Discus Fish

FRESHWATER AQUARIUMS & TROPICAL DISCOVERY
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❙ Rio Xingu Report
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012
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James M. Lawrence
EDITOR & PUBLISHER |
2 EDITORIAL by Hans-Georg Evers
INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHER | Matthias Schmidt
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF | Hans-Georg Evers 4 AQUATIC NOTEBOOK
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SENIOR ADVISORY BOARD |
Dr. Gerald Allen, Christopher Brightwell, Svein COVER STORY
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by Horst Köhler
CONTRIBUTORS |
Juan Miguel Artigas Azas, Dick Au, Jeffrey
Christian, Morrell Devlin, Ian Fuller, Jay
36 DISCUS MADE IN GERMANY:
Hemdal, Neil Hepworth, Maike Wilstermann- An interview with Heinz Stendker
Hildebrand, Ad Konings, Marco Tulio C. Lac- of Diskuszucht Stendker
erda, Michael Lo, Neale Monks, Martin Thaler
Morte, Christian & Marie-Paulette Piednoir, by Thomas Weidner
Karen Randall, Ben Tan
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by Ole Klawonn
Anne Linton Elston
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48 DISCUS: MYTH & REALITY
ASSOCIATE EDITORS |
by Mary E. Sweeney
Louise Watson, John Sweeney, Eamonn Sweeney
COHORTS | Alexander Bunten, Will Bunten, Tyler & 54 WINNING DISCUS:
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COVER:
Leopard Discus 85 AMAZONAS DESTINATIONS:
Photos: H.-G. Evers
World-class aquarium shops and places to visit
86 RETAIL SOURCES
88 SPECIES SNAPSHOTS
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92 SOCIETY CONNECTIONS
96 UNDERWATER EYE
1
EDITORIAL
Hans-Georg Evers (left) and Horst Köhler at the Zierfische & Aquarium trade show in Duisburg.
Dear Reader,
Discus have their very own circle of fans—and a very never before been published in an aquarium magazine.
big circle it is. I am also particularly pleased that we have been
To outsiders (and I am one), it is sometimes dif- able to conduct an interview with Patrick Yap, a
ficult to understand the amount of fuss some enthusi- world-class rare fish-collector and exporter in Singa-
asts make about their circular pets. Here in Germany, pore. His enthusiasm is infectious, and we all have
the devotees of wild forms, in particular, seem to like him to thank for making so many unusual and new
to emphasize the exclusivity and the difficulty of keep- Asian fishes available to us.
ing their fishes, though fans of cultivated forms don’t Brazil has recently been a source of both excite-
do so to such an extent. Some vehemently reject the ment and concern. In Aquatic Notebook, which starts
often gaudily colored results of Asian breeding on page 4, we offer an update on a drama and poten-
efforts, but others, often beginners at keeping tial manmade disaster that is unfolding on the Rio
discus, accept them enthusiastically. Xingu. The Belo Monte dam project should be
So it took me quite some time to make of concern to all thinking aquarists and all who
sense of the confusing number of names respect the rights of indigenous peoples.
for an incredibly large number of cultivated On several happier notes, there is plenty of
forms. Was it possible to tackle such a sub- reading matter for fans of new and rare species.
ject for “normal aquarists” without boring One, in fact, happens to be a fish I personally was
the discus-abstainers to death? You already fortunate enough to find and collect in Sulawesi
know, gentle readers, that we sometimes in 2010. It is a very likeable ricefish with a
encourage you to think outside the box. highly unusual mode of reproduction that I
We have been able to obtain the services am still observing in my own home aquaria.
of a very experienced author for our lead- Now some scientists have finally dared to de-
ing article. The editor and publisher of the scribe it and name it after me: Oryzias eversi. I
well-known Diskus-Brief, Horst Köhler, has am highly honored and hope this curious spe-
been kind enough to attack the keyboard for cies someday makes it into the aquarium hobby.
us once again, and promptly became top con-
AMAZONAS
tender for the title “author of longest article published Happy reading!
M. SAJONZ
in AMAZONAS to date.” I believe that more informa-

tion on the “most colorful discs in the world” has
2
AMAZONAS
3
AQUATIC NOTEBOOK
t by Louise Watson, AMAZONAS Staff Report
Belo Monte: Protests mount against

“Monster Dam” on Brazil’s Rio Xingu
Biologists and human rights observers are calling it an to power a growing economy and reduce dependence on
epic disaster in the making, a massive river-damming fossil fuels, but opponents say that there are far more
complex in the heart of the Amazon basin that threat- environmentally sound ways to save and generate elec-
ens tens of thousands of native rainforest dwellers and tricity and that the damage—including the release of huge
the fish populations that sustain them and enrich the amounts of methane, a gas 25 times as potent as carbon
aquarium world. dioxide—would far outweigh the benefits.
Belo Monte, the third largest hydroelectric project According to Amazon Watch, an NGO founded “to
in the world, is part of the Brazilian government’s plan protect the rainforest and advance the rights of the indig-
enous peoples of the Amazon Basin,” 80 per-
cent of the water in the Xingu River, a major
tributary of the Amazon, will be diverted
Damming and
diversion of the
Rio Xingu, below,
will displace tens
of thousands of
indigenous peoples
in the heart of the
Amazon basin and
threaten native
stocks of fishes
caught for food and
export to aquarists.
AMAZONAS
4
Left: Construction has begun with
the opening of new roads through
the virgin forests.
Below: Indigenous warriors protest

the invasion of their lands.
forest, and displace as many

as 40,000 people, according to
some estimates.
An independent panel of
experts made up of scientists
from Brazilian research insti-
tutions came to the conclu-
sion that the dam project
would cause a permanent
drought in the area, with the
into two giant canals, each one-third of a mile wide, the following consequences:
creation of which would excavate more earth than was t'JTITUPDLT XIJDIBSFFTQFDJBMMZSJDIBOEEJWFSTF
moved to build the Panama Canal. The dam would flood in the Xingu, would be decimated. (Inhabitants of the
258 square miles (670 km2), over half of which is rain- region get 70 percent of their protein from fish.) The
RAFAEL SALAZAR/WWW.AMAZONWATCH.ORG
AMAZONAS
5
ornamental fish trade, an important source of income for the federal constitution and international agreements on
poor fisher families, would be crippled. The tribes whose prior consultations with indigenous peoples regarding
ancestral lands, homes, and ways of life are threatened projects that put their livelihoods and territories at risk.
include the Kayapó, Arara, Juruna, Araweté, Xikrin, Human rights and environmental protection cannot be
Asurini and Parakanã Indians. subordinated to narrow business interests.”
t5IFSFEVDUJPOJOUIFSJWFSTnPXXPVMESFTUSJDUPS An incomplete environmental impact assessment, the
prohibit navigation, preventing trade and access to medi- failure to inform and consult with the people who would
cal care. Below the dam, agriculture would suffer from be affected, and a judge’s ruling that the project could go
lack of water; upstream, wells would be contaminated ahead without these essential components have angered
by the rise in the water table and water-borne diseases many, and a number of protests have been staged, includ-
would proliferate. ing a three-week occupation of the site this June.
t5IFQSPNJTFPGDPOTUSVDUJPOBOETVQQPSUKPCT
would entice up to 100,000 people into the unspoiled re- ON THE INTERNET:
gion via a network of new roads. These newcomers would International Rivers: http://www.internationalrivers.org
compete for about 40,000 jobs and place an untenable Amazon Watch: http://amazonwatch.org/work/belo-monte-dam
burden on already frail physical and social infrastruc- James Cameron, A Message from Pandora:
tures. Many of these immigrants are expected to settle in http://amazonwatch.org/news/2011/0907-message-from-pandora
the rainforest and take up illegal logging and ranching. Sigourney Weaver, Defending the Rivers of the Amazon: http://
There is more to the Belo Monte project than meets amazonwatch.org/news/2010/0830-defending-the-rivers-of-the-amazon-
the eye: Additional upstream dams would be required sigourney
in order to guarantee year-round power output, because Survival International: http://www.survivalinternational.org/about/belo-
water flow in the Xingu is subject to wide seasonal varia- monte-dam
tions. And 30 percent of the power that would be gener- Xingu Vivo (Portuguese only): http://www.xinguvivo.org.br/
ated has already been sold to the huge
Eletrobras electric utility company, which
will resell it to mining operations and
other unsustainable and power-intensive
industries.
A number of NGOs opposing the
dam, including International Rivers,
Xingu Vivo, and Amazon Watch, have
been joined in their fight by celebri-
ties—including James Cameron, director
of the film Avatar, and actress Sigourney
Weaver, who starred in the movie. Videos
featuring both can be seen on the Ama-
zon Watch website.
Construction of access roads to the
site began in March 2011, but those
opposed to the dam complex have been
cheered in recent weeks as high-level
forces have been attempting to halt con-
TUSVDUJPOWJBMFHBMNFBOT'FEFSBMKVEHF
Souza Prudente, whom many hailed as
courageous for championing the rights of
indigenous peoples, ordered work to stop
in August 2012. The order was overturned A Xikrin warrior at an Occupy Belo
RAFAEL SALAZAR/WWW.AMAZONWATCH.ORG
XJUIJOEBZTCZUIF4VQSFNF'FEFSBM$PVSU Monte protest in the summer of

2012. Tribal leaders said: “We
of Brazil. It was the latest in a series of
don’t want this dam to destroy the
conflicting rulings, and more are expected ecosystems and the biodiversity that
as worldwide opposition to the plan we have taken care of for millenia and
HSPXT 5IF'FEFSBM1VCMJD1SPTFDVUPST which we can still preserve.”
Office filed an appeal on September 3).
AMAZONAS
Prudente said, “The court’s decision

highlights the urgent need for the Brazil-
ian government and Congress to respect
6
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7
AQUATIC NOTEBOOK
Female Micropoecilia sarrafae presenting

her flank during courtship.
Micropoecilia sarrafae
—an old friend newly described
by Elke Weiand and Dirk Stojek tRecent years have seen the arrival in the trade of not only the
red cultivated form of the Swamp or Painted Guppy (Micropoecilia picta) and the color forms of
the Twospot Livebearer (M. parae), but also a number of other interesting Micropoecilia species,
including Branner’s Livebearer (M. branneri) and M. minima. Yet another species—Micropoecilia
sarrafae—has also been sold under these names. This fish wasn’t scientifically described until 2010,
although it did turn up earlier in the aquarium hobby under other names.
In spring 2010, I (EW) obtained some fishes purported Risk of degeneration

