrate, and only leave the subtrate using small jumps to feed, the bottom of the tank needs to be kept ext-remely clean and the fish should have the possibility to leave the bottom. For that purpose I use a handful of Javamos. Badis-Breed is very vulnerable to nitrite and nitrate. But this is no reason to run around with measuring sets all the time. Whenever young Badis start to turn dark, it‘s time for a waterchange, other-wise deaths will occur. Before I start with the description of the Badis species, the question arises where to obtain these fish at all. In the normal aqua-rium store Badis badis is offered only infrequently. Most of these fishes come from private bree-ders or from commercial farms from the Czech Republic. Some-times wildcaught fish from the vicinity of Calcutta are sold, but the aquarium strains from the Czech Republic are more color-full and less prone to hiding. Here the decades of domestica-tion become apparent. All other species can only be obtained via an importer or cannot be obtai-ned at all. Which of course means that rarities like B. siamensis or B. khwae should be preserved at all cost if they are ever available in aquaria.

water requirements, extremes should still be avoided, and the water should- naturally- be clean. Badis will also spawn in commu-nity tanks, as long as they are not disturbed in their breeding tubes. The male defends a small area around the cave, predomi-nantly against females not ready to breed and other males looking for a territorium. Fish from other species are ignored, as long as they do not try to enter the cave.The courtship, when one can call it that, is very strange. The male occupies a cave, shows it‘s most radiant colors and is hardly ever visible. Especially the fema-les are completely ignored, and only if they try to approach the cave, vigorously chased away. The only thing which remotely resembles courtship, is, that the male starts, long before an actual spawn occurs, to handle the breeding location as if a spawn had already occurred.

Still at that moment there seems to be nothing of interest for the girls, as such a newly minted homeowner‘s only reaktion to any approach is to appear as a jack-out-of-a-box and to chase them away. Despite of that the females stand in line for as long as necessary, until the first is

from the leftBadis badis – Fighting Male (Picture: K.-H. Roßmann) B. badis-male in the spawning

cave (Picture: D. Murdoch)Badis badis-Male in normal color-

ation (Picture: F. Schäfer)



The family Badis

The genus Badis is widely spread, from Pakistan in the west through Northern India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Birma up to Southern Thailand. The most western species and the most widely spread, is Badis badis (Hamilton, 1822), the classic and at the same time the only true blue in the family of the so-called blue badis.It inhabits the basin of the great rivers of North India, Paki-stan, Nepal and Bangladesh, so the Indus, Ganges, Brahma-putra and Mahanadi river. It does not occur in South India,. Here it is a very common fish that lives in all sorts of standing or slowly flowing waters, and is even found in the city center of Calcutta. It is the predomi-nant species of the Badis badis group in the genus, and possi-bly the only real species. Other species have been described as B. kanabos and B. chittagongis whose species description in the revision by Kullander and Britz to me is not good enough to be valid species. Another form that is not completely blue, it has many red-brown tones, is labelled sp. “Wahumiam river”. I think this form is also one of the many color morphs of B.badis. (Sorry, Stephan!). This Badis-group is also recognizable from the females by the following characteristics: the second and third rays of the dorsal fin have a dark stain. Behind the gill cover is a black dot and the tail spot seen in all Badis, is exactly located on the center of the tail base. It

can be hidden when in spawn-ing coloration or in intensely col-ored fish by the last transverse dark band. Fully colored male B. badis are colored very dark or even black. Superimposed is a more or less intense blue gleam, although individuals of the old aquarium strain and fish from West Bengal and Bangladesh appear bright blue when in good condition. There are also strains with a slightly duller, blue to violet color, and also strains, as for example in Orissa, which look completely black.

Badis kanabos kullander & Britz, 2002 has been described from western Assam. Accord-ing to the first description it dif-fers from Badis badis by a more streamlined shape, always dis-tinctly visible cross bands and a very conspicuous dorsal spot between the third and fifth dorsal fin ray. In the fish that I take currently take care of all of this applies. Even the females are easily distinguished from B. badis-female. Therefore I would like to call them with some res-ervations, at least Badis cf. kanabos . In the live coloration, the fish are always very clearly barred, even displaying males do not lose the stripes, in contrast to B. badis which then show an uniformly uniformly black base color. These fish most closely resemble B. badis from all spe-cies of this genus. Whether the separation is justified, I do not want to judge, a species is only a species, if a competent system-atist pronounces them as such, and such I am not.

Badis corycaeus kullander & Britz, 2002 together with B. kyar, B. ferrarisi and B. sp. „Buxar“ forms the Badis corycaeus-group, indicated by the follow-ing features. Dark first dorsal fin ray and post-opercular spot as in the Badis badis group, caudal spot centered, not obscured by the last crossbands, instead enclosed by a semicircle.

B. corycaeus occurs in the north of Burma, where it, according to aquarium enthusiasts occurs far to the north and also high up in the mountains. Reports that in Putao, the “classic” type local-ity of the species, it sometimes even snows, should be regarded with caution. At least my B. cory-caeus, which are definitely from Putao, prefer to be kept warm. At least under 23 ° C they do not show any spawning activity and a cold winter period, neither they nor their grandparents have required over the years. Badis corycaeus in both sexes is yel-lowish- to reddish-brown with darker transverse bands. Males in their mating colors become dark reddish brown to burgundy with very striking bright white ventral fin leading edges and an equally bright white dorsal fin seam.

from the leftBadis corycaeus-female (Picture: K.-H. Roßmann)Badis cf. kanabos-female (Picture: K.-H. Roßmann)Badis ruber „Pathain“ (Picture: K.-H. Roßmann)



Badis ferrarisi kullander & Britz, 2002, which I myself have not kept, comes from the Myitkina district in northern Burma. It differs from all other Badis by the fact that the crossbands on the body do not extend over the whole body , but cover only bar-code like the middle of the body. Its basic color is a muddy reddish brown with intense brown fin seams. Badis ruber, B Khwae. and B. siamensis form the Badis ruber group. It is distinguished by the following characteristics: no dark anterior dorsal fin rays, no post opercular spot, caudal spot not exactly on the tail base, but moved forward a little, in B. ruber and B. siamensis also moved upward.

Badis ruber sCHreitmüller, 1923, which was formerly falsely known as burmanicus, lives in southern and central Burma, where as its congeners, inhab-its standing and slowly flowing small bodies of water. It is red-dish brown in both sexes, with the usual badis-cross lines which can be covered by longitudinal rows of dots. Males in breeding colors are dark burgundy, and the longitudinal rows of dots appear to be black with a green shine.

Badis khwae kullander & Britz, 2002 inhabits western Thailand

at the originof the Menam Khwae Noi, in the tourist jargon better known as River Quai. B. khwae females are reddish brown with a caudal spot located, although in the middle, a little before the final cross bow . The males during courtship and parental care are colored dark burgundy with a striking bright seam on the dorsal fin, which also has a red base.

