Also my last trip to the Amazon (October-08) covered a little more than
collecting Apistogramma.
I had previously seen a beautiful, tiny fish called the "Picaflor" (means Colibri in Spanish, therefore, also called the "Colibri red"), which would be almost impossible to send, and to keep, because of their fragility and minimal size. In 2007 I got some of these by a local fisherman, but while he stored them for me while I was on expeditions in the area, they all died. I would so much like to have some of these ... ...
In 2008 I had an exciting “Apistogramma-business†in Rio Shishita, and since one of my local acquaintances knew that "Picaflor" were living in the jungle not so very far from where we heading, we decided to try to find them while we still were in Rio Shishita.
From the Rio Shishita
We went into the jungle
This beautiful fruits are well known to the locals:
They provide an extremely strong red color when they are shattered, and are used by local Indian tribes (Huitoto, Bora and Yagua Indians) when they paint their faces and bodies.
We could eat wild Lime (Citrus latifolia) from the trees
And notice the colorful flies on our shoes:
At last we came to this biotope:
And we found what we were after:
As you see, they were collected together with Dwarf pencilfish Nannostomus marginatus.
The water pH: 5,32 Conductivity: 21 microSiemens/cm Temperature: 24,0 °C
Fortunately I was able to bring them back to my base in Iquitos alive, and not least: someone kept them alive while I was on other expeditions.
I brought 6 pieces with me when I went home, more than 2 weeks later.
Miraculously all of them survived the trip, and was put in a small quarantine tank of 45 liters, together with some Nannostomus marginatus that I had collected along with them.
The latter has already about 11 mm big fry in the tank:
Back to the micro fish:
Here is one of them looking for food on the small air-driven sponge filter in the tank, just after arrival:
This is not a big fish, they measured only about 8 mm, including the tail fin!
They have now grown to over 11 mm total length.
Here two males are displaying / threatens each other
This female seems to be full of eggs ?:
Males:
I give them newly hatched BBS every day, and this is very popular.
Here a male is hunting an artemia naupli:
He is just about to gape over something:
And one newly hatched artemia naupli is obviously quite a mouthful for this beautiful, tiny little fish:
The fish is probably a Odontocharacidium cf. aphanes.
"cf." because it is more red and have slightly different dark markings than the Odontocharacidium aphanes, which is called Green dwarf tetra.
Now it remains to see if it is possible to keep them alive, and who knows, maybe these females full of eggs could result in something more .......
collecting Apistogramma.
I had previously seen a beautiful, tiny fish called the "Picaflor" (means Colibri in Spanish, therefore, also called the "Colibri red"), which would be almost impossible to send, and to keep, because of their fragility and minimal size. In 2007 I got some of these by a local fisherman, but while he stored them for me while I was on expeditions in the area, they all died. I would so much like to have some of these ... ...
In 2008 I had an exciting “Apistogramma-business†in Rio Shishita, and since one of my local acquaintances knew that "Picaflor" were living in the jungle not so very far from where we heading, we decided to try to find them while we still were in Rio Shishita.
From the Rio Shishita
We went into the jungle
This beautiful fruits are well known to the locals:
They provide an extremely strong red color when they are shattered, and are used by local Indian tribes (Huitoto, Bora and Yagua Indians) when they paint their faces and bodies.
We could eat wild Lime (Citrus latifolia) from the trees
And notice the colorful flies on our shoes:
At last we came to this biotope:
And we found what we were after:
As you see, they were collected together with Dwarf pencilfish Nannostomus marginatus.
The water pH: 5,32 Conductivity: 21 microSiemens/cm Temperature: 24,0 °C
Fortunately I was able to bring them back to my base in Iquitos alive, and not least: someone kept them alive while I was on other expeditions.
I brought 6 pieces with me when I went home, more than 2 weeks later.
Miraculously all of them survived the trip, and was put in a small quarantine tank of 45 liters, together with some Nannostomus marginatus that I had collected along with them.
The latter has already about 11 mm big fry in the tank:
Back to the micro fish:
Here is one of them looking for food on the small air-driven sponge filter in the tank, just after arrival:
This is not a big fish, they measured only about 8 mm, including the tail fin!
They have now grown to over 11 mm total length.
Here two males are displaying / threatens each other
This female seems to be full of eggs ?:
Males:
I give them newly hatched BBS every day, and this is very popular.
Here a male is hunting an artemia naupli:
He is just about to gape over something:
And one newly hatched artemia naupli is obviously quite a mouthful for this beautiful, tiny little fish:
The fish is probably a Odontocharacidium cf. aphanes.
"cf." because it is more red and have slightly different dark markings than the Odontocharacidium aphanes, which is called Green dwarf tetra.
Now it remains to see if it is possible to keep them alive, and who knows, maybe these females full of eggs could result in something more .......