to be Micropoecilia minima from an aquarist friend. I had My four females settled in quickly, and soon the first fry
been keeping this species since 2005 and was particularly were swimming around in the tank without being hunted
interested in the new fishes when I heard about their significantly by the adults. Unfortunately, the aquarium
different appearance. Unfortunately, I was able to obtain was sited in a less than ideal spot, and I was too busy to
only four females and no males, but one thing was clear keep a close eye on it. So by the time I noticed that the
the moment I saw them in the bag: they certainly weren’t females were infested with Camallanus worms, it was too
Micropoecilia minima. late. Although I treated them immediately, this didn’t
The fishes looked rather like females of Micropoecilia help much; all but one of the fishes died, and the survi-
branneri, a pair of which I had gotten in 2009. And on vor was badly damaged.
the basis of photos, Dirk Stojek agreed. He had obtained -VDLJMZ *XBTBCMFUPPCUBJOBTNBMMHSPVQPG'1 tank-
a number of imported specimens that looked very much breds of both sexes from the same source. This time the
like mine. However, we noticed that, unlike the Micropoe- fishes were carefully wormed and remained in superb
cilia branneri from the previous year, these new ones had condition. The group were housed in a standard 24-inch
dark spots on the flanks and the ring around the caudal- (60-cm) aquarium filled with tap water (general hard-
peduncle spot was orange-yellow rather than light yellow. ness 12°dGH, carbonate hardness 9°KH, and pH 7).
AMAZONAS
They were, in fact, a species that had been described as They ate, displayed, and mated, but no fry resulted. In
D. STOJEK
Poecilia sarrafae that same year by Bragança & Costa, and addition, the number of fishes gradually decreased for
which is here termed Micropoecilia sarrafae. no obvious reason until just a pair were left. I moved the
8
Pair of Branner’s Livebearer,
Micropoecilia branneri.
survivors to the 10-inch (25-cm) tank on my desk, and males died a day later. I was unable to identify any reason
one day at feeding time I found three little pairs of eyes for their demise, but at least I had one more male now.
staring curiously at me. The fishes occupied a 16-gallon (60-L) tank. A
The little “mini fishes” grew on slowly but steadily, smaller tank seemed less suitable because of their ap-
and a few more appeared now and then; eventually, the parently unlimited need to be on the move. Males tend
group numbered 10 again. I then split them between two to vigorously chase one another and the females around
aquariums, and after a rather long pause there were fry the tank. I never noticed any injuries resulting, but I was
in both tanks. worried that subordinate individuals might be harmed by
While on the one hand this was reason for celebra- long-term stress.
tion, on the other I was a little worried: The tank-breds The water was used untreated from the tap and had a
were considerably smaller than the wild-caught fishes pH of around 7.5, a carbonate hardness of about 3°dKH,
GSPNTQSJOH&WFOUIF'1 failed to grow anywhere and a total hardness of some 20°dGH. The tank was
OFBSBTCJHBTUIFXJMEmTIFT BOEUIF'2 were smaller heated only by the room temperature and by warmth
still. Unfortunately, I still don’t know the reason for this from the aquariums below it. In this way I maintained a
dwarfing. The causes of the maintenance problems and UFNQFSBUVSFCFUXFFOBOE¡' o¡$
PWFSUIF
the birth of non-viable fry that a number of authors have course of the year. This species shouldn’t be maintained
repeatedly reported remain a matter for speculation. CFMPX¡' ¡$
JOUIFMPOHUFSN
One possibility is that essential components are miss- Because of the mainly negative maintenance experi-
ing from the fishes’ diet. In an article on what was then ences of other aquarists, I initially sought to follow the
thought to be Micropoecilia branneri 'MÚUINBOO
recommendations of Bork (1998), who felt that too rich
reported that he added vitamins to the food and thereby a diet might be responsible for the problems in long-term
achieved good results. I am currently experimenting with maintenance. I fed Paramecium (from a culture) every
suitable additives used in commercial fish breeding. two days, and on the intervening days I used pond foods,
Undesirable sex ratio

In summer 2009, I (DS) ordered three Male Micropoecilia minima.
pairs of Micropoecilia sarrafae (then
identified as M. branneri). On unpack-
ing the fishes I suffered my first setback,
realizing that they were all females. So
I ordered four males in addition. By the
time the males arrived the females had
AMAZONAS
settled in very well. But despite gentle

E. WEIAND
adjustment from the transportation

water to the tank water, three of the four
9
habit of eating themselves full almost to
bursting whenever food is available. Be-
cause of that, limited feeding is definitely
recommended.
Infections and parasites

Meanwhile, odd fry kept on turning up. I
planted part of the tank densely in order
to provide shelter for the newborn young.
Above: Male Micropoecilia sarrafae They were sometimes rather disoriented
showing the species-typical shoulder spot. immediately after birth, and I saw them
Below: Female Micropoecilia minima can being pursued and eaten. The fry grew on
be easily recognized by the pattern of spots
on the side.
fairly well up to a length of .38 inch (1
cm), but thereafter their growth slowed
obviously. Some of the young developed
swollen bellies. If water changes weren’t
frequent enough they reacted with clamped
fins. All in all, the situation was less than
satisfactory.
In the winter of 2009/2010 I adopted
UIFNFUIPETPG'MÚUINBOO
BOECF-
gan to enrich the food with a vitamin prep-
aration. Specifically, I added a few drops of
Emulvit to live Artemia nauplii two to three
times per week and left it to take effect for
a few minutes before feeding. After a while
I had the feeling I was achieving a positive
Artemia nauplii, and vegetable dry foods, in alternation. effect. The young weren’t growing significantly faster,
I was simultaneously using the same diet to maintain a but they appeared to be properly formed. By May 2010 I
number of Micropoecilia minima. While I could detect no had a population of some 40 individuals, and in June I
benefits or disadvantages in the case of the M. sarrafae, a EJTDPWFSFEUIFmSTUGSZPGUIF'2 generation.
loss of condition was apparent in the M. minima. #VUUIFOJUBMMGFMMBQBSUBUPODF'SPN"VHVTUPO *MPTU
Generally speaking, livebearing toothcarps have the the entire population in the space of two months. I spent a
MICROPOECILIA SPECIES
Until recently, only five Micropoecilia species were known: In December 2010 Bragança & Costa described a new
Micropoecilia branneri, M. picta, M. parae, M. bifurca, and species from the Parnaíba and Mearim drainages in Bra-
M. melazona. zil. This description of Poecilia (= Micropoecilia) sarrafae
Micropoecilia branneri (Eigenmann, 1894) is a pretty solved the puzzle of M. cf. branneri.
little livebearer that has been repeatedly imported at Micropoecilia branneri, M. minima, and M. sarrafae all
intervals, though it has proved impossible to establish look very similar at first glance. They are distinguished
the species in the aquarium in the long run. In 1989, from the other Micropoecilia species by the black caudal-
Hieronimus described the striking courtship display of M. peduncle spot, plus a number of pale gray stripes on the
branneri, and over the course of the years there have been flank and a prolonged dorsal fin in males. While Micro-
frequent articles about this rare toothcarp in aquarium- poecilia branneri and M. sarrafae exhibit a yellowish base
hobby magazines. The description of Micropoecilia minima color on the body, in M. minima this is more of a silver
(Costa & Sarraf, 1997) added a further species, one that gray. The females of M. minima have several dark spots on
is very similar to M. branneri. the flank; these are also seen in both sexes of M. sarrafae,
In spring 2010, the first doubts crept in regarding but are completely absent in M. branneri. The shoulder
the identity of some of the fishes that I had obtained as spot on the upper half of the body in M. sarrafae is partic-
Micropoecilia minima. Were they M. branneri or another VMBSMZDIBSBDUFSJTUJDPGUIFTQFDJFT'FNBMFTPGM. branneri
AMAZONAS
TQFDJFT 'PMMPXJOH.FZFS *JOJUJBMMZUFSNFEUIFmTIFTM. have a yellow, and those of M. sarrafae an orange-yellow,

E. WEIAND
cf. branneri. Hieronimus (2010) likewise suggested that ring around the black caudal-peduncle spot, while M.
two different species were being identified as M. branneri. minima lacks such a ring entirely.
10
Micropoecilia sarrafae females also
exhibit a shoulder spot and the species-
typical stripe pattern.
long time searching for reasons for this die-off, and finally look very similar, but their behavior, too, is practically
identified the addition of some Xiphophorus as the trigger. identical. The courtship display described by Hieronimus
Because of problems in another tank (small skin eruptions (1989) can be observed in all three species (albeit some-
on the body), I had moved the apparently healthy speci- times in altered form). The same applies to the defensive
mens in order to save them. CFIBWJPSJOGFNBMFTEFTDSJCFECZ'MÚUINBOO
5IJT
In addition, during the preparation of this article, behavior wasn’t initially observed in M. minima and M.
Elke spotted a fish with Camallanus worms while she was sarrafae, probably because of the restricted conditions
going through my photos. I cannot say
whether the Micropoecilia sarrafae were
already infested before the introduction
of the Xiphophorus or whether the latter
were the carriers. Parasites of this kind
are often very difficult to spot in this
species, as they can’t be seen hanging in
a bunch from the anus as they can in
other fishes. Because of the rapid move-
ment of the fishes and the small size of
the worms, it is at best possible to spot
the occasional worm in a living fish, and
then with difficulty. And it is usually a
very long time before an infestation is
indicated by noticeable emaciation.
Because of this painful experience, I
recommend always using a species tank.
This makes it easier to monitor the popu-
lation, as well as to apply treatment if
required. Experiments with tankmates are
best undertaken using spare tank-breds.
TOP AND BOTTOM: E. WEIAND; MIDDLE: D. STOJEK
All good things come in threes

The three species Micropoecilia branneri,
M. minima, and M. sarrafae not only
AMAZONAS
Right, top: Displaying M. sarrafae males.

Bottom: Young Micropoecilia sarrafae already
exhibit the typical shoulder spot.
11
AQUATIC NOTEBOOK
in the aquarium. But we can now assume that, as in described by Regan in 1909, which is regarded as a
Micropoecilia picta, population density has an influence synonym of M. branneri, and the fishes discussed as
on courtship behavior. Micropoecilia sp. “Piavi” by Stallknecht (2000). The fishes
During our research we came to the conclusion, shown by Stallknecht may likewise be M. sarrafae, but
based on the photos illustrating their articles, that many could also be another species. There is still a lot of work
authors had probably maintained Micropoecilia sarrafae for the scientists to do in the field of these little poecili-
and not, as they had assumed, M. branneri. Only the ids. But who knows how long they will continue to exist
fishes described by Hieronimus (1989) and those which in their native lands—in this case, Brazil?
I (EW) maintained for a short time in 2009 can be un- Unfortunately, these little livebearers are imported
equivocally assigned to M. branneri. rarely, often with inadequate locality data. This makes
The literature also mentions two additional species precise identification at the species level practically
belonging to this group, namely Micropoecilia heteristia, impossible for the layman. The enthusiast can but try
to establish these rare fishes in the
hobby. Contrary to the popular view
that all livebearers will breed like rab-
® bits entirely of their own accord, the
long-term retention of these species
Advanced aquarists choose from a is not that easy. Maybe someone will
proven leader in product innovation, recognize the need to establish these
performance and satisfaction. fishes the next time they are imported
and try to breed them.
MODULAR FILTRATION SYSTEMS Editorial note: According to Eschmeyer et

Add Mechanical, Chemical, Heater Module and al. (www.calacademy.org), Micropoecilia
UV Sterilizer as your needs dictate. is currently regarded as a subgenus of Poe-
INTELLI-FEED™ cilia. On this occasion we don’t agree with
Aquarium Eschmeyer and instead accept the classifi-
Fish Feeder cation used by the Deutsche Gesellschaft
Can digitally feed AQUASTEP für Lebendgebärende Zahnkarpfen (DGLZ,
up to 12 times PRO® UV
daily if needed Step up to new Lifegard German Livebearer Association) and other
and keeps fish technology to kill disease organizations that regard Micropoecilia as
food dry. causing micro-organisims. a separate genus.
REFERENCES
Bork, D. and H.J. Mayland. 1998. Seltene