Badis siamensis klausewitz, 1957, comes from the west coast of southern Thailand and the offshore islands. Known localities are Khao Lak and the island Phuket. The fish are ocher brown in color with darker lon-gitudinally oriented rows. The caudal spot is located at an angle slightly before the base and slightly above the center of the tail, but is much smaller than in B. ruber. Breeding males are stained dark chocolate brown with whiteseamed dorsal fins.

We’ll continue now with the two “dissidents” who display a very different way of life and there-fore also differ significantly in the aquarium maintenance from the other Badis. First Badis assa-mensis aHl, 1937, and B. blosyrus kullander & Britz, 2002. These fish are occasionally imported from India., where B. blosyrus has been described from from North Bengal and B. assamen-sis, as the name suggests, has been reported from Assam. The distinction between B. blosyrus and B. assamensis is not so easy, mainly because one species was described from adult fish and the

other from very small juveniles. Anyway there are two different forms available in the stores, which have differently pointed mouths. And that leads us imme-diately to the main characteristic of these type (s), their predatory lifestyle. The fish have a deeply divided, big mouth and are able to eat huge chunks. Earthworms, equally long as the fish, are not a problem. Co-inhabitation with these fish is therefore a problem. Badis assamensis / blosyrus prey on smaller fish at night. Fish that have been ignored completely during the day are gone the next morning. Hence these fish do are not just similar in appear-ance to their cousins, the Nan-didae. Regarding the size, both forms dominate considerably the other Badis species, adult males can easily reach 9 cm Regarding color the fish cannot be confused with any other Badis, the ani-mals are light ocher, with irregu-lar rows of dark spots, which on the pebble bottom of a stream bed makes them perfectly cam-ouflaged. The fish have as all members of the Badis group a dorsal spot and a central caudal spot, but the black spot, which in all representatives of the Badis group lies behind the gill cover is in B. assamensis / blosyrus located on the gill cover. Males ready to breed change their color from stone-red to dark burgundy, to almost black, with a thin bright blue seam at the edge of the fins. Badis assamensis / blosyrus are also “sand fish” in their behav-ior, who appreciate a flat-lying stone where under they will dig a hole on their own. A continu-ous breeding setup, which is in all other Badis no problem, does not succeed in B. assamensis / blosyrus. Apparently the fish effectively hunt their own off-spring.

Badis sp. „Buxar“,named after the Buxar Tiger Reserve in north Bengal, from where the first imports have arrived, differs in several respects from all other

from the leftBadis siamensis „Phuket“ Fry/Juvenile Badis blosyrus

(both pictures: K.-H. Roßmann)



representatives of the Badidae. The fish is undoubtedly to be regarded as a separate unde-scribed species. It is because of it’s pattern considered a member of the corycaeus group, but in addition to their pattern have a dumbbell-shaped mark, which is formed by one dark spot in the soft part of dorsal and anal fins and connecting horizontal stripes between the two spots. Fully col-ored the fish are wine red with a turquoise seam on the edge of the dorsal fin. The ventral fins of B. sp. “Buxar are” in contrast to those of the other Badis pointed and curved backwards. The fish rests on these fins similar like a sled on it’s runners for exam-ple, since Badis sp. “Buxar is a belly sliders with a goby-like reduced air-bladder function and the corresponding swim-ming behaviour. The fish live in fast-flowing streams and there-fore need flowing oxygen-rich water. If their demands are met, sp. “Buxar” are very appealing aquarium fish. They are a maxi-mum of 4.5 cm in size and are much more lively than the other Badis. Even if their territoria are quite small, they are vigorously defended, making the fish lovely little poison dwarfs. Breeding is similar to other Badis, where B. sp. “Buxar is” in my experience the Badis with the largest eggs.

The genus Dario was separated from the genus Badis by Kul-lander and Britz in their article. To anyone who saw the first imported Dario, it had to be clear that these belonged in a separate genus. Despite that a notoriously fast writer already described them as a new kind of Badis, although he knew that Kullander & Britz were working on their article. Britz and Kullander then found out this “new” species had already been described. Our man had on top of that not done his homework. The species of the genus Dario are smaller than those of the genus Badis. The largest known species of Dario is

only 3.5 cm long. Dario have very elongated ventral fins, they can extend to the end of the anal fin when pressed against the body. Of the typical Badis traits, only, and only in some species, the dorsal spot can be seen. All Dario species are colored predomi-nantly red, and some are down-right bright red. The females are inconspicuously yellow-gray with dark cross bands, more or less pronounced. The currently known distribution area ranges from North Bengal via Assam and Bangladesh to northern Burma. One species, Dario dayingensis, even exceeds the border into China. The Dario species are fun-damentally different from Badis in their reproductive behavior. All Badis are all obligatory cave spawners, Dario spawns in moss or algae pads, where the laid eggs until the free swimming stage are guarded by the par-ents. The females are lured to the spawning site with a very lively, almost butterfly-like courtship. The eggs, which are not so pro-tected by the surroundings like in Badis species, must therefore be defended intensely. Dario are for their size amazingly assertive and their territoria are also much bigger than we would give these little guys credit for. The fry are significantly smaller than that of the Badis species and feeding cannot under any circumstances be done at once with artemia nauplii. For intensive high-yield breeding rotifers or infusoria must be provided. The continu-ous breeding setup, where in densely planted aquaria fry are raised with their parents, is a

highly recommended method, but works only really well if we feed additional infusoria or at least micro worms. This is also very good for the adults, because they eat, the same as Badis, only live food. And that should be according to the size of the fish, so very small. Another down-side, Dario cannot be fed on a permanent basis with Artemia, though, or perhaps because they like them very much. Exclusive or predominant feeding with Artemia, sooner or later leads to a fatty liver. For the rest is keeping Dario fairly simple. The water values do not matter and because of the northern distribu-tion area a heater in the aquar-ium is unnecessary.

Dario dario (Hamilton, 1822) is the first imported, and the small-est known species. Its natural habitat is in north Bengal, where they can live with Badis badis and Badis blosyrus in the same waters. The fish were first intro-duced with the trade name Badis „scarlet“ “, a name which is even now still seen occasionally. After a hasty first description, they then sailed under the flag “Badis bengalensis” Tomey, 1999, until Kullander and Britz realized that the fish had first been described a hundred and eighty years ago and took the logical step, and

from the leftDario dario-male (Picture: K.-H. Roßmann) Dario sp. „Tiger“ (Picture: K.-H. Roßmann)



established a new genus Dario dario. Dario dario is almost 2cm long, and is considered the smallest known perch-like fish. The caudal fin is straightly trun-cated at the end and the ventral fins of males are very long. There are no dark markings, only the females bear more or less dis-tinct dark cross bands on a light gray background. The males are spectacularly colorful, bright red with turquoise blue stripes, especially the blue rimmed elon-gated pelvic fins, and when in breeding mood, the whole fish looks like its illuminated from within.

