aquiring new wild species

[aspen]

i want to start a thread on keeping fish that you know nothing about. from time to time the lfs's have fish in that are simply labelled 'apisto sp.'. this morning i bought 7 of these which looked interesting. they are supposed to be from a shipment from colombia and they came in as checkerboards which they are not. they are a small fish, apisto shaped and males and females are distinct. they have bars (stress bars??) and while they seem fully developed at 3/4- 1", they show no colour. they don't look like anything in the romer book i've found so far.

a while back i got some wild nannacara anomala and they killed each other off, then the last one started killing the pencilfish before i slammed it. i don't want that to happen again, so can anyone give any advice as to how i can avoid this?

atm i put them all in a 10 gal tank jammed with cover and put in 3 lemon tetras and a female american flag fish. my strategy is that the tetras will be good dithers, and the aff will be the dominate fish in the tank. ie, as long as one of these new fish is not able to take over the tank it will not get into it's head that it should kill the others. the other fish are pretty much expendable, the apistos are the fish i want to try and raise to breeding size. any thoughts?

if these fish are indeed an undescribed species, do i get to name them? (he he)

rick

 

[Mike Wise]

One of the joys of apisto keeping is finding an unusual form that - at least to you - is new. Right now there are about 200 different species & forms (populations that are distinctive enough that 'splitters' could consider them separate species). Even so, there are new forms appearing every year. The following is how I work with new forms.

First I look at the fish carefully so that I can determine the species-group/complex to which they belong. Usually most species within a complex have similar water requirements. If you can find out where they originated, that's great. Fortunately, you know that your new fish came in with Checkerboard Cidhlids from Colombia. There are only 2 known forms of checkerboards from Colombia - D. filamentosus & D. sp. aff. filamentosus (Obenschwert/Upper-sword). Both of these are blackwater species. Therefore I would put the unknown fish in a blackwater environment (soft, acid water). Since your fish are small, I'd just wait for a month or two until the develop their adult features. If you still can't ID them from any books or other sources, send photos here. Most likely someone here can ID them. If not, then you can assume you have a new form.

I quarantine all of my fish for at least 4 weeks - if they act perfectly normal and I haven't lost any fish - and 6 to 8 week for wild fish or fish that have had problems. Wild fish start out in water similar to what they have in the wild. Depending on the circumstances water changes will be in the same water type or slowly changed to tap water. My quarantine tanks are 10 - 20L gallons with no gravel. I often even remove the lights. The only thing in the tank (since the room is heated) is a sponge filter (easy to sterilze & re-inoculate with nitrifying bacteria if necessary) and stacks of 1 - 1¼" diameter, 4 - 6" long pieces of PVC pipe. These are cheap, easy to remove & sterilize, and act as artificial leaf litter. With enough pieces filling the tank, the fish rarely see each other! There is little aggression. It also means that you might need to pull the tubes occassionaly to check on your fish. Although I have never tried it, I imagine that a 4" thick layer of these pipes across the tank would make excellent spawning sites for colony breeding. There should be no need for adding target/dither fish. A quarantine tank is designed to let the fish adjust & recuperate from their journey.

If you find a new fish, I see nothing wrong with giving it a common name that you choose. Just publish an article with pictures in a magazine or web site first. There are already too many fish with more than 1 common name, or names that can't be tied to a particular species (e.g. A. sp. Carapintada). I personally don't care for the common name of a fish being named after people. It does nothing to describe the fish or say where it comes from. Still it's been done. Scientifically describing a new species is another thing entirely. There are rules and requirements for this, and best left to the professionals.

 

[apistodave]

Actuall Aspen you dont have to be a Phd to submit descriptions for new species, anyone can do it! If you do though you better have a thick hide!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is some info and links here-- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/taxonomyhome.html/index.cgi?chapter=CHANGETOCLASS

 

[apistodave]

I agree with Mike!!!!!!!!!! Oh boy! New common names for animals should have rules for giving them. If given someones name it's just someone stroking their own ego--Common names should be limited to location. like Ap Sp Manaus

 

[aspen]

actually a tank of 'apistogramma deborahi's' (named after MY wife who should get SOMETHING out of this hobby other than being by herself most of the time) would look very nice beside my ELIZABETHAE'S who were named for professor aggassizzi's wife. but seriously, i don't need a fish named after me, i was being a little facetious.

do i have a think skin? he he, work in construction for a while.

rick

 

[apistodave]

 

[apistodave]

Used to be a rigger at a Naval Shipyard. Nuclear Subs. Thin skin is not as important as an iron stomach! You could describe it and name it after your wife Rick!