Schönheiten im Süßwasseraquarium.
Schmettkamp Verlag, Bornheim, Germany.
Bragança, P.H.N. and W.J.E.M. Costa. 2010.
Poecilia sarrafae, a new poeciliid from the
QUIET Parnaíba and Mearim river basins, northeastern
ONE® Brazil (Cyprinodontiformes: Cyprinodontoidei).
PUMPS Ichthyol Explor Freshwaters 21 (4): 369–76.
A size and style
for every need... Flöthmann, H. 2001. Micropoecilia branneri.
quiet... reliable and Aquaristik Fachmagazin 160: 53.
energy efficient. Hieronimus, H. 1998. Poecilia minima, ein neuer
BIO-MATE® FLUIDIZED Lebendgebärender. DGLZ-Rundschau: 7–9.
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with Carbon, Ceramic or Foam. ultimate biological
filtration system. Kolodzey, R. 1995. Geheimnisumwittert: Poecilia
branneri. D Aqu Terr Z (DATZ) 48 (8): 484–5.
Visit our web site at www.lifegardaquatics.com Meyer, K.M., L. Wischnath, and W. Foerster. 1985.
for these and many other proven products. Lebendgebärende Zierfische. Mergus, Melle,
Germany.
AMAZONAS
Stallknecht, H. 2000. Lebendgebärende

Email: [email protected] Zahnkarpfen. Tetra, Melle, Germany.
562-404-4129 Fax: 562-404-4159
Werner, U. 2007. Zwei Minikärpflinge aus
Lifegard® is a registered trademark of Lifegard Aquatics, Inc.
Brasilien. D Aqu Terr Z (DATZ) 60 (9): 22.
12
13
AQUATIC NOTEBOOK
Sci Fi(sh)
Zebra Danio gains elevated role in
human health research at new U.S. facility
The humble Zebrafish, Danio rerio, a classic first because of its rapid development from egg to fully
Above: The new
centralized
fish for neophyte freshwater aquarium keepers, is functional animal, its prolific breeding habits, its
Zebrafish facility playing an enhanced role as a mainstay research ability to produce successive generations in short
at the National species for some of the most sophisticated human order, and the ease and affordability of its care.
Institutes of health studies being conducted at the U.S. Na- Zebrafish are used worldwide in research
Health campus tional Institutes of Health (NIH). involving vertebrate genetics and development,
in Bethesda,
Maryland,
Designed to serve the needs of scientists at as well as testing of chemicals and potential new
has one of the a number of NIH institutes, the new centralized drugs. High-profile scientific research at the NIH
world’s largest Zebrafish facility in Bethesda, Maryland, boasts focuses on embryonic development to provide bet-
populations of state of the art equipment and systems. ter understanding of development aberrations in
aquarium-bred The Zebrafish, which shares many genes with human children.
Danio rerio.
humans, is highly valued as a model organism “Our institute supports research to ensure
that human beings get
Right: the best start possible,
Transparency of so all people have the
DANIEL CASTRANOVA (© NIH/NICHD)
double pigment
chance to reach their
mutant named
Casper (not yet potential, regardless of
available in the disease or disability,”
aquarium trade) said Alan E. Guttmacher,
makes most M.D., director of the
organs visible.
NIH’s Eunice Ken-
nedy Shriver National
14
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AMAZONAS
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AQUATIC NOTEBOOK
Top left: Microscopic view of eye, aortic
arches, and heart of a live transgenic
Zebrafish, 2.5 days post fertilization, with
blood vessels labeled in green and blood cells
labeled in red to study vascular development.
Bottom left: Microscopic dorsal (top) view of

the head of a live transgenic Zebrafish, 3 days
post fertilization. Blood vessels are labeled in
green to study vascular development.
of which circulates through the tanks

at a given time. The remainder flows
through a high-tech filtration system to
remove wastes. The water temperature
JTNBJOUBJOFEBU¡' ¡$
BOEUIF
water chemistry is rigidly controlled.
Before entering the tanks, the water is
pumped past ultraviolet light to kill any
bacteria or other organisms that have
the potential to cause disease.
Custom-designed tanks are struc-
tured to be self-cleaning, with grated
false bottoms that allow the easy col-
lection of eggs. Ambient lighting closely
mimics natural conditions by gradually
changing in intensity at dawn and dusk
transitions. The fish are fed a variety
of foods, including a dry, prepared mix
and live brine shrimp.
The facility is operated jointly by
the NICHD and the NIH’s National
Human Genome Research Institute. A
number of other NIH institutes also
conduct research at the facility, includ-
ing the National Cancer Institute,
the National Heart, Lung and Blood
Institute of Child Health and Human Development Institute, the National Eye Institute, and the National
(NICHD). “Many disorders and conditions arise early Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
in embryonic life, when we can’t directly observe them The NIH also funds research studies employing Ze-
JOIVNBOT'PSUIJTSFBTPO XFSFMZPOBOJNBMNPEFMTUP brafish at a number of research institutions around the
stand in for humans to provide insight into the develop- country and in other parts of the world, explained Lor-
mental process.” ette Javois, Ph.D., of NICHD’s Developmental Biology,
Genetics, and Teratology Branch. Dr. Javois is co-chair
NIH Zebrafish facility of the Trans-NIH Zebrafish Initiative, which coordinates
Many studies require large numbers of fish to test differ- funding for research involving Zebrafish among the NIH
ent compounds, to test varying doses of a compound, or institutes. It also serves as a resource for scientists doing
to allow scientists to search for an uncommon genetic research with Zebrafish.
DANIEL CASTRANOVA (© NIH/NICHD)
variation. The NIH facility is the largest in the world, —from materials supplied by
with enough space for 19,000 tanks that can accom- the National Institutes of Health
modate 100,000 fish. Zebrafish females can produce
hundreds of eggs in a single mating.
AMAZONAS
ON THE INTERNET:
“Answering the most important questions in science A recent video about the new facility, Zebrafish: A Key to Understanding
requires a facility of this size,” Dr. Guttmacher said. The Human Development, and how it is playing a role in science can be found
facility uses 25,000 gallons of water, about 40 percent here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0BtcjgOay4&feature=plcp
16
“Wow!” AMAZONAS
Volume 2, Number 1
January/February 2013
Become a charter subscriber to AMAZONAS

and don’t miss a single issue!
Use the convenient reply card in this issue, or subscribe online:
www.AmazonasMagazine.com
AQUATIC NOTEBOOK
t by Mary E. Sweeney
New Oryzias species described

Pelvic brooding is a rarely seen reproductive breeding habits and behaviors in the aquarium.
behavior in which a female fish carries her These tiny gems differ from other Sulawesi
Above: fertilized eggs externally, protectively clasped be- ricefishes in the number of anal and dorsal fin
Female O. eversi
tween her pelvic fins and held close to her belly. rays, the number of scales in the lateral midline,
with developing
eggs clearly
The small clutch of eggs, numbering perhaps 8 the number of scale rows at the dorsal fin ori-
demonstrates to 12, is carried until hatching, after which the gin, the number of vertebrae, their small eyes,
pelvic-fin female is soon ready to spawn again. the male’s blackish courtship coloration, and
brooding A new species of pelvic-brooding ricefish has their pelvic brooding behavior. One other spe-
behavior.
just been described and is named in honor of cies in the genus, Oryzias sarasinorum (Sarasin’s
AMAZONAS editor-in-chief and intrepid piscine Buntingi), is known to be a pelvic brooder.
explorer Hans-Georg Evers. Oryzias eversi was During development, and until they hatch,
first discovered by Evers in a forest hill stream in the female Oryzias eversi carries the eggs nestled
Tana Toraja, on Sulawesi Island, Indonesia. between her pelvic fins, but they are still con-
According to Evers, “This ricefish has a very nected to her body by filaments protruding from
unusual breeding behavior. I found this species her urogenital pore. In the handful of other
in September 2010 and am still breeding them pelvic brooders known, the female has a con-
in my tanks. It’s a very fascinating and amazing cave belly and enlarged pelvic fins to hold and
matter.” The fish were caught using a snorkel protect the egg mass. This technique of caring
and hand nets, and Evers photographed a male for the eggs has been known in other Sulawesi
and a female immediately after collection in or- lacustrine pelvic brooders, and now has been
AMAZONAS
der to document their living colors. He also col- noted in river habitats, which represents a new
H.-G. EVERS
lected a number of the fish and brought them evolutionary trajectory for Sulawesi ricefishes.
back to Germany so he could observe their Authors of the paper describing the new
18
AMAZONAS
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efficiency. LEDs manufac-
tured by Cree and Osram.
Male O. eversi in blackish breeding coloration.

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One Radion will provide optimum
lighting for around 40 gallons
(150 liters) of tank volume.
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Male O. eversi in normal, non-breeding coloration.
EcoSmartTM Enabled
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species say this discovery helps to demonstrate the diversity of ricefish species
and EcoSmart-equipped in Sulawesi, an area of the world whose ichthyofauna has only been partially
VorTech Pumps. explored and still has the capacity to produce awe and wonder.
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AMAZONAS
REFERENCES:
Herder, F., R.K. Hadiaty, and A.W. Nolte. 2012. Pelvic-Fin Brooding in a New Species of Riverine Ricefish
H.-G. EVERS
www.ecotechmarine.com
Atherinomorpha: Beloniformes: (Adrianichthyidae) from Tana Toraja, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Raffles B Zool 60 (2): 467–76.
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AMAZONAS
21
C OV E R STORY
Asian discus
color forms
a revolution
in discus
breeding
by Horst Köhler t “Almost all discus from Asia are mixtures of different discus species,
treated with hormones and pigments…Unattractive discus with black spots on the
body and almost colorless discus with fantasy names are being put on the market. By
AMAZONAS
contrast, I am trying to retain and improve the loveliest wild colors of imported fishes
MATT BEAMAN
via line-breeding.” —Dr. Eduard Schmidt-Focke, discus breeder, in a 1993 letter to