Dario hysginon kullander & Britz, 2002, also known under the trade name “Flame Red“, lives in northern Burma. At 2.5 cm it is slightly larger as D. dario and is colored monochromatic red and marked only with a black dorsal

spot. The females are a light rusty brown color. They too show the dorsal spot occasionally.

Dario sp. „Black Tiger“ is a yet undescribed species of which not even the natural origin is known, because the importers keep silent on the subject. It is suspected to occur in northern Bangladesh. Black Tiger is next to Dario dayingensis the largest known Dario, it is about 3 cm long. For Dario ratios it is also very high. The main attraction in this species is the tail fin, which like any other Dario is truncated but at the edges has elongated fin tips. The ventral fins are very long, they can in fully grown males reach the tail fin and are very conspicuous because of their black color. The fish go through a distinct color change in their life. After the light-brown juvenile color, young males first show a red-brown color with dark stripes. When the fish get larger, the dark stripes at the front are widening and the stripes ate the rear are narrowing until the fish front is black and from the middle it is bright red. In addition to the here pre-

sented, for the most part already bred Badidae, there are quite a few already described, but not yet imported species, and also some already imported, but not yet described forms. The fish-trade tends, as is well-known, to care little or not at all about valid names. The fish are named in a way so they sell well. Many new or rarely imported Badi-dae are sold under flase names. For Badis sp. „Buxar“ and B. cf. kanabos that was also the case. So if Badis badis are offered in large numbers in the trade and if they are declared as Wildcaught, it’s worth it to take a closer look. Even if it turns out to be “only” normal Badis badis.

Literature

kuLLander, s. & Britz, r. 2002. Revision of the family Badidae (Teleostei: Perciformes), with description of a genus and ten new species. Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, Vol. 13(4): 295-372.Voort, s. Vd. 2008. Einige ausge-fallene Blaubarsche. Amazonas, 4, Nr. 20: 45-50.

from the leftDario hyshinon and Dario sp. Dario sp.-femaleDario sp.-male (pictures: K.-H. Roßmann



With the following article I would like to contribute to the overall pic-ture of this fish species. For more than 50 years I have, apart from short breaks, exclusively tended to the care and breeding of Nan-didae. So I have kept, and even bred: Polycentrus, Polycentropsis, Monocirrhus, Nandus nebulosus and N. nandus. The last one only I have now kept and bred for the past 10 years. I have collected information from the literature and included it within this essay in order to be complete.

On Systematics

Kullander & Britz (2002) restricted the family of Nandidae to the genus Nandus with the species N. nandus, N. nebulosus, N. oxy-rhynchus and newly added, N. andrewi *. The genera Polycentrus, Polycentropsis and Monocirrhus have been placed in the family of Polycentridae. As for Afronandus I tend to believe they are Nandidae. But to my knowledge there is still not sufficient aquarium evidence on the reproductive biology. The

genera Polycentrus, Polycentrop-sis and Monocirrhus also differ a lot from the Nandus species according to my observations so that separation is only logical.

Anatomy and appearance

The fin formula is: D XII/XIV/11-13, A III/7-9. The soft rays portion of the dorsal and anal fins are sharply divided as in the Polycentridae and rounded. The fish have ctenoid scales, scales with a thorny free edge. The total length according to literature data reaches 15 cm (females), an indication that I can confirm in, for example, six-year old fish. The elongated body has a typical perch-like form, the muzzle is pointed, as in the Polycentridae far protrudable. Numerous sharp

teeth in the jaws, palate and on the tongue ensure the retention of the prey, especially fish. The ani-mals in my posession vary in color from dark olive to bright-yellow metallic, especially in the twilight. The sides are marked with dark spots, which coalesce to cross lines. The spiny dorsal and anal fin and the rounded tail fin have a mottled appearance forming lines. The typical blaze in Polycen-tridae is also frequently visible in Nandus. The intestine, charac-teristic of a faunivore, piscivore fish, shows only a few turns, the stomach is sac shaped and very expandable. Nandus is a visually oriented predator. The lateral line is interrupted, and in my experi-ence plays only a minor role in the acquisition of prey. In water with sufficient oxygen, breathing

Working group nandids and related fish

Nandus nandus (Hamilton, 1822) – the Gangetic Leaffish

By Rudolf Rucks

Locations of Nandus nandus (Map: Internet)

* In 2006, Nandus prolixus Chakrabarty, Oldfield & Ng, 2006 and in 2008 by Ng also Nandus mergatus Ng, 2008 from the Musi River, Sumatra, were newly described(Editor note).



is hardly detectable, the pectoral fin movements are relatively slow. The swimming method is rapid, with brief interruptions, at dusk the fish are extremely active.

Occurrence and Locations

N. nandus occupies the entire Indian subcontinent as far as Myanmar. Typical habitats are quiet stretches of rivers, lake-like extensions of the rivers, flooded rice fields, overgrown ditches and also carp breeding ponds.

Diet in the wild

From the excellent work by P. Parameswaran et al. (1970) obser-vations and results of stomach examinations of various sizes and ages are available to me. In post-larval stage, 3.5 mm - 7 mm, the animals primarily feed on zoo-plankton, namely Branchionus, Conochilus, Keratella, Polyarthra, cladocerans such as Moina, Bos-mina, Simocephalus, Ceriodaphnia, and copepods such as Diaptomus, Cyclops and their nauplii. This is very interesting, since these species also occur here. Small amounts of phytoplankton are also included, such as blue-green and green algae. The larger post-larval stadia, 8 mm - 20 mm, con-sume cladocerans, copepods and

some phytoplankton. Juveniles in sizes from 21 mm - 35 mm feed on Notonecta (probably larvae), aquatic insects and a lower pro-portion of zooplankton. Interest-ing are the studies of the stomach and intestinal content of 40 mm - 138 mm long Nandus. Most of the stomachs were empty, in rare cases they were very full. It was found that Carp fry, but also Oxy-gaster sp., Puntius sp. Amblyphar-yngodon mola, Ambassis nama and Ambassis ranga were eaten. The feeding on fish is clearly domi-nant. Aquatic insects and shrimp serve as a supplement a distinctly smaller proportion. For me as a passionate live food catcher the challenging task to obtain similar food is apparent from these data.

