Hans
New Member
Posts: 39 
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Post by Hans on Feb 29, 2016 14:24:25 GMT -6
This is the only one left of this species in my tanks. But luckily I will get new ones in June this year at the international meeting of the IRG in Germany. Looking forward to it!   |
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Post by Mark~N on Feb 29, 2016 20:00:32 GMT -6
Nice pics Hans!..Great to see and hear you will be getting more!.. |
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Post by Chelmon on Mar 1, 2016 17:00:24 GMT -6
 I have noticed that almost all the P. connieae that I see in captivity these days have lost their nice first dorsal fin. There hasn't been any new wild stock for the last 38 years I think. The same has happened with P. furcatus. Adrian |
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Post by Mark~N on Mar 1, 2016 17:08:19 GMT -6
agree Adrian.that first dorsal makes or breaks them.we will have to hope for a recollection someday
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Post by Chelmon on Mar 1, 2016 17:11:20 GMT -6
This is one of the original P. furcatus. Adrian  |
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Post by rainbowbratt on Mar 1, 2016 18:55:58 GMT -6
Glad you mentioned this Adrian. Mark and I were just talking about this earlier. Didn't think to post about it.
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Post by bowlover on Mar 2, 2016 3:12:51 GMT -6
I have noticed that almost all the P. connieae that I see in captivity these days have lost their nice first dorsal fin. There hasn't been any new wild stock for the last 38 years I think. The same has happened with P. furcatus. Adrian Your right Adrian and notice that the first connieae were really white , now a days they are more yellowish |
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Post by Chelmon on Mar 2, 2016 19:22:24 GMT -6
I have noticed that almost all the P. connieae that I see in captivity these days have lost their nice first dorsal fin. There hasn't been any new wild stock for the last 38 years I think. The same has happened with P. furcatus. Adrian Your right Adrian and notice that the first connieae were really white , now a days they are more yellowish Yes, I think somewhere along the way inbreeding has produced the shorter fin and its never been culled from the available stock. Some captive populations I see on the Internet have almost lost their first dorsal fin :-( I still had some back in 2000 and they had the long fin. I passed them on to another hobbyist who has since lost them all. He bred them for a while but they just faded away and he never passed any on to anyone else. I just want to mention that anyone looking at the above image that I posted the dorsal and anal fins look blue, but they are actually white. Its just that the imagee was taken from a slide and sometimes the colours don't come out right when you scan a slide. Adrian |
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Post by Mark~N on Mar 2, 2016 20:45:38 GMT -6
Wow. 38 years is a long time..Looks like the body shape changed a lot also guys?.Most likely the same for Ivanstoffi I assume?. If not the getting close. We should have a list somewhere of the collection dates for species. Most can be traced I assume. And just how long does the brother/sister,back to 1 parent method really maintain them properly. One of the reasons not to push them quickly through generations. With pseudomugils it is a lot more difficult not to.I understand Adrian how difficult it is to find someone you pass a fish onto that is willing to maintain a species,breed and distribute.We know there is more that will drop out (short term interest) than join in with the efforts of rainbowfish.Sad to even think what the next generation rainbowfish keeper numbers will be.
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Post by Chelmon on Mar 2, 2016 23:48:09 GMT -6
As far as I know there has only ever been 2 collections of Pseudomugil connieae. Gerald Allen brought 8 live specimens back to Australia in 1978. These fish were given to Günther Schmida for photographing (he actually picked them up from Sydney airport). The image above was taken by Günther. He (Günther) told me that he gave them back to Gerry Allen after he photographed them. I think Gerry then sent some of them to Neil Armstrong in Melbourne for breeding and photographing. I also have one of his early images of the species.
I also think that Heiko Bleher collected some in 1982? I guess they were distributed in Europe and form much of the available stock currently in Europe. Although, I sent some of mine to Europe in 1994, which at the time I was told that there wasn't many available in Europe? I know that these were bred and distributed through the IRG, so its possible that the stock available in Europe today are probably decendents of my stock?
Live specimens of Pseudomugil furcatus were collected in 1981 by Gerald Allen and Barry Crockford and brought back to Australia. I don't know if Heiko collected this species. If not, then all the species available today came from that single collection?
Its just not possible to maintain all the species in the hobby, and its getting even harder with so many new species coming available. The highest number of species (or varieties) that I ever kept was 40 in 1985, and I was breeding ever one at least once a year. If we (the hobby) want to maintain all the species available today then there will have to be many more dedicated rainbowfish keepers than there is today. Otherwise many of the species being maintained today will disappear. They may very well disappear from their natural habit as well :-(
Adrian
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Post by Mark~N on Mar 6, 2016 14:46:33 GMT -6
Agree Adrian.. Hans should still get them if he has the chance. They may be the only ones we will see regardless
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