the author.
22
IIn the late 1980s and the early 1990s there was still heavy resistance to the invasion of discus
from Southeast Asia and the Far East, whose unusual colors distinguished them from the
German tank-breds and wild-caught forms from South America available at that time. The
breeders who produced them were immediately accused of using illegal breeding methods—for
example, irradiating their youngsters with UV and X-rays. There was never any concrete proof
of that, but the commonplace use of methyltesterone was well known.
Dr. Schmidt-Focke (1913–1998), one of the best-known German discus breeders, was not
the only one to warn aquarists against buying such “mongrels.” Almost everyone who had a
good reputation from the previous 15 years of the discus scene preferred to work with “conven-
tional” German tank-breds or wild-caughts. Some dealers and aquarium stores that specialized
in discus even distanced themselves publicly from “Asian fishes” by advertising with the slogan,
“No Asian fishes here.”
But the resistance didn’t
last long. The colorful discus
“made in the Far East” are
now being bred in numbers in
Germany, and I have the im-
pression that these color sports
are even more widespread in
the aquariums of European fish
enthusiasts than the typical
German color variants, such as
Turquoise and Solid and Bril-
liant Turquoise. The emphasis
on wild-caught discus is like-
wise not as great as it was 10 or
15 years ago, although, thanks
to the discovery of new collect-
ing sites and better methods
of capture, the fish imported
nowadays are appreciably more
colorful than those of the past.
Over a period of many
years, Dr. Schmidt-Focke, who
Opposite page, left: was seriously ill in his later life, attempted to improve the colors of his rather pallid wild-
The Blue Diamond caughts via line breeding, but his results were not encouraging. The yield was relatively low:
Discus, originally
when, after much effort on his part, his small number of parent fish were finally healthy and
created by Lo Wing Yat
of Hong Kong, took
free of parasites, each brood consisted of just 20 or 40 fry. On one occasion he told me that
first place in the Solid one of his wild-caught pairs had produced just eight young discus.
Class at the North I have no doubt that Dr. Schmidt-Focke would have immediately stopped breeding his fish,
American Discus had he foreseen what outstandingly colorful wild-caught discus were to come. Instead, he had
Association 2012
to watch as Asian breeders bred discus very successfully using the specimens they had bought
Show. This fish is owned
by Tara Bennett.
from him, and expanded their premises to such an extent that some were able to accommo-
date more than 300 breeding pairs and their countless offspring.
Above: The author’s The most colorful discus possible

discus community tank The trend toward the color-intensive Asian discus came about because aquarists wanted the most
contains striped-all-
colorful discus they could find. It was all the same to them whether these “modern” color forms
over wild-caughts from
assorted collecting
lacked some characteristic or other, such as the form of the body (which should be as round
areas. as possible), strength of immunity, the natural behavior of wild-caught fishes, or the ability to
reproduce. And for a long time, introduced and infectious diseases were a major problem.
The talents of Asian breeders all over the continent are renowned. In the spring of 1996
I organized and led a group of discus enthusiasts on a trip to Malaysia, where we marveled at
AMAZONAS
the multitude of discus variants for sale in many hundreds of tanks. But the success of Asian
H. KÖHLER
breeders over such a long period isn’t just a matter of their talent: they have access to the best
top-quality food (including live food), an extremely cheap workforce, and no need for tank
23
heating and filtration, and they are able to perform daily assumed that they know, for example, the difference
100 percent water changes, which greatly stimulates between dominant-recessive and intermediate characters
growth and flushes away parasites and their eggs. or are aware of the precise meaning of the terms “geno-
This article will discuss the most important, but type” and “phenotype.” Even the name of Johann Gregor
not all of the “new” discus color forms of recent years. Mendel, closely linked with his historic cross-breeding
Readers may wonder how the Asian breeders have suc- experiments with peas, is probably unfamiliar to this
ceeded in producing such a multitude of attractive color group of people. There are also successful Asian discus
variants. In the vast majority of cases they are not the breeders who are college-educated and adhere to strict
result of planned breeding programs that adhere strictly breeding programs, but as a rule they don’t breed fish on
to classic inheritance theory, such as those conducted a large scale.
by Dr. Schmidt-Focke and other early German breed-
ers; many of them are produced via the trial-and-error The Ghost Discus
method. Chance alterations in the genetic make-up—that The evolution of the colorful Asian discus color forms
is, inheritable changes in the organism—through muta- began at the end of the 1980s in the discus capital—
tion are the explanation. And sometimes non-inheritable Penang, Malaysia—with the Ghost Discus, a color variant
change also plays a part. that still hasn’t been completely accepted outside Asia.
Most of the Asian breeders that I know are very This variant was first discovered by a breeder named Che-
simple people, often native farmers, and it cannot be ang Thean Ewe, who established his Brilliant Turquoise
strain through repeated inbreed-
ing over several generations. This
led to a genetic mutation: one day
Almost solid red wild-caught he found a number of transparent
discus belonging to the specimens among his youngsters.
author, from the Novo Olinda
These looked completely different
collecting area (Rio
Madeira, Brazil). The fish
from most of their siblings.
do not receive any There was, however, a major
color-enhancing problem with these “oddities” once
food. they became sexually mature: only
around every tenth male Ghost
turned out to be fertile. The breeder
solved the problem by back-crossing
female Ghost Discus to male Bril-
liant Turquoise.
The Ghost received wide public-
ity for the first time at the Aquara-
ma international aquarium-fish
exhibition in Singapore in 1989. It
was not, as is often asserted, a hy-
brid form. This new variant, which
has also been marketed periodically
under the names Silver Dreamer,
Moonlight Discus, and Midnight
Discus, no longer possesses the
brown base color and blue shading
typical of the Brilliant Turquoise
Discus, but has a rather dirty-look-
ing silver-gray base color, overlain
with solid splashes of color. The
stress bars seen in the Brilliant Tur-
quoise Discus are almost completely
absent in the Ghost; the eyes were
initially whitish.
The form is recessive, which
AMAZONAS
at first caused great annoyance to

H. KÖHLER
customers with breeding ambitions.

If a Ghost Discus was paired with
24
This Ghost Discus is another discus, the offspring the market as well, as this, too, This Pigeon Blood from an
characterized by a looked quite different from promised him financial success. earlier generation has a
generally bluish body color less inspiring body pattern
the parent fish. But the Ghost He owned a group of patterned-
and dark fin edgings, an and coloration, lots of
irregularly shaped yellow
also had its good points: It all-over Red Turquoise Discus sooty spots, and orange
spot on the head, and a red could be used to breed out the (Royal Red Discus) that received eyes. The photo is around
eye with a half-length dark barring seen in other discus food containing hormones. One 10 years old.
bar passing through it. color forms. If, for example, it day he discovered a yellow male
was crossed with Cobalt Blue among the offspring of his Royal Red pairs and back-
Discus, the offspring were blue in appearance but lacked crossed it to a Royal Blue. The result was not, however,
vertical bars. However, it was not to be confused with the the expected albino fish, but a rather unimpressive,
Blue Diamond cultivated form (see below). orange-yellowish discus with yellow eyes, black fins, and
Other breeders paired the Ghost with particularly increased black pigmentation.
attractive red-brown discus that exhibited only slight ver- The breeder was able to sell only 70 specimens, which
tical barring. The result was solid red-brownish fish with is a big flop for an ambitious Asian breeder. Nobody
no bars or striping. Further selective breeding then led wanted these apparently unique fish. So he invited the
to the solid reddish cultivated form called Virgin Red, in best-known discus breeder in Thailand, Kitti Phanaitthi,
which, however, areas of black pigment (from the Ghost to buy all his remaining fish, by now half-grown and in
gene) still appear now and then. rather poor condition, along with the parent pair, and
Before long, a number of Asian breeders succeeded Kitti did just that.
in producing more stunning discus via appropriate It took Phanaitthi two years of selective breeding to
pairings. Examples include the color forms known as improve the unattractive body pattern and change the eye
the Golden Crown Discus (a cross between Ghost and color to reddish. But back then, these fish still weren’t
Golden Discus) and the Red Ghost Discus (Ghost × really attractive. Their most striking characteristic was the
Solid Red Discus). If the Red Ghost is then crossed with fragmentation of the vertical bar pattern into innumer-
the Golden Discus, the result is color races, such as the able little black spots and dots scattered all over the body.
LEFT: DISCUS BRIEF BILDARCHIV; RIGHT: H. KÖHLER
Nebula Discus and the Calico Discus. Individuals of this color form thus had a really sooty
appearance and were anything but pretty. The body base
Pigeon Blood: the Big Bang color could vary from orange to cream-colored. There
Asian experts on the discus scene assert that nowadays were also bluish color forms.
roughly a third of the tank-bred discus being maintained Without submitting it for judging by a jury of experts,
worldwide are descendants of the Pigeon Blood. The Kitti Phanaitthi exhibited his Pigeon Blood, a single
history of this important color form, which has undoubt- specimen that still didn’t have red eyes, at Aquarama in
AMAZONAS
edly affected the entire discus trade, is rather interesting. June 1991, and in September of the same year probably
A breeder from Bangkok, who was breeding the albino the first photo of the form seen in the western world was
pigs popular in Asia, wanted to bring albino discus onto published in the magazine Diskus Brief. The fish aroused
25
a lot of attention and gave rise to copious controversy Mori. The unique appearance of the fish reminded him of
worldwide. Hardly anyone in the West gave this color pigeons. The word “blood” was appended to describe the
form a serious chance of selling. It was strongly suggested blood-red pattern on the body of the fish. Some say that
that the fish had been manipulated with dyes and treated the Asian term for Pigeon Blood is a popular term for the
with hormones. loveliest ruby colors. Because the association with the
The high price of this new variant was remarkable. In blood of pigeons was distasteful to many people, in the
1991 the Thai breeder was taking minimum orders of 100 U.S. the fish was also called Red Dragon. But eventually
5-cm youngsters for more than $300 U.S. per fish. For the name Pigeon Blood prevailed worldwide.
adult specimens the price was around $800 per fish! The Pigeon Blood color form, now greatly improved,
The name Pigeon Blood supposedly originated with is regarded as a typical “beginner’s discus” that will
the well-known Japanese fish photographer Fumitoshi forgive small errors in maintenance. Pigeon Bloods are
relatively easy to keep and always full
of vitality. They grow fairly quickly
in size and weight, are not fussy eat-
ers, are unusually resistant to many
This group of Red Pigeon Bloods diseases, and are able to breed at a
from 2005 represents a further relatively early age.
developed Pigeon variant. These fish
There are disadvantages as well.
have red eyes and a striking body
pattern of white spots and broken
Unlike other color forms, the Pigeon
red stripes. Blood and many of its derivatives no
longer give the aquarist a clear warn-
ing sign of ill health and disease via
dark coloration of the body, so often
the owner reacts only when the af-
fected fish is seriously ill and already
past saving. This means that an
infected Pigeon Blood can infect its
tankmates before its keeper notices
anything is wrong.
A further drawback is the fact
that when Pigeon Bloods are bred,
the brood often won’t feed from
the parents—a problem that is also
known from other Asian color forms
and sometimes causes breeders to
despair. And finally, because of the
enormous number of breeders who
currently offer this color form, in-
evitably not all Pigeon Blood Discus
breed true, so the offspring of such a
pair can exhibit characteristics quite
different from those of their parents.
Marlboro Red
and Solid Red forms
In the early 1990s, Pigeon Blood
served as the starting point for cross-
ing experiments in Asia, and this led
to an almost explosive increase in
the numbers of ever more color-
ful discus, a development that left
some western breeders speechless
and envious. Once again, it was the
AMAZONAS
M. HALLMANN
Thai breeder Kitti Phanaitthi who,