Behavior in the aquarium, care and breeding

Several year old females reach a length of about 15 cm, the males remain significantly smaller, up to 10 cm. With me the animals reached an age of about 8 years, but subsequently showed definite signs of aging such as lying on the bottom etc. Tanks with measure-ments 1 mx 0.50 mx 0.50 m (stan-dard store size) are suitable for 4 adult specimens. As already men-tioned, the fish are mostly active at dusk, then they are especially lively and even capable of jumping out of the tank. My Nandus-tank looks like this: A single large Echi-nodorus bleheri in a pot filled with garden soil fills the tank. Its bushy growth serves as a shelter to the fish during the day. In addition,

inverted cups must be available to the fish as an additional shelter, since during the day Nandus are relatively shy and timid, although there are individual differences. No other decoration items are used. Differences in temperature from winter to summer range from 24-30 ° C. Filtration is unnecessary, a airpump and internal spongefil-ter provide sufficient water move-ment. RO water at about 120 micro Siemens / cm, a neutral pH , and a nitrate level of about 30 mg per liter or less, are proper values. Every 3 weeks a water change of 30 liter is carried out, and the bottom of the tank, which is covered only with a thin layer of gravel, is siphoned off completely. In the bucket the gravel is then stirred and the dirty water is subsequently disposed. Then the gravel is returned to the tank again. This is very effective to keep the tank clean and is in line with a relocation of the fish in the wild. Because the Nandus remain in their shelters during the day it is possible to fully illuminate the tank. I place great value on added sunlight. After ten-hours of light-ing, at 18:00 o’clock, a dusk light is switched on. The fish shortly after-wards leave their hiding places and move freely in the tank. Nandus species are next to teir general faunivorous behaviour very pis-civorous and require in my experi-ence feederfish in the form of wild fish, if possible from waters that are not or rarely frequented by fish-eating birds (otherwise, chances of a worm infection are, accord-ing to the literature, quite large). I catch in private waters carp and Moderlieschen (with permission of

from the leftNandus nandus (Picture: F. Schäfer) Gangetic Leaffish after Cuvier Nandus andrewi (Picture: Internet)



course), Amphipods from fish-free water, Notonecta, Caddis larvae, white and black mosquito larvae supplement the diet. Analogous to the natural situation, I try to feed moderate amounts of food, the fish should always be hungry and only seldom be allowed to gorge them-selves.

Reproduction and breeding aspects

According to Parameswaran et al. (1970) the spawning period of Nandus nandus in Assam extends from late March till the the middle of July. I can confirm this from my aquarium experiences, which are similar. From August till March no spawning activity will take place, the females also do not show any corpulence. At the start of spawn-ing the females become very rest-less, swim through the entire tank and swim up and down against the glass. One or more males follow her and an actual hunt takes place. Males try to force themselves into a parallel position to the female, and then wraps himself around her and presses, after which ovulation occurs in several episodes where around 50 eggs are fertilized each time. The entire spawning takes up to one h. Te number of eggs can be thousands. According to my observations spawning occurs only at dusk or dawn. The eggs are scattered on the plant leaves and on the ground, are clear and transparent, and slightly yellow.The diameter of the eggs is 0.7 - 0.8 mm and they are contain oil-globules. Interesting that one can also find oil-globules in the eggs of Anabas testudineus and Channa sp., which in their case are pelagic, whereas they sink in Nandus. All eggs are laid in one spawn. Electon microscopic scans by Britz (1997) have shown that the animal pole of the egg attaches to the substrate with the microphylls, by means of many carpet-like sticky threads. This confirms my observations on the adhesive capacity of the eggs. The microphyll, the inlet opening

for sperm at the animal pole of the egg is in the Polycentridae on the other end of the substrate, ie the exact opposite. The adults will not take care of the eggs, so there is no paternal care. This is also true for N. nebulosus, which I bred for many years. Significant differ-ences in the reproductive biology of these two species I could not establishl.

At temperatures of around 27 ° C, 120 micro Siemens / cm and a pH 6.9 the eggs hatch after approxi-mately 30 hours and are then hanging with their ventral side on the glass and on the sword plant

leaves. Corresponding glands allow for attachment. There is no head gland with mucous threads as found in the Polycentridae. The incubation period is also much shorter than the previously men-tioned species. The oil-globules in the yolk sac are visible. The function is not clear to me, since neither the eggs nor embryos are able to float. The size of the larva is about 2 mm. The swim bladder filling must occur under water, which in the Polycentridae is done by swallowing air at the surface. After another 48 hours, the larvae start to swim free, at a length of approximately 3.5 mm. After sepa-

A second species of the Genus Nandus: Nandus nebulosus in normal coloration (above) and in fright coloration (below). (both pictures: Msc. J. Schmidt)



ration of a number of the postlar-valen stage fry into a 60-cm tank, planted with Hygrophila, the first feeding with Cylops naupliae, mixed with among other rotifers, takes place. This zooplankton is caught with a net of bolting with a mesh of 50/1000 mm.

Abstract

In summary the following can be stated after a number of spawns: Soft water with similar values as in the parent tank should be used. The growth is rapid, so that after 4 to 5 days already small Cyclops and Diaptomus are accepted. After 11 days, the fry are already reached a size of about 1 cm and the fins are fully present. Now small mayfly larvae of the genus Cloeon are accepted. A separa-tion will follow, ten of the largest specimens are selected and raised in a larger tank, during the last spawn a 1.20 m tank was used. The fry color is light beige with no marbling. The pointed shape of the head is fully formed. There are

cannibalistic attempts, which in similar sized fish are not success-ful. After 18 days, a size of about 1.8 cm is reached, after 3 weeks about 2.5 cm and large Cloeon larvae and Chaoborus pupae are now accepted. After a month, at about 3 cm in length,te juveniles have assumed the coloration of the adult animals. Unlike the adults the young fish are extremely active during the day up until then. They eat among other damselfly larvae (from a private pond), which have a length of 2 cm, so that the sac-shaped stomach is full to the point of bursting. At a size of about 4 cm, at 5 weeks, large amphipods were taken. At a length of about 5 cm at 2 months I start to feed chopped-up pieces of carp, which are eagerly taken after some ini-tial hesitation. At 3 months, with a length of about 6 cm, live Moderli-eschen of 4 cm are eaten already.

Concluding remarks

Nandus nandus are very inter-esting fish for aquarium enthusi-

asts, wo regard also the biological aspect of aquarium keeping.There is still some research to be done. Possibly within the IGL there are some interested parties, who would like to keep these fish. That would really make me happy.

Literature

ParamesWaran, s. et al. 1970. Some observations on the biology and life-history of Nandus nandus. Pond Culture Unit of Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Yay-sagar, Assam, Communicated bei Dr. BS Bhimachar: 143-145.Britz, r. 1997. Egg Surface Struc-ture and Larvale Clement Glands in Nandid and Badid Fishes. Amer-ican Museum Novitates. Published by the American Museum of Natu-ral History, New York, Nr. 3195: 17 pp. Heok He eng & zeeHan JaFFar 2008. A new species of leaf fish, Nandus andrewi. Zootaxa 1731: 24.HoLLy, m. o. J. Nandus nandus. In: Die Aquarienfische in Wort und Bild: 26-27. Stuttgart.

A freshly hatched emryo with oil globules (Foto: S. Inselmann)



Etymology

Polypterus derives from the Greek; Poly = more, Pterus = wing, which originates from the fin on the back of the fish. senegalus from Latin = found in the Senegal-River.Synonyms: Polypterus senega-lensis is a typographical error. Polypterus arnaudii dumeril, 1870 invalid junior synonym.Englisch: Gray Bichir, Deutsch : Senegal-Flösselhecht

Original description

This was done by Georges Cuvier in Le règne animal distribué d’après son organisation, 2nd edi-tion (1829).

