mike you lucky ...

[Tea]

Hey Mike what did you bring back? just curios and would love to see some pics of the places you saw and collected from...

 

[Mike Wise]

Most of the fish I brought back were for my personal study of the eunotus-complex & understand the relationships of the nijsseni-group species west of the Rio Ucayali. This is everything I brought back:

Colombia:
A. sp. Nadelstreifen
A. agassizii yellow morph
Misc. characiforms:
A new (?) Poecilocharax or Gnathocharax sp.
Nannostomus marginatus
Nannostomus trifasciatus
2 different Pyrrhulina spp.
Copella sp.
The Pyrrhulinids will probably be going to the Weitzmans at the Smithsonians if they want them, as well as 2 Tyttocharax sp. that didn't make it back alive.

Colombia can be an unnerving place. The national police were everywhere in full combat gear. We saw them arrest suspected rebels - hands bound behind their backs, blindfolds, in a ditch with assault weapons trained on them. I hadn't seen this for 40 years (in another part of the world).

Peru:
Iquito/Nauta:
Crenuchus spilurus (Sailfin tetra) w/beautiful red fins.
Lost the A. sp. Schwarzbrust/Black-breast before we left.

Pebas/Rio Shashita:
A. sp. Papagei (Ampiyacu) A91
A. cf. eunotus Shishita (Big & very BLUE - almost like Morado!)
We only collected A. sp. Pebas-Morado, but only 1 female that survived. Tom took those to Norway.

Huantá:
A. cf. eunotus Huantá (collectors call it "Negro"; might be the Albertini form of A. cf. eunotus Schwanzstreifen/Tail-stripes)
Boehlkea sp. (Blue tetra)

Rio Itaya:
A. sp. Oregon
Moenkhausea cf. edithae

Rio Tigre:
A. bitaeniata RED!

Orán:
A. sp. Roca Eterna (a eunotus-complex form that just might be the less colorful Papagei A92 - I need to study this further.

Unknown collecting areas (from tanks at Stingray Aquarium):
A. sp. Zwilling/Twin
A. sp. Nijsseni-New
A. norberti

Photos are still being sorted. They need to be re-sized before I can show any.

 

[Microman]

And thanks to Tom i now also have the vast majority of the Apistos swimming in my tanks now.
The A cf eunotus Shishita are absolutely stunning Mike... Very pleased indeed with the A sp Nadelstreifen.

"Quote Mike"
We saw them arrest suspected rebels - hands bound behind their backs, blindfolds, in a ditch with assault weapons trained on them. I hadn't seen this for 40 years (in another part of the world).

Well Mike as i said to Tom, If i had seen this i would have fallen from those motorcycles with my backside twitching somewhat.....

Mark...