in 1994, amazed the discus world by
producing a completely new color
26
These half-grown Marlboros, bred
by Jörg Stendker, already have a
slightly reddish head region. The
first Marlboros weren’t as pleasing
because of their white heads.
form: the Marlboro Red, a cross between Pigeon Blood Golden Discus × Marlboro Red = F1
and a red-brown discus. Once again, there was specula- Selected F1 offspring × Rose Red = Red Melon
tion as to whether hormones and treatment with chemi- As soon as a new color variant appears in Asia and
cals or irradiation had played a part. But the breeder commands high prices (even if only for a year or two),
vehemently denied that he had used any unethical tricks. other breeders jump on the bandwagon. Not infrequently
His reported fish foods consisted of beef heart, Tubifex, they even obtain various fish of the latest color variant
live bloodworms, and shrimp eggs, which are available from their competitors to use as starting material for
cheaply and in large quantities in Thailand. breeding, and then they develop it further. This sort of
Kitti Phanaitthi wanted to get rid of the mask-like competition was particularly easy to follow in the case of
white head that he felt spoiled the looks of the first, the Solid Red color form a good 10 to 15 years ago.
otherwise solid-red Marboro fish. He mated tank-bred For example, an Asian breeder crossed F2 offspring of
forms together, but also in-crossed wild-caughts to inject wild-caught Greens, using only those with a slight yellow
new blood. The mating of a wild-caught, red-spotted coloration on the body, with the Ghost derivative Virgin
Green Discus with a Marlboro, for example, resulted in Red mentioned earlier. The offspring of the cross received
the Ruby (Red) Spotted form. He kept crossing the best the trade name Rose Red.
specimens of this color form with wild-caught discus un- In Singapore, in 1992 the discus breeder See Cheow
til he achieved the desired result. One of the color forms San paired selected F2 from wild-caught red-brown discus
resulting from this effort bore the proud name “First of and obtained red discus that had no body patterning,
Universe”. but still had a trace of blue striping on the head region.
By now, other breeders in Asia had noticed that the After crossing only fish with minimal head patterning for
unattractive black dots and spots of the Pigeon Blood four generations, he obtained solid red offspring without
disappeared if they were crossed with other discus, prefer- any striping or head patterning: the exquisite San Merah
ably those without barring. A mating between Pigeon color form was born. With Asian discus there is often the
Blood and the Golden Discus (see below) led to a very worry that the offspring of a particular breeding pair will
AMAZONAS
M. HALLMANN
similar result, via the Golden Pigeon to the Red Melon look only slightly like their parents, or won’t resemble
Discus. Other breeders arrived at the Red Melon in the them at all, but it has been demonstrated that 90 percent
following way: of the offspring from a mating of two genuine San
27
Directly above: First of Universe, an extraordinary discus with
an equally extraordinary trade name. According to its breeder in
Thailand, it took seven years to develop this variant. This cultivated
form includes blood from Marlboro Red and wild-caught red-
spotted Brown Discus, as well as wild-caught Green Discus with
red dots.
Left, top to bottom:

The Ruby Spotted color strain from Kitti Phanaitthi in Thailand
appeared on the market around 1997–98. Its relationship with the
Marlboro Red cannot be denied.
Breeding pair of Red Melons owned by breeder Adam Tan of Kuala

Lumpur. He produced these fish by pairing a Marlboro Red with
the Rose Red color form.
San Merah is still very popular. The head area is reddish in the
further-developed variants. Black bars and black fin edgings can
no longer be seen. The finest specimens have red eyes. The discus
shown here originates from the Indonesian breeder Djudju Antony,
and won him first place in the Solid Red category at the discus show
in 2001 in Kuala Lumpur.
Merah will look exactly the same as their parents.
ALL: DISCUS BRIEF BILDARCHIV: TOP LEFT AND RIGHT: K. PHANAITTHI, MIDDLE: A. TAN
The only blemishes marring the beauty of the San
Merah were a still somewhat lighter head region and dark
fin edgings in some specimens. But by further inbreed-
ing, See Cheow San managed to obtain discus that were
uniformly red from the mouth to the base of the caudal
fin and had no dark edges on the dorsal and anal fins:
this variant came to be known as the Super San Merah.
Achieving this result took six years.
Later, after the very attractive Golden Sunrise color
form appeared on the market (see next section), another
breeder crossed the two new Golden Sunrise color forms
with San Merah and again obtained solid red fish that
became well known under the name Red Passion.
A form similar to the Red Melon is the reddish
AMAZONAS
Millennium Gold from the breeder Chai Koon Seng in

Singapore, who began his fish farm in 1988 with six
discus and was already running 160 tanks by the time of
28
my visit in 1999. Millennium Gold is the result of a cross Discus in their original color pattern.
between specially selected, very good Golden Discus and This new color form originated from breeder Kim
a yellow-brown wild-caught discus. Stringent selection Kheng How in Penang, who purportedly suddenly dis-
was required to produce these color forms; some Mil- covered five individuals with a slight golden sheen and
lennium Gold Discus exhibit deep blue margins on the practically no vertical barring among his Brown Discus
dorsal and anal fins. youngsters as long ago as 1979. He then found four more
In Solid Red Discus the red color is commonly inten- in another brood. The nine youngsters also had red-
sified further, using color-enhancing foods. Such foods brown eyes and white stripes and spots on the anterior
contain lucanthin or astaxanthin, for example. If normal part of the body. These characteristics weren’t actually
food is used the red is paler, and the unwitting purchaser passed on when the new color variant was paired with
is often disappointed. Breeders and dealers should inform other discus color forms, but it proved possible to rein-
their customers when fish have been fed color-enhancing force them via sibling crossing.
foods—which are now readily available to all aquarists. Later on, additional Asian breeders (Anthony Chew,
Experienced discus-keepers can tell by looking at a Mr. Heng, Mr. Aik) discovered this mutation and thus
fish whether its color has been influenced by the use arrived at the Golden Discus color form independently of
of artificial pigments. Such discus are unnaturally red, Kim. As already mentioned, the Golden Discus × Marl-
especially in the mouth region and usually in the belly boro Red cross led to attractive solid yellow discus with
region; the pectoral fins are unusually red at the base, contrasting red eyes.
and frequently there is a red sheen to the caudal fin, Initially the breeders had a problem: sooty spots and
which should be clear in discus. Unlike the practice of dots kept appearing in the offspring as a result of the
feeding hormones, which frequently cannot be detected, Pigeon Blood genes. Only by subsequent pairing of the
feeding with food containing carotenoid color enhancers “least sooty” offspring was this negative characteristic
is regarded as acceptable. eventually eliminated. The Golden Discus was also in-
volved in numerous other new developments, such as the
Beautiful, but delicate: the Golden Discus Golden Crown Ghost Discus (derived from the Golden
The Golden Discus is an attractive color form that was Discus and Ghost Discus), Golden Sunrise, Golden
first put on display to the public at the 1993 Aquarama. Ghost, Golden Snake, Solid Red Golden, and others.
The Golden Discus is a mutation of the Brown Discus, Even attractive solid yellow discus variants have origi-
which was very popular everywhere in the world in its nated from the Golden Discus. For example, Simon Pak
day. Unfortunately, nowadays there are hardly any Brown of Singapore paired specially selected Golden Discus with
If Golden Discus are crossed with Solid Red discus variants, the
result is yellow discus with a slight reddish sheen on the body.
The fish in this sales tank were being sold as Golden Melon.
AMAZONAS
H. KÖHLER
29
Golden Pigeon, and the resulting F1 offspring were
then paired with the Golden parents. This process
was repeated with the F2 generation. Up to 80 percent
of the resulting F3 broods were solid yellow with a This
bluish striping in the fins. The trade name of this Millennium
Gold from
form is Yellow Crystal.
breeder Chai
A recent derivative of the Golden Discus strain is Koon Seng in
the Golden Leopard Snakeskin (derived from Golden Singapore has
Discus × Leopard Snakeskin). Other breeders arrived a solid yellow
at the same result using the Golden Pigeon. The “Leop- base color.
Such fishes
ard” and “Snakeskin” cultivated forms will be dealt
receive color-
with separately below. enhancing food
that changes
Naming madness the body color
First, a few remarks on the naming of the Asian to a solid red.
cultivated forms of discus. For the uninitiated, the
enormous number of different names—I estimate
that there are easily 500—is extremely confusing, and
appears to reflect an equally high number of different color Diamond, a solid blue discus without any bars or stripes.
forms. But that isn’t so, as different breeders actually use It was discovered by Lo Wing Yat, a retired breeder living
different trade names for the same or very similar dis- in Hong Kong.
cus, in order to compete in the marketplace: the layman, In the last years of Dr. Schmidt-Focke’s life, Lo Wing
misled by the different names, ends up buying practically Yat took over some of his Brilliant Turquoise Discus,
identical fish. which showed no vertical bars at all—even in fright situ-
The names of Asian discus have now been adopted ations. By line-breeding these fish, Lo Wing Yat produced
all over the world. They are almost without exception the Cobalt Blue Discus. In 1992, the Blue Diamond
fantasy names, and sometimes one actually gets the Discus followed. This fish proved to be a popular variant
impression that the longer the name, the more success- and sold very well at high prices all over the world.
fully the fish will sell. “Highfin Highbodied Red Scorpion Initially, there was still a problem. With increasing
Snakeskin Discus” is a ghastly example of this. age, the eye color of these fish changed from red to yel-
Nevertheless, the majority of breeders generally try low, but nowadays the eye color of the form breeds true.
to create a link between the trade name and the appear- The Blue Diamond cultivated form now exists in different
ance of the fish and/or their origins. A Pigeon Turquoise color variants, ranging from pale blue to a dark steel blue.
Discus is derived from a Pigeon Blood × Turquoise Discus Japan, which apparently has very few experienced
cross, a Yellow White Discus is noted for its white and discus breeders of its own, proved a very good customer
yellow body color, and a Leopard Discus has body mark- (not only for the Blue Diamond color form, but also for
ings similar to those of a leopard. The Marlboro Red is practically all Asian color forms). In addition, Japanese
characterized by a dark red body color that matches the importers were prepared to pay high prices for the mod-
red on the cigarette pack of the same name. ern discus color forms. During all my visits to Southeast
Sometimes breeders immortalize themselves in the Asia on discus business, I have noticed that the finest
names of discus. For example, the Golden Discus isn’t specimens of the latest color forms have been reserved
thus named because its body has a golden sheen, but be- for Japanese customers, and are not offered for sale.
cause the first breeder of this form had the family name Asian discus breeders are well aware that the initially
Kim, which is Chinese for gold. high sale price won’t last. The sky-high 1991 price of
It is a particular honor if someone from Europe is the Pigeon Blood dropped so rapidly that five years later
invited to give a name to a new Asian color form. I was they were being offered as a “filler” in consignments of
paid this compliment by a major breeder in Penang in the more recent forms, at a price of only $5 each. And if
1996, but I politely declined—I didn’t want to perpetuate you bought one or more new color forms from an Asian
the practice of making up excessively long discus names breeder, you received a free specimen of what the Asians
or be blamed for poor sales due to an undesirable name. now considered an obsolete cultivated form.
DISCUS BRIEF BILDARCHIV
Blue Diamond from Hong Kong Snakeskin and Leopard