Systematik

The systematics of Polypterus was highly controversial during the last two hundred years. Now they have been placed within the bony fish (Osteichthyes) of the ray-finned fishes (Actinoptery-gii). As members of a separate subclass Cladistia they occupy a rather isolated position. They form a separate order Bichirs - Polypteriformes with a single family Bichir - Polypteridae to which two genera Polypterus (14 species) and Erpetoichtys: (a sort

of reedfish) belong. Many differ-ent names are still common in the literature. One often reads that they can be directly assigned to the Chondrostei. After Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, a zoologist, who as one of many scientists accompa-nied Napoleon Bonaparte on the expedition to Egypt, discovered the first Polypterus and described it as Polyptère bichir [Polypterus bichir (Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1802)] (Töpfer 1998) it became clear how strange these creatures were. They have fascinated biologists ever since. One of them, Samuel Budgett (1872-1904), even lost

his life during the exploration of the reproduction of these animals (Budgett, JS 1901, Hall, 2001). The Polypteridae have paired lungs, which are used for breathing atmospheric oxygen. They have as juveniles external gills and have on top of that many other ana-tomical oddities, some very spe-cial, like old-fashioned scales, the so-called Ganoid scales , only four gill arches and many more. Those are ancient features of a very old family. Today, all representatives of this family are found exclusively in Africa. But fossils show that they once were very wide spread, that they lived on the ancient

Working group Bichir’s/Reedfish/Lungfish

Polypterus senegalus Cuvier, 1829 – the bichir from Senegal By Hugues Van Besien (F)

Polypterus bichir, the first known Bichir originates from Cuvier (Cuvier 1829)



continent of Gondwana, perhaps survived for 120 million years and for at least 60 million years show little change. Fossils have been found for example in South

America (Gayet & Meunier, 1991, Werner & Gayet, 1997, Dutheil, 1999, Gayet, Meunier & Werner 2002). Unfortunately usually only small pieces are found, such as

scales. New genetic research pro-vide insight on the question of the phylogenetic position of Polyp-teridae as an ancient and special group within the natural history of fish (Noack, Zardoya & Meyer 1996).

In his book on the Polypteridae Frank Schäfer proposes to split the various species into several groups (Schaefer 2004). Polypterus senegalus was relatively isolated, the three other groups were: the P. bichir group, the P. delhezi group and the P. palmas group. As indicators of Polypterus sene-galus the following features were named: The dorsal fin begins before the middle of the body, but not as early as in the other groups, the upper jaw is longer than the under jaw, and the spe-cies is both diurnal and nocturnal. All living Polypterus species have an elongated body, tubular nos-trils and the so-called “Finlets” - anatomically complex fin struc-tures on the back. The finlets con-sist of spines, from which several soft rays originate

Meristics (after Schafer): 53 - 61 lateral line scales, 34 - 40 scales around body,, 15 to 21 predorsal scales ; Number of dorsal finlets 8 to 11, usually 9 or 10

Description

In the literature and on many web-sites frequently a length of up to 50 cm or even 70 cm is described for P.senegalus. This information is not correct. Schaefer, who mea-sured hundreds of fish from differ-ent origin at ‘Glaser’(international fish importer in Germany, note translator) and in the collections of museums, never found an animal, which was longer than 35 cm. Of 169 fish caught in the river Chari, none was longer than 32 cm (Daget 1965). Of 110 fish from the River Pru in Ghana the largest specimen was 35 cm long (Dankwa, 2003). In it’s first year P. senegalus grows to a size of 10 to

The first picture of Polypterus senegalus Discovered and first described by E . Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (after Guichenot 1839).

Image 3: Classification of Cladistia (after Hoegg et al. 2004)



12cm. Under good conditions, P. senegalus needs 4 to 5 years to reach it’s maximum size (Daget 1965). They can get very old. One has survived for 34 years in the aquarium (Brown, 1957). The Senegal-bichir has the most elon-gated shape of all living Polypteri-dae. Seen from above the head is heavily emphasized, the fish are widest at the gills. They do not swim eel-like since the scale armor is relatively stiff. On the back the animal is uni-formly gray-brown in color, slightly grayish-white below, without any markings, except for a white line that marks the lower jaw, and a “tear line” behind the eyes to the throat. All other species of the genus show marbled appearances or deviations thereof. P. senega-lus only has a regular series of discreet dots on both sides of the back. The color never changes, nei-ther because of mood, nor wen in the spawning season. The young have three dark stripes along the body, which are disappearing at a length of 5 cm. They also have sal-amander-like external gills, which disappear in the course of growth. However, they can be present for a long time. 10-12 cm long ani-mals have been observed wich still had exterior gills. “Albinos” are commercially farmed in Asia, both black-eyed with a yellow body and red-eyed with a white body. The membrane of the finlets is gray. The ventral fins are small and are close to the anal fin. The anal fin is located directly in front of the tail fin. The tail fin is ellipti-cal, asymmetrical and joins seam-lessly into the dorsal fin. The tail makes up 20 percent of the length of the juveniles, but only 10 per-cent in adult fish.

Sexual dimorphism P. senegalus is sexually mature more quickly than most other spe-cies, which need 6 years or even longer. Both sexes can be distin-guished very well even at a length of 15 cm. The male has a larger,

wider anal fin than the female. One often reads that the animals are already sexually mature after 1 to 2 years. When animals are of the same age during the growth phase, the females are usually slightly larger than the males. P. senegalus, one of the smaller members of the genus Polypterus, is equally long-lived as it’s larger family members.

Habitat and behaviour

P. senegalus is widespread in Africa and is locally fairly common. It is

present in all river basins where water drains into the Atlantic Ocean and in the Nile Basin, from the edge of the Sahel to the forest zones on both sides of the equator. It lives in the quietest parts of the rivers, which are often connected to wetlands. At the start of the rainy season, it wanders into the flood zones of the papyrus or reed marshes (Cyprus papyrus, Typha sp.) or flood plains (floodplains with Oryza longistaminata, Era-grostis barteri). There, the water is often low in oxygen. Among the species that migrate there as well, are catfish (Clarias species, Heter-

Polypterus senegalus, the black dots in the last finlets only occur in the dwarf form (both pictures : F. Schäfer)



obranchus, Synodontis), bush fish (C. kingsleyae) Parachanna who also have the ability to breathe air, and robust bass and the African Osteoglossus Heterotis niloticus (Hickley & Bailey 1987

So our Polypterus lives both in clear and in turbid waters. Here and there we can even read that it can even walk short distances on land. The Ganoid scales would offer protection against the ele-ments. Young fish often hide in the dense root network of Eichornia crassipes, which was introduced into Africa and which causes the water at night to be very low in oxygen. Research has shown that the species P. senegalus is not endangered. In some areas, their numbers declined dramati-cally because of hydraulic struc-tures (dams) and by the reduction in flood areas since the species

reproduces slowly (Howell 1983, Lae, 1995).The analysis of stomach contents shows that the Senegal bichir feeds mainly on invertebrates, including freshwater crabs and dragonfly larvae, food which requires strong jaws. Indeed, its widespread occurence, it’s sea-sonal life and the behavior in the aquarium, lead to the assumption that it is above all an opportunist with a taste for dead flesh. Once even a bird’s bone was found in the stomach.

That is what explains in today’s world the success of Polypteridae. These animals are not top preda-tors. They do not swim as fast and are not very maneuverable, do not have eagle eyes, but only it’s sense of smell leads them to their feed. If you see them eating in the aquarium, you must start to

wonder, if you see how clumsily they grab the food. Only if they have the nose directly on the food, they bite. During the day they remain calm at the surface or on the ground and only move when hungry or upset. In the aquarium a few crumbs of food to set the fish in motion. During the night they are much more active and swim around.

Keeping

This long-lived, relatively large but peaceful fish does not need an oversized tank. It is enough to have an about a 1 m long aquarium. The difficulty lies more in keep-ing the water clean in tanks that are too small , as predators, and to this group belong the Senegal bichirs, have much waste materi-als. The size of the water surface

P. senegalus, the normal form shows no black dots in the rear finlets. (Picture: F. Schäfer)



is more important than the water level. Many hiding places, but also enough free swimming space should be available. The water parameters are relatively unim-portant, the temperature is best kept between 18 to 28 ° C . The species is very resistant, but can carry skin parasites of the genus Macrogyrodactylus, which must be combated. P. senegalus is known as a jumper. During the spawning season, it jumps frequently and violently. As a precautionary mea-sure against jumping out glass covers must be used and also the space between the surface and light tubes should be covered. One must be careful to ensure that all animals of a group get food, oth-erwise it may happen that always the same, larger animals eat, and the smaller fish get too little. Therefore, it is better to feed until saturation of all fish, in combina-tion with fasting days. Most foods, including frozen, is accepted, as long as they can smell it. Mus-sels, fish pieces, etc., even animal meat is eaten eagerly. I could not bring myself to feed the latter, out of fear for gastrointestinal prob-lems, especially at relatively low temperatures. The assessment of the behavior of the animals of this type is very different according to the authors. Maybe it depends on age. Perhaps it may also change during the spawning period. The coexistence with other species can be problematic. Large, active neighbors can be problematic with regard too enough food left, and too small a fish will be killed and eaten. That usually happens at night, even if it is believed that the clumsy Polypterus cannot have been responsible. Jo Gallo reported that he kept Polypterus senegalus together with Congo tetras (Phenacogrammus inter-ruptus), cichlids (Pelvicachromis) Ctenopoma and knife fish (Xeno-mystus) (Gallo 2004). The risky-est is the insertion of new fish in an aquarium, which is already a Polypterus home.

Breeding

Some websites claim that breed-ing in the aquarium has not yet occurred. That is not true. Captive animals have been constantly bred since the sixties in aquariums. P. senegalus seems also to be the only Polypterus-species, which is commercially farmed, even if many fish offered in shops in Europe are wild fish cought in Nigeria. The key to breeding is in the imitation of the conditions that prevail at the beginning of the rainy season. Much information I learned from the book by Frank Schafer (Scha-fer 2004). It has enabled me to finally realize my long time inter-

est in Polypterus, and I hope that my animals will be reproducing shortly. The conductivity of the keeping tanks should be relatively high (1700 microsiemens at 18 to 22 ° C). In a span of 5 to 6 weeks, the conductivity should then be reduced to 500 microseconds, com-bined with a temperature raise to 26 - 28 degrees Celsius. Alterna-tively, one transfers the animals to a different tank, especially if the female is ready. In nature, the spawning season is from May to June. The male begins courtship display in which the female is followed for a long time and prods her in the side. He swims up, jumps out of

P. senegalus – The normal form. (both pictures: F. Schäfer)



the water, spreads finlets and fins, and then swims under the female. The female selects the spawn-ing site (usually in a dense tuft of plants) and emits 100 to 300 eggs (in the early morning?), which easily stick to plants. It takes a few days for the larvae to hatch. In contrast to the large species P. senegalus has the reputation of eating their own eggs. The eggs measure 2 to 3 mm in diameter. 7 to 10 days, the larvae remain vir-tually motionless and consume the yolk sac. Then you can start to feed artemia nauplii and micro-worms that need to be spread in the aquarium using some current. Please note, larger juveniles eat their smaller siblings.

Literature

BROWN, M.E. 1957. Experimental studies on growth. In Brown M.E. (ed.). The physiology of fishes. Vol. I.

Metabolism, p. 361-400. New York.BUDGETT, J.S. 1901. On the breeding-habits of some West-African fishes, with an account of the external features in develop-ment of Protopterus annectens, and a description of the larva of Polypterus lapradei. Transac-tion of the Zoological Society of London, 16: 115-136.CUVIER, G. 1829. Le Règne animal distribué d’après son organisation, pour servir de base à l’histoire natu-relle des animaux, et d’introduc-tion à l’anatomie comparée. Paris. DAGET, J., Bauchot M.L. & ARNOULT, J. 1965. Etude de la croissance chez Polypterus sene-galus (Cuvier). Acta zoologica, n°46: 297-309.

Auch online: http://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/pleins_textes_5/b_fdi_08-09/10507.pdf.DANKWA, H. 2003. Biology of Polypterus senegalensis in Pru River, Ghana. ACP-EU Fisheries research Report, (14): 23-24.DUTHEIL, D. 1999. The first artic-ulated fossil cladistian: Serenoich-tys kemkemensis gen. et sp. nov from the cretaceous of Morocco. Journal of vertebrate Paleontol-ogy 19(2): 243-246.GALLO, J. 2004. Senegal (Cuvi-er’s) Bichir. Auch online: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/articles/articles/70/1/Senegal-Cuviers-Bichir---Polypterus-senegalus-Cu-vier/Page1.htmlGAYET, M., MEUNIER, J.-F. & WERNER, C. 2002. Diversification in Polypteriformes and Special Comparison with the Lepisostei-formes. Palaontology, 45(2): 361-376.GAYET, M., MEUNIER, J.-F. & SIRE, J.-Y. 1995. Approche phy-logénétiques des polyptériformes (Pisces, cladistia) = Phylogentic approach of the polypteriformes. GEOBIOS, n°19: 193-196.GAYET, M. & MEUNIER, J.-F. 1991. First discovery of Polypteri-dae (Pisces, Cladistia, Polypteri-formes) outside of Africa. Geobios, 24, Issue 4: 463-466.GUICHENOT, A. 1839. Monogra-phie de deux genres de poissons, les Lepisostees et les Polypteres. In: GUERIN-MENEVILLE, F.E. 1839. Magasin de zoologie, d’ana-tomie comparée et de paléontolo-gie. Arthus-Bertrand.HALL, B.K. 2001. John Samuel Budgett (1872-1904): In Pursuit of Polypterus. BioScience, 51(5): 399-407.