Solid-colored discus have a very special charm, even The period from around 1989 on was undisputedly the
AMAZONAS
though in many cultivated forms the striking color can heyday of Asian discus breeding. Barely six months went
be significantly reduced in vividness and brilliance by less by without a new discus color form coming to light. After
than perfect water quality. This also applies to the Blue around 1995, the production of exciting new cultivated
30
discus forms slowed down. pair from Kitti Phanahitti. As far as I know, he didn’t get
The early 1990s also saw the advent of the Snakeskin. any young from them!
The first discus of this color form appeared in 1992 or Like the majority of Asian variants, the Snakeskin was
1993 in Thailand. They were first displayed to a wider used to breed additional, even lovelier color forms. A few
audience during the Penang Discus Fish Competition examples:
in 1994. The form traces its ancestry to the Brilliant Red Snakeskin × Spotted Green Discus = Spotted
Turquoise Discus or the Red Royal Blue, where a sudden Snakeskin
mutation took place in the course of the mass breeding Snakeskin × Red-Turquoise Discus = Red-Based
of these color forms. Snakeskin
The first Snakeskins had 14 narrow vertical bars in- Red-Based Snakeskin × Leopard = Leopard Snakeskin
stead of the nine (usually wider) ones of the normal dis- The Leopard Snakeskin has remained one of the
cus, but selective breeding subsequently led to fish with most popular forms to the present day. Beautiful, large
no barring. Instead they had a spider’s-web-like body pat- specimens of this variant regularly take the top places at
tern of very fine lines. This cultivated form was initially discus competitions and are often chosen as the Grand
very expensive: at the end of 1994, a hobby discus breeder Champion. Teoh Beng Chye of Penang is regarded as one
that I know paid $10,000 U.S. for a Snakeskin breeding of the first breeders of this variant. In 1996 he began to
Snakeskin Spotted cultivated

form, photographed at
the International Discus
Championships in Duisburg
in 2004. On close
examination, the 14 vertical
bars typical of the original
Snakeskin form can still
be seen. These bars, along
with the orange eye, led to
significantly lower marks
during the judging: the fish
was ranked 15th out of 28
Snakeskin Discus judged.
AMAZONAS
H. KÖHLER
31
cross the Leopard Discus with Snakeskin
fish with a reticulated body pattern, and
thus obtained offspring with a reticulated
body pattern set with striking red dots. This
cultivated form was first exhibited in 1998.
The Leopard cultivated form was
known internationally as long ago as 1993.
The first breeders were probably Lo Wing
Yat and his partner, Rocky Ng (Hong
Kong). Unlike many other forms (Golden,
Ghost, Pigeon Blood, Blue Diamond,
Virgin Red, and Snow White), the Leopard
is a discus in which sudden mutation has
played no part. It is far more likely the
result of a cross of wild-caught red-spotted
discus from the Brazilian Tefé region and/
or the Coari drainage with selected Red
Turquoise Discus, followed by stringent se-
lection and line-breeding in which only the
fishes that exhibit at least the beginnings of
the desired body pattern are paired.
The cultivated form looks attrac-
tive, but, like many others, has genetic
drawbacks. These fish grow comparatively
slowly, and it is fairly difficult to achieve
large fish with the ideal round shape.
A decade of new forms

The main form to be mentioned here is the
Snow White color variant (White Discus),
which first became available in the West in
Above: Leopard Discus.

It is easy to see evidence
of its red-spotted wild-
caught ancestor.
Left: This Spotted Snakeskin from Tong

Joon Keng in Penang is a real champion
and made its owner wealthy. Not only
was it the winner in its judging category
(the Open class) and the public favorite,
but it was also the Grand Champion in
Duisburg in 2000 and received a victory
premium equivalent to $7,800. A year
later, at an international discus show in
Kuala Lumpur where 380 discus were
DISCUS BRIEF BILDARCHIV
judged, the same fish was victorious in

the Spotted Snake class and took Grand
AMAZONAS
Champion, the best of all the fish

present.
32
1999. As with so many specially bred forms, mutation of Snow White × Virgin Red (or × Red Melon) = Red
the Brown Discus played an important role here. The first White
discus breeder to achieve this cultivated form was Robert Snow White × Golden Discus = Yellow White
Chin from Malacca in Malaysia. He was breeding with Snow White × Blue Diamond = Blue White
three pairs of wild-caught Browns from a group of 10 Snow White × Leopard Snakeskin = White Leopard
individuals that he had purchased in 1995. One day, one A development that is even more recent than the
of the three pairs produced offspring with transparent Snow White is the Albino Discus, which made its debut
bodies. The breeder raised these young discus and, to his in 2000/01 in Hong Kong and, to the uninitiated, looks
surprise, they developed into largely colorless discus. Even rather similar to the Snow White at first glance.
the eyes showed no color, so the name was appropriate. This form was a result of mutation among the off-
When these fish were first seen in public at Aquarama spring of pairs of wild-caught reddish discus from the
in 1999, the experts among the visitors assumed that Alenquer region of Amazonia.
they were no more than a derivative of the Ghost Discus. The Albino was immediately crossed with earlier
Only later did their actual origin become known. color forms, resulting in the fish now traded under the
As is so often the case when a new discus color vari- names Albino Leopard Snakeskin, Albino Turquoise, and
ant appears, other breeders tried to produce the Snow Albino Blue Diamond. These names show a welcome
White. They bought groups of these fish and mated them trend toward indicating ancestry instead of indulging
with other, older discus forms, with the following results: in fantasy.
The intrinsically not very attractive Snow

White Discus is the basis for the breeding
of more beautiful “dream” discus.
AMAZONAS
H. KÖHLER
33
Oriental Dream
This still-popular color form is, apart from nu-
ances of pattern and coloration, merely another
fantasy name for an extremely attractive Snake-
skin. Compared to the Leopard Snakeskin,
the Oriental Dream has more numerous, but
smaller red spots or dots on the body (see also
the cover photo of this issue).
Other “aliases” for the same form are
Spotted Eruption, Singapore Fireworks, and
Scarlet. Additional trade names have been since
this article was written. To some extent, all the
breeders of these fishes took the following route
on their way to the Oriental Dream:
Wild-caught red-spotted Green male ×
Snakeskin female = F1
F1 × F1 (or wild-caught red-spotted Green
male × F1) = F2
Above: A historic photo from November 1988: a wild-caught Alenquer F2 × F2 = F3 (Oriental Dream)
female in breeding coloration with young, bred by Eduard Schmidt-Focke. F3 × F3 (or F3 × F2) = F4 (definitive Oriental
Dream)
Below: Red and White breeding male, photographed on the premises of the Concluding remarks
German breeder Oswald Hanke. This cultivated form is the result of a cross
between Snow White and Solid Red discus. The main reasons for the great success of Asian
breeders in the development of new discus
color forms have already been mentioned. As
I have shown, the basis of the numerous suc-
cessful forms of the last 15 to 20 years has been
mutation (change in the genotype) and selec-
tive breeding with subsequent mass produc-
tion. The more sexually mature pairs of discus
a breeder owns, the greater the likelihood of a
mutation occurring. Anyone who works with
just two to four pairs will probably never experi-
ence this. While in the West there are only a
very few discus breeding establishments that
have 300 tanks, for example, an operation of
that size is common in Southeast Asia and the
Far East.
REFERENCES
Au, D., S.S. Sun, and F. Denitto. 2007. Trophy Discus. Cichlid
TOP: E. SCHMIDT-FOCKE/DISCUS BRIEF BILDARCHIV; BOTTOM: H. KÖHLER
Press, El Paso, TX.

Chan, C. 2001. Singapore Discus in the New Millennium.
Pethouse Supplies, Singapore.
Chan, C. 2003. Exotic Discus of the World. Clean Ace Printing,
Singapore.
Köhler, H. 2008. Was ist eigentlich Oriental Dream? Diskus
Brief 23: 60.
Sun, S.S. 2005. Züchterische “Entwicklung” von asiatischen
Diskus-Farbformen. Diskus Brief: 146–152.
AMAZONAS
Weiss, M. 1993. Pigeon Blood-Diskus—eine neue

Symphysodon Farbzüchtung. Diskus Brief 8: 4–7.
Yeng, S. 2003. Penang Discus, German edition. Penang. ISBN
9834043112.
34
AMAZONAS
35
Discus made
in Germany
AN INTERVIEW WITH
Heinz
Stendker
AMAZONAS
36
C OV E R STORY
Diskuszucht Stendker is one of the largest and most renowned breed- Under the sign
of the discus:
ers of discus in Europe, if not worldwide. Back in 1965, Heinz Stendker Stendker family
and staff; Jörg,
used two pairs of discus to lay the foundation of what is now the family right, and Volker, in
business, run since 1998 by his two sons, Jörg and Volker. striped shirt.
AMAZONAS: Could you start by telling our Stendker: At 11 or 12 years old Volker was
readers how you developed your love of dis- already interested in the technical side of the
cus? Did you begin like everyone else, with aquarium hobby, and has now completely
a standard 57-L (15-gallon) tank, or did you taken over that part of the discus breeding.
set the bar higher right from the start? Jörg took a bit longer, but eventually showed
an interest at 13 or 14. He and his friends
Left, top: One of the HEINZ STENDKER: Because discus attracted helped with obtaining food, for example by
rows of meticulously me right from the start, I acquired a some- catching mosquito larvae.
clean tanks full of adult
what larger aquarium with a volume of 300
fishes. Breeding pairs
on top row. L (79 gallons) and kept four discus in it, Nowadays you have established yourself as
together with a bundle of Cabomba and two one of the leading discus breeders world-
Left, bottom: The huge Amazon swordplants. The discus immedi- wide and send fishes all over the world. How
Pigeon Bloods throng
ately did well, and it wasn’t very long before many aquaria do you run and how many
closely together, each
more beautiful than the the first broods came along. discus do you have in stock, on average?
next.
How did you manage to get your sons inter- Stendker: At the moment we are operating
ested in discus as well? just over 2,000 aquaria containing roughly
180,000 to 200,000 fishes.
Stendker: That was easy. My sons had grown
up with the fishes and developed a lot of in- That’s a huge number.
ALL PHOTOS: STENDKER
terest relatively quickly, and that continued

to increase over the course of time. Stendker: Yes, that sounds like a lot—and it
AMAZONAS
is a lot, but we are in the fortunate position

When did Volker and Jörg start to help with of needing to ship out around 20,000 fishes
the discus breeding? every month, and because it takes a while for
37
a discus to reach a saleable size, we have to continuously, 24 hours a day. This guarantees
make sure we have stock available at the right consistently good water quality.
time.
I really can’t resist asking you about the use
And where do you send all these splendid of medications in discus breeding. After all,
discus? everyone is using the attractive term “flagel-
late free,” and lots of uninitiated people get Above: Solid steel
Stendker: We have customers in about 20 the impression that large numbers of young blue, perfectly
circular Blue
countries, with the most important be- discus can be reared only in water laced with
Diamonds have
ing France, the Netherlands, and the U.S. medication. How do you solve the problem of long been one of
Naturally, lots of fishes also remain here in infections and ensure that the young grow on the trademarks of
Germany, but you can also find our discus in healthily? Stendker Discus.
South Africa.
Stendker: Yes, that is always a popular subject
What equipment do you use in breeding for discussion. We toughen up our discus by Opposite page:
discus? maintaining a very high population density A rack of rearing
tanks for smaller
and hence a high infection pressure in our
youngsters,
Stendker: We try to keep the equipment as aquaria. By using good food and keeping the top. The next
simple as possible. We prefer to use only water quality high, we have been able to avoid step, bottom,
sponge filters. When breeding discus, a using medications for over three years. is 132-gallon
reverse-osmosis unit is indispensable for (500-L) tanks for
up to 500 small
water treatment in the long term. Do some fishes still fail to grow, and do you
juveniles.
have a trick for preventing that?
It is well known that regular water changes
lead to significantly improved growth. How do Stendker: Yes, that does happen from time to
you perform this job and how often? time. But there is a fairly simple method for
dealing with that. We simply put the growth-
Stendker: We change 10–15 percent of the retarded discus in a separate aquarium and
AMAZONAS
water in the system daily. This has proved to raise the temperature from 84 to 90°F (29°
be the most effective method for such a large to 32°C). After two to three weeks their
facility. Partial water exchange takes place growth is very good again.
38
How do spawning tanks differ from rearing
tanks?
Stendker: Our spawning tanks contain