HICKLEY, P. & BAILEY, R.G. 1987. Fish communities in the eastern, seasonal-floodplain of the Sudd, Southern Sudan. Hydrobiologia, 144(3): 243-250.HOEGG, S., BRINKMANN, H., TAYLOR, J.S. & MEYER, A. 2004. Phylogenetic timing of the fish-specific genome duplication cor-relates with the diversification of teleosts fish. Journal of molecular evolution 59: 190-203.Auch online: http://www.u b . u n i - k o n s t a n z . d e / k o p s /volltexte/2007/3297/HOWELL, P.P. 1983. The impact of the jonglei Canal in the Sudan. The geographical Journal, 149(3): 286-300.LAË, R. 1995. Climatic and anthro-pogenic effects on fish diversity and fish yields in the central delta of the river Niger. Aquatic Living Resources, n° 8: 43-58.NOACK, K. , ZARDOYA, R. & MEYER, A. 1996. The complete mitochondrial DNA sequence of the Bichir (polypterus ornati-pinnis), a basal Ray-finned fish: ancient establishment of the consensus Vetebrate gene order. Genetics, 144(3): 1165–1180.sCHäFer, F. 2004. Polypterus Flös-selhechte Bichirs. Rodgau. töPFer, J. 1998. Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire und die Entdeckung der Polypteriden. Der Makropode, 20(5/6): 62-71.WERNER C. & Gayet, M. 1997. New fossil Polypteridae from the Cenomanian of Sudan. An evidence of their high diversity in the early Late Cretaceous. Cybium, 21(1): 67-81.Dazu noch eine Website: http://www.polypterus.info/



Serious and responsible care of aquarium fish without proper knowledge is impossible. There are several ways to acquire the necessary knowledge. Discus-sions with other aquarists or competent specialist dealers are an opportunity to gather information. In aquaria associa-tions and communities such as the IGL you meet like-minded people who gladly provide infor-mation. Essential is however the study of applicable literature, this is equal for the beginner, advanced or old hands. There is an incomprehensable number of books, journals and publications, dissertations, theses and stud-ies which deal partly or solely with fish which are maintained in the IGL. Some members of the IGL have created extensive lit-erature collections, or libraries, and maintain files containing literature - a wealth of material. These files have been created in Access, Word, Excel or other programs, each structured dif-ferently, all with very different search options.The Literature Working Group has set itself the goal to sum-marize the various files, to unify, to capture new and yet unno-

ticed old literature, evaluate and ultimately create a database in which very specific searches for fish and related information are possible. Another focus is the scanning of literature. These PDF files can then be requested by members. Of course, this will take time to complete and we will need help. Articles in different languages need to be evaluated, wantlists have to be processed, a lot of scanning needs to be done and…. To get an impression of of the quantities of material that needs to be processed. my per-sonal database now contains round 9,000 references, and I estimate that at least another 4,000 - to 7000 will be added.We hope to be able to present a first version at the autumn meet-ing 2009, which should by then contain approximately 2,000 records. This will provide us with a solid basis to demonstrate the various application possibilities. To the WG Literature currently belong: Hans-Jürgen Ende, Stefan Inselmann, Gerhard Ott, Dr. Jürgen Schmidt, Dr. Thomas Seehaus, Jörg Töpfer, Bruno Urbanski. People that are inter-ested in joining are very wel-come!

The newest working group Literature would like to introduce themselves

By Bruno Urbanski

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Starting with the 10th Edition of Linneaus‘ Systema Natu-rae (1758), animal species are described using a Latin or Lati-nized binomial (genus and spe-cies). Even though Linnaeus was not the first person to use this system, he was the one who consistently implemented this for the whole of nature. The year 1758 is therefore in the „Interna-tional Code of Zoological Nomen-clature, “ defined as the starting point of zoological nomenclature. It was also Linneaus (1758) who described the first Labyrinth fish as Labrus opercularis (Now Macropodus opercularis). Since then 250 years have passed and 240 species taxa have been added (Counted early 2008). Not all of these Nomina necessarily repre-

sent a separate species, a little over 70 of the nominal taxa are currently considered synonyms. Nevertheless, the steady increase shows on the one hand, that over time previously uncharted terri-tories were opened up ichthyo-logically, and on the other hand a change in species concept, which especially took place in recent decades. The article will describe the various mechanisms which impact the number of spe-cies descriptions since the begin-ning of the nomenclatural era.

Identifying and calculating the data

As a basis for the statisti-cal calculations in the article

data is used from the „Catalog of Fishes“ (Eschmeyer 2008). Reviewed were all species taxa listed in the directory by early 2008 of the respective families. Despite testing the program writ-ten for the evaluation I cannot state that all entries have been counted correctly. Mistakes in the „Catalog of Fishes“ (Missing entries, incorrect spelling) could also lead to variations of the actual numbers. However, this only concerns – if any – a few cases. To get a clearer impres-sion of the changes over time in the ά-taxonomical (alpha-Taxon-omie = „The elementary level of taxonomy, which focuses on the identification and designation of the species“ Mayr 1975: 339) activities, for the presentation of the species descriptions (Image 2 a, b) combined values of eight years were used, and only the mean values are shown. The line connecting the individual data points was, in order to clarify the amplitudes, redesigned by using smooting methods.

Number of Taxa Figure 1 shows the total number of labyrinthfish species taxa. Within the last 20 years it shows a steep rise. The curve of valid species follows the same angle, because the number of taxa con-sidered a synonym has barely increased in the past 50 years. Without any further infomation you might assume that the tax-onomists of earlier times were not attentive enough. But this is only partly true, because it must be borne in mind that past authors had for one no general

The taxonomic research of the labyrinth fishes from 1758–2008

By Ingo Schindler

Figure 1: First descriptions curve of all labyrinthfish taxa. Solid line = total number of described species, dotted line = number of ,currently considered, valid taxa, dashed line = number of synonyms.



knowledge on biological rela-tionships (for example, males and females have been consid-ered to be members of different species). Moreover, the descrip-tions from the earliest phase of the taxonomic study were short and not very informative and were rarely accompanied by meaningful, life-like draw-ings. These authors could there-fore not always properly assess which species had already been described. This resulted in the fact that during the period from 1800 to about 1860, the number of synonyms almost equals the number of valid taxa (in retrospect)l. In the “modern era” ( past 20 years) the curve increases (almost) exponentially, yet the line of synonyms remains the same. Does this mean that today there are no more conflicts between the views of differ-ent authors, or that the current taxonomists simply are better? Certainly not. It is rather the “modern” trimmed “pragmatic species concept”, which con-tributes to the recognition of any different population as a sepa-rate species (see also Schindler 2008).

Frequency of species descriptions in relationship to world events

In Figure 2a, the relative number of first descriptions in conjunc-tion with the number of authors (square size) is set against the time axis for the taxa of the Gourami family. The variations can be attributed, in some cases (marked with arrows) to histori-cal events. In other cases it is likely that several incidents coin-cided. Therefore, other interpre-tations are certainly possible. The dark, upward arrows indi-cate increases and the down-ward arrows on the decreases. From left to right these could be attributed to the following, parallel occurring events. First ascent from the writings of Bloch and Lacepède. Thereafter, a decrease, which is possibly due to the Napoleonic wars. The following increase is explained by the starting colonization and exploration of Southeast Asia (Hamilton, etc.). The subsequent down arrow indicates a decrease in authors active at this time, which may also partly be linked to the Euro-Asian effects of the Crimean War could. At the begin-ning of the 20th Century, again a significant increase, which is

largely caused by the extensive publication of Regan. The First World War, the Great Depression and the 2nd World War are likely to be the causes for the following decreases, marked by the light arrows. The last upward arrow indicates an extremely increas-ing number. This increase is the result of the extensive develop-ment of completely new and hitherto barely explored areas, of better travel opportunities for taxonomic researchers, and of the changed concept of species and the increase of taxonomists involved in research. Perhaps while looking at the diagram you may relate tis to very differ-ent historical events or authors, who had an influence on the number of species descriptions.

Figure 2b represents the same for the species of the family Ana-bantidae. Because of the rela-tively few taxa, the influences of historical events are not always clear. Still, it is interesting to see that the appearance of the curves of both Osphronemidae and Anabantidae show some similarities. I have been able to show similar correlations when analysing other fish families, so that at least some of the afore-mentioned historical events

Figure 2a: Taxonomic study of the Gourami family. x-axis = year, y-) axis = relative number (relative to the total number) of species descriptions, squares = number of authors. The arrows indicate changes that are discussed in more detail in the text.

Figure 2b: Taxonomic study of the family Anabantidae. x-axis = year, y-) axis = relative number (relative to the total number) of species descriptions, squares = number of authors.



have had a significant impact on the taxonomic study of living nature. The, in the last two decades dras-tically increased, number of taxa related to an increase in active authors (observable from the size of the squares) can also be seen in other animal groups (for other fish families this is also the case) . This could lead to the heretical-sounding question whether the “description” of a new Asian labyrinth fish, is caused solely by the growing number of active taxonomists, rather than - as one would normally assume – by the “discovery” of new forms (see for more on this relation the dis-cussion in Benton 2008 on the correlation between the number of authors and the number of dinosaur genera). Certainly, this is not applicable here. Because the increase of the number of authors (represented by larger squares in the graph) also shows the increased willingness to cooperate between parties. On the other hand, we must not lose sight of that, with the assigned exploration of the biodiversity, there is an obligation to pro-duce results. This and the vari-able interpretation of the species concept are two of the reasons, that lead to the worldwide and

in all systematic groups of living nature observed rapid accu-mulation of scientific names (Agapov et a. 2004). The (artifi-cial) increase, labelled as “taxo-nomical inflation”, in the number of species by processes that are not based on classic “discovery” can negatively impact the study of macroecological relationships, and hence also on Nature and species preservation (Isaac et al. 2004). From an aquarium point of view the scientific names are first of all an advantage. With these, it is possible to identify the fish we keep, and to name them internationally in a clear and con-sistent way. Subsequently, how-ever, in the context of species preservation we are faced with the dilemma that more and more “sponsors” must be available, to maintain the rising number of tax-onomically differentiated forms in aquaria.(see Finke 2008).

The Authors

Taxonomists that are responsi-ble for at least four species taxa, are summarized in Figure 3. It should however be noted that the authorship of the publica-tions by Cuvier & Valenciennes is not entirely clear to me. I there-fore recorded both of them under

a single name. In addition to that, it should be noted that the Viet-namese scientist Nguyen, who described four Macropodus-taxa (see Schindler, 2009), has not been included since the data was only included in later versions of the “Catalog of Fishes.”

The name that appears most fre-quently in the species descrip-tions list is Ng (Singapore), followed by the Swiss Kottelat. At a distance the Dutch Bleeker is the first, already dead, histori-cal author. Vierke is well known to many labyrinth fish friends as an author of aquarium related essays and writer in the Makro-pode. The list of the most active describers also includes Dr. Jürgen Schmidt (longtime editor and author of The Makropode), one of the internationally best known members of the IGL. The white column indicates the total number of species taxa pub-lished by the author and the col-ored column the amount thereof known to be synonyms. Neither from the height of the column, nor from the number of synonyms can any conclusions regarding the taxonomic skills of the people involved be drawn. There are definitely very good taxonomists, who have not submitted any, or relatively few, species descrip-tions. They often follow a con-servative approach (different species concept) and focus more on complementary descriptions of not well researched species. Ernst Mayr, the “Darwin of the 20th Century “, pointed out in his recommendations on the zoo-logical classification that (Mayr 1975: 247)” ... the re-description of poorly known representatives, is much more important, than the description of other new forms “.

Outlook

The taxonomic study of the laby-rinth fish is far from complete. We need to consider future species descriptions. The large number Fig. 3: The authors with the highest number of species descriptions.



IMPRESSUM

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of already available forms of dif-ferent Betta’s (Linke 2007), Lico-rice gouramis (Finke 2008) and gouramis (Schafer 2008) illustrate this. Also from the study of the African “air breathers” “discov-eries are expected shortly. The detailed analysis of the variation of various African species could, if the modern species concept is applied, result in the growth of the number of taxa. In addition, the ichthyological exploration of the Congo Basin has only in

recent years been intensified. But also the renaming (see Tricho-gaster versus Colisa; Töpfer 2008) and synonymising (as has happened in M. erythropterus = M. spechti, see Schindler, 2009) will retain it’s influence on the sci-entific names of our Labyrinths.

Literature

agaPoW, P.M. et al. 2004. The impact of species concept on bio-

diversity studies. Quar. Rev. Biol., 79: 161–179. Benton, m. J. 2008. How to find a dinosaur, and the role of syn-onymy in biodiversity studies. Paleobiol., 34: 516–533.esCHmeyer, W.N. 2008. Catalog of fishes. California Academy of Sciences – Ichthyology. Online-Version February 2008.Finke, P. 2008. Der Prachtgura-mibestand in unseren Aquarien im Herbst 2008. Der Makropode, 30(4): 119–128.



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Regio BasiliensisAchim HeldLindenstrasse 4279639 Grenzach-WylenDeutschland – GermanyTel. +49 (0)7624-8382E-Mail: [email protected]

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P. senegalus, the normal form shows no black dots in the rear finlets. (Photo: F. Schäfer)

Macropodus hongkongensis (Photo: Dr. J. Schmidt)


Betta smaragdina, Nong Bua Lam Phu, Issan, Thailand (Photo: M. Scharfenberg)

Badis ruber (Photo: H. Linke)

DER MAKROPODE 2_09.pdf · Dario dario (Foto: G. Ott) Sphaerichthys vaillanti (Foto: F. Schäfer)...

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Transcript of DER MAKROPODE 2_09.pdf · Dario dario (Foto: G. Ott) Sphaerichthys vaillanti (Foto: F. Schäfer)...