80–100 L (21–26 gallons), which is perfectly
adequate for parental fishes. The rearing
tanks contain up to 500 L (132 gallons). The
spawning tanks are kept as clean as humanly
possible. This includes not using any substrate
and regularly cleaning the inside of the walls.
A 500-L tank accommodates 100 individuals
of up to 7 inches (17 cm) in length, 150 of
up to 5.5 inches (14 cm), 200 of up to 4.75
inches (12 cm), 300 of up to 4 inches (10
cm), or 500 of up to 3 inches (8 cm).
Those are extremely impressive figures. What

are the water parameters like?
Stendker: Naturally, we try to achieve optimal

water parameters in the breeding aquaria, and
we work with preconditioned water. Hence
the total hardness is 1, the carbonate hard-
ness less than that, and the pH value between
5.5 and 6.0 at a conductivity of 250 μS/cm
and 80°F (27°C). In the rearing tanks we use
tap water with 800 μS/cm at 84°F (29°C),
16°dGH, 8°KH, and a pH of around 7.0.
What are your preferred methods for hatch-

ing the fry, or do you leave the brood care
entirely to the parent fishes?
Stendker: We prefer natural brood care by the

parents, or at least by foster parents. In the
case of the Pigeon Blood variants it is often
necessary to resort to fostering, as the natural
parents are unable to turn dark in color. As a
result, the fry don’t swim to the parents and
the rearing rate is no longer adequate.
Is there currently any new trend in the breed-

ing of discus?
can be fixed in eight to ten years. But nor-
Stendker: There is no immediate trend notice- mally it takes two to three years longer. Then
able. We are trying to stabilize particularly un- again, I have been working for 18 years on a
usual color variants of the known varieties, so particular cultivated form.
that their color characters are more strongly
expressed and the new characteristics become Do you have a favorite variant that you have
fixed and reliable. maintained for a long time in its existing form,
or tried to improve only marginally to particu-
How long does it generally take to fix a new lar standards?
color sport so that it can be sold as a new
AMAZONAS
cultivated form? Stendker: I’m particularly fond of the Red

Turquoise and am trying to improve its form
Stendker: If all goes well, a new color form and color. I place great value on overall ap-
39
pearance, but the most striking points are the
red color and the nature of the lines.
Top, left: A pair of
Do you also cross wild forms into existing Stendker: We use a mix of foods, consisting of Snakeskin Red Spotted
in a breeding tank.
strains? beef heart, top-quality sweet paprika, Cyclops,
crustaceans, vitamins, and minerals. Top, right: This
Stendker: We no longer do that. The last time wild-form strain has
been bred for many
we did was probably 15 years ago, when we Many thanks for the interview and the wealth
years under the label
in-crossed Alenquer and Santarem discus. of valuable information you have made avail- “Alenquer”.
able to our readers.
Have you kept the original form of any wild Bottom: Pigeon Blood
discus? —Interview conducted by Thomas Weidner Red are the absolute
top sellers at present.
Stendker: Yes, we don’t cross them in any

more, but we do try to retain the Alenquer
and Santarem discus in their original forms
and colors as far as possible. We rear 10,000
fishes of the two wild forms every year, in or-
der to have the best choice. Naturally we place
great value on a circular form, bold colors,
nice fins, no faults in the striping, and being
easy to breed.
What is your top seller at present, and has that

changed over the course of time?
Stendker: At the moment the Pigeon Blood

Red and Blue are probably the most popular.
It used to be Brilliant Turquoise, and some-
times “Solid Turquoise” and Red Turquoise as
well. But right now there is also an increased
demand for Marlboro variants.
AMAZONAS
And in conclusion, the obligatory question

about food: what do you put into the aquarium
to be able to offer such fabulous fishes?
40
AMAZONAS
41
C OV E R STORY
Discus Defeat
by Ole Klawonn tAfter 20 years of keeping fishes and various other forms of livestock in
the house, I wanted to try my hand with a species that some people regard as the crowning
glory of the freshwater aquarium hobby: the discus. The aquarium magazines are full of
breeding reports in which people describe how they have successfully maintained and bred
fishes. But here I explain why I resigned from the maintenance of a species, in order to
prevent others, both aquarists and fishes, from suffering a similar fate.
As a small boy, I immediately took every coin that I was able to coax from my parents to our little
pet shop, in order to buy another Kuhli Loach or a pot of food tablets. There was a long, narrow
show tank decorated with bogwood and occupied by a number of armored catfishes and discus.
Wild-caught These plate-sized fishes were unattainable for me—they were never even offered for sale to the
Alenquer rank-and-file customer. Besides, my tanks measured only 12 x 12 x 24 inches (60 x 30 x 30 cm).
Discus—a jewel of
As I grew up, my aquaria also came to exceed the meter mark (39 inches) in some cases. So
the Amazon.
there was no longer anything in the way of my childhood dream of discus.
I have remained true to my preference for invisible fishes, such as banjo catfishes. When I
am visited by non-aquarists, they are always asking whether there are actually any fishes in my
aquaria. But catfish enthusiasts know that it isn’t easy to impress true beauty on the eye of the
beholder, especially the blind beholder unfamiliar with the subject. These fishes show themselves
AMAZONAS
for perhaps a fraction of a second if you spend half an hour sitting motionless in front of the
H.-G. EVERS
aquarium. Some merely stick their noses out of the breeding cave and are usually best appreci-
ated when, dried out or preserved in alcohol, they sit on the desk for use as paperweights.
42
Discus without Pigeon Blood discus parading along the front glasses of his aquarium,
I gradually became fed up with all the questions, and also all trying to display themselves to best advantage. We
felt sympathy for my wife, who had to endure a home were particularly taken with the specimens with a high
full of bubbling and buzzing without any real aesthetic red component, which he offered to us under the fine-
compensation. In addition there was a baby on the way, sounding name of “Alenquer-Cuipéua”. We came away
and I had no valid answer to give when asked why I was with six youngsters, though we were rather shocked that
spending entire days working with buckets and hoses on the breeder handed them to us in a plastic bucket lined
those confounded glass boxes. with a plastic bag. The jewels of Amazonia in a trash bag?
For some years thereafter I suppressed my childhood A bit more respect, please!
desire for a few discus, as there is a considerable risk
involved when a serious catfish-keeper starts to get in- Their lordships are fussy
terested in big cichlids. Large-cichlid enthusiasts, and in It was wonderful not to be sitting alone in front of the
particular discus people, don’t have a good reputation on aquarium rejoicing in my new fish. The first evening, my
Discus aquarium in the living room.
the catfish scene, although so far I haven’t been able to wife and I watched with shared delight as one of the dis-
find out what the problem is. Perhaps they are incessant cus devoured its first mosquito larvae. And so things con-
show-offs who do nothing but talk about who’s got the tinued happily until I permitted myself to treat the fish—
biggest trickle filter. which my wife had practically given individual names—to
But then I found myself in the mood for a change, a water change. The result was that for almost a month,
and no longer cared about losing my reputation. I made none of them ventured out of the vegetation until after I
my 86-gallon (325-L) living-room aquarium a catfish- left the room. Once again, visitors began asking whether
free zone and kept my ear to the ground to find someone there were any fishes in the aquarium. I suggested that
from whom I might obtain natural-type discus with no they leave the room and peer in from the hallway if they
admixture of Pigeon Blood and Snakeskin. I fairly quickly wanted to see how beautiful our new fish were.
came across Wolfgang Tlok, who had been working for From then on I went from a single 50 percent weekly
some time on keeping and breeding wild-caught discus. water change to twice-weekly 20 percent changes, and
AMAZONAS
For the first time ever, my wife accompanied me to go their lordships were reasonably happy with that. But
O. KLAWONN
and see Tlok’s fishes, and her eyes lit up even more than although they ate like wolves, they wouldn’t consume
mine when we sat in his premises watching some 500 my worm cultures or the specialties I served up from the
43
would easily provide me with 5–6 gallons (20 L) of pu-
rified water on a good night, or should I mess around
with acids until a drop test told me that I had man-
aged to imitate one of the numerous aspects of the
water in the native regions of the discus (even if I
might have ruined it in every other respect)?
If you don’t have a whole lot of spare space
in your home, the interim storage of the trickle
of reverse-osmosis water is a problem. In addi-
tion you lose the option of making a quick water
change, and being a fresh-water fetishist, that didn’t
suit me at all. During my research into acquiring a
new reverse-osmosis unit, someone on the forum of the
highly recommended Diskusportal website (www.dis-
kusportal.de) suggested a Rowa Merlin producing 1,057
gallons (4,000 L) of purified water per day. It was for sale
for less than $1,300, which was touted as a real bargain.
Hmm, these serious discus people really do live in a dif-
ferent dimension!
Black discus
So I left everything as it was and, lo and behold, the first
candidate turned black and sat in a corner, declining the
proffered food. The discus-people answer to that is: “Sim-
mer the fish gently at 95°F (35°C) and it will start eating
again.” But because I am a fan of planted aquaria and
such temperatures inevitably destroy vegetation, I had to
catch the little prince, immediately christened “Blacky,”
and parboil him in a separate aquarium. Even after seven
days in a hospital tank with no home comforts, the
patient was radiant in all shades of the color black and
wouldn’t even go so far as taking a look at the delica-
Group photo of my
Alenquer Discus.
cies I offered. I gave up and put the little black fish back
with his fellows, thinking that he would at least be more
comfortable there until he died.
But it turned out otherwise. After a total of six weeks
without food, out of the blue Blacky suddenly switched
freezer. Every bit of krill, every Artemia, whiteworm, or his colors back on and resumed feeding, as pickily as
mosquito larva was checked over carefully before being ever. So these are resilient fellows, and nobody will con-
taken into the mouth, spat out again, and then finally vince me otherwise. I am used to my catfishes (and I have
eaten. But because they eventually ate everything, I didn’t tended to go for the more delicate among them) showing
worry about it too much. The fish, with one exception, the first symptom of a disease the day before they expire,
were visibly growing and their colors were becoming when it is too late for medication or a change in mainte-
more splendid day by day. nance conditions. In the past I had always regretted this,
In general I agree with my aquarium buddy Olaf but now I came to regard it as one of the major benefits
Deters, who always says, “Discus are only cichlids, after of this group of fishes. If you have a feel for them, they
all.” This has also been confirmed by Tlok and another feed well, look as fit as Brad Pitt, and then suddenly drop
discus breeder (who warned me, however, never to wear dead. Who does not know the old adage, “Ah, would that
a red T-shirt in the presence of discus). So I didn’t go to I could die like a catfish!”
the trouble of pampering the fish with reverse-osmosis Blacky became increasingly beautiful, grew perfectly
water or hydrochloric acid. They lived in city tap water normally, and began to make friends with the most
(13°dGH, 12°KH, 490 μS/cm, pH 7.25) at 86°F (30°C) splendid specimen, “Rougette” by name. He treated all
and didn’t seem to be particularly unhappy. the rest as enemies. The two of them now took over
AMAZONAS
But their fussy dining habits were a real thorn in my two-thirds of the aquarium and began to spawn—and my
O. KLAWONN
side. Should I make the effort to refill my big living-room hobby became really fun again! We (by now there were
aquarium using my ancient reverse-osmosis unit, which three of us) watched the pair of them for hours on end,
44
as they beat up the rest of the group and tended their
eggs day and night. Unfortunately, the two of them had a
falling out and the boss, Rougette, ate the eggs. This was
repeated another four times, and it wasn’t until the sixth
attempt that we were able to watch the pair looking after
the larvae, indefatigably collecting up any that fell to the
bottom and spitting them back into the chosen spot. The
roughly 80 larvae that had hatched from the approxi-
mately 100 eggs laid were periodically moved around
on the bogwood, and Blacky and Rougette continued
to have intermittent disagreements.
Dying plants
The next morning the larvae had disappeared. All that effort in
vain: all the eggs
Maybe the pair needed to spawn a few more
were infertile.
times before they would have the entire brood-
care procedure for their species down pat, but
the whole thing was getting to be too much
of a strain for me. While they made a new
attempt to disseminate their genes every three
weeks, my own offspring and the wretched
need to earn a living also required a certain
amount of work. And now another member
of the group, previously noticeable as having
forgotten to grow, started displaying all shades
of black and went on a hunger strike.
I heated the entire tank up to 95°F (35°C),
but this didn’t produce the desired result. Be-
cause I had forgotten to first remove the plants,
I immediately watched my Echinodorus uruguay-
ensis, which had tolerated a temperature of 86°F
(30°C) well, and burgeoning Valisneria spiralis
start to die back. Likewise my beloved thread algae
that I had cultivated devotedly for years. (I’m absolutely
serious! They grow exceptionally well and help bind up
excess nutrients and remove them from the water.)
I had intended to improve the aesthetics of our home
with the discus, and now I stood in front of the sort of
wretched aquarium that has driven many a novice from
the hobby. The tank looked so sad that I avoided looking
at it any more than was necessary. Instead I feverishly
sought a new home for the fish—I simply couldn’t cope
with the sensitive nature of the species!
I couldn’t start by asking around among my aquari- suggestion that the fish hadn’t grown properly preyed on
um acquaintances. Almost all of them had fallen flat on my conscience.
their faces with discus at some time or other and had
specialized in species that use less perfidious methods to One day, maybe…
win sympathy. So I advertised on the Internet and, after A fellow aquarist who had long been breeding discus
sending photos of my fish, was informed how horren- successfully in even harder water had told me that the
dous it was to have thread algae in the aquarium (they offspring of wild parents couldn’t be maintained satisfac-
gobble up oxygen), that “genuine Cuipéuas” have a less torily in my tap water. If I had obtained youngsters from
extensive blue area on the head region, and that my fish him, it wouldn’t have mattered if they contained a bit of
hadn’t grown properly, as they didn’t normally start Snakeskin, as long as they fed properly and grew! But by
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spawning at that size. I was not amused. The business then I had given up my fishes and sold them for peanuts
O. KLAWONN
about the algae was a laugh, and the gobbledygook about to an aquarist pal who was good with cichlids.
genuine and fake fishes has never interested me, but the Discus and a few other large South American cichlids
45
Inspired
by Mother
Nature.
Engineered by
®
Above: Discus pair

with newly hatched
larvae.
Right: Closeup of the
wrigglers.
continue to fascinate
me, but I am taking
a break before I try
keeping them again.
They require a lot of
space, which can’t be
provided with mov-
able aquaria. And

if you also have to
tinker around with
the water for such
voluminous aquaria,
then you won’t get
very far with a 16-gal-
lon (60-L) container
and a shower-blocking
reverse-osmosis unit.
But when we move to
a new home with lots
of space and I have un-
limited time, then I will devote myself to them once again. It seems that dis-
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cus cannot simply be raised as a sideline to your main hobby, especially when
you have a busy life. His Highness expects your undivided attention.
46
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47
C OV E R STORY
DISCUS: MYTH & REALITY
by Mary E. Sweeney t Last St. Patrick’s Day, I set out for JFK
Airport on a mission to collect two dozen Symphysodon
aequifasciatus from the cargo depot of the small Brazilian
airline that had carried these so-called delicate fish 3,000
miles from Santarem, Brazil, to New York, New York.
My goal had been to “ark” and ultimately breed some of the wild discus forms
based on my own concern for the future of their entire native range. Preserving
some pure, undiluted discus genes in my home breeding tanks seemed the least
I could contribute, considering the many threats, whether manmade or natural,
that these majestic animals face.
When I opened the boxes in the cargo area of the tiny airline, the bags had
collapsed and most of the water had escaped. It had been a long, hard trip for the
fish, though I knew the handlers had done their best to bring them safely to me.
The discus were in such distress that my only thought was to get them home as
quickly as possible. The sump of my fishroom was the closest thing to their Ama-
zon waters that I could give them, and I drove like a madwoman, 24 dear imports
near death in the back of my compact wagon.
For weeks we called them the zombie fish. Their eyes glowed in the dark. They
had wounds, scrapes, scratches. Oh, woe, surely all would perish.
But no, virtually all of them made it and are now approaching their first
spawning events. Discus are made of far sterner stuff than anyone will admit,
even—or perhaps especially—the grand wizards of discus keeping, who like to in-
flate the amazing things they have done personally with these fish. In fact, discus
Discus are friendly, do not need to be reserved for this class of elite aquarists. This is my conclusion, with 20 years of
curious aquarium
discus-keeping under my belt (and I am no longer telling how long I’ve been keeping fish—just
fish with big
personalities. A that I was born by the ocean), despite the incredible amount of advice, often conflicting, that is
pair can be kept in found in the discus literature and online and the secrets whispered only to best friends.
a modestly sized
aquarium, while Discus mythology
groups require
Discus are steeped in myths that are deeply entrenched and have long served to scare newcom-
more space.
M. P. & C. PIEDNOIR
ers away. Myth Number One is this: “Discus need special everything, and can’t be kept by
AMAZONAS
ordinary people.”
Part and parcel of this are the too-common beliefs that discus need huge tanks, expensive
custom diets, stark aquascapes, daily water changes, ultra-high temperatures, and an exotic-fish
48
These two Pigeon Bloods feel
right at home in this planted
aquarium with peaceful
small tetras as tankmates.
AMAZONAS
TK
49
When discus feel confident, they will
school together beautifully. Stressed or
unhealthy fish will turn dark and hide.
veterinarian on call. On top of that, they are reputed you would any other aquarium. Captive-bred discus can
to be preposterously expensive and exceptionally flighty be downright hardy and surprisingly affordable.
and delicate.
Some of this derives from the darker ages when The discus aquarium
pioneering aquarists were dealing with wild-caught discus A normal 20- or 30-gallon (76–114-L) aquarium, prefer-
suffering from transport shock and tag-along parasites ably with a “high” profile, is fine for a half-dozen grow-
and maladies. With today’s available tank-raised fish, ing discus or a mated pair of adult fish. Adult discus in
modern foods, better filtration, and less of the old “can’t the aquarium really do go “two by two.” Mated pairs are
do” attitude, discus keeping is within the reach of virtu- happiest together, and like to be the reigning discus in
ally all aquarium enthusiasts. their realm. Surplus males are unwelcome. Extra girls will
Discus are cichlids, tough and vigorous; they can live be kept at the other side of the aquarium.
and thrive in normal water in normal aquaria and eat A large tank with a school of discus is possible. I
normal foods. It is not necessary to formulate special di- have found that, like most other cichlids, they’ll fight
AMAZONAS
ets or go hunting for organic, grass-fed-beef hearts. Some like mad if you have only two adult males. If you have a
people like to do that, but the fish do not require it. A larger group, the “alpha” male will spread his aggression
modest-sized aquarium will suffice for discus. Plant it as amongst a larger number of targets, and this will prevent
50
kept elsewhere. Their penchant for discus slime can be
heartbreaking. (Yes, they can kill a discus.)
Discus water
Keep it clean and keep it stable. As long as the water
chemistry is not markedly different from the water that
they were kept in just previously, discus will generally
continue to thrive. Do use a good chlorine/chloramine
removal product when preparing tap water for water
changes.
“Clean water” in fish terms means free of pollutants
and parasites. Be most conscientious about washing your
hands and lower arms before (and after) splashing about
in your aquarium. You may not remember the dab of
scent or bug repellent or even perhaps the dry-cleaning
fluid from your clothing before the fish start to swirl in
the water. They are intolerant of chemical pollution.
Fish waste is another matter, and generally the re-
sponsibility of the biological filter. A well-aged aquarium
filter of just about any type converts fish waste into
life-threatening injuries. You might even consider one harmless byproducts that are effectively removed by your
spectacular discus in a planted tank with just a few spe- plants and water changes. Do use a biological filtration
cial tankmates. starter culture; refrigerated product is recommended for
Plant the discus aquarium in whatever way pleases this living culture.
you. Tall Echinodorus swords of different types are perfect. About those water changes—25 percent a week is
Do exercise caution when fertilizing the plants, as excess standard aquarium practice. Siphoning wasted food and
can undermine the well-being of the fish. And don’t add debris is a good habit. I like to use a piece of Poly Filter
anything to the discus aquarium that you wouldn’t add (Poly-Bio-Marine) in the filter to help protect against
to your own body. accidental toxins and heavy metals.
Some compatible species to keep with discus are The temperature can be between 74 and 84°F
dwarf cichlids of the genera Apistogramma and Micro- (25–30°C); 82°F (28°C) is ideal. Water hardness is not
geophagus; and Aspidoras, Brochis, and Corydoras. Small an issue in most areas of the United States, but when it
M. P. & C. PIEDNOIR
characins in schools—Paracheirodon, Hemigrammus, and is a concern, an economical reverse osmosis filter will
AMAZONAS
many others—are charming, provided the specimens are eliminate the problem. If it is truly desirable to change
too large to be eaten by the discus. water chemistry, try to do it during a rainstorm, when
Loricariids, those sucker-mouth catfishes, are best the fish will be “expecting” an influx of different water.
51
The superb not, use the net, and don’t put in any new fish until Na-
condition of this ture takes its course in that aquarium and all the fishes
Brown Discus are either well or no longer extant. After an unhappy
is evidenced by
the rich red and
event, replace most of the water in a planted aquarium
contrasting and wait 30 days before adding new fishes, which is the
gold. amount of time required to complete the life cycle of the
usual fish pests.
Discus selection
Whether it’s your first time or you’re coming back for
more, you want to start with the best fish you can get. Look
for feisty, “come ’n’ feed me” discus, bright-eyed (ideally
bright red), with absolutely no signs of injury: scales, fins,
and tail intact. Healthy discus radiate confidence.
Discus come in glorious red, blue, green, yellow, and
brown colors. Modern breeders have extracted from these
colors an amazing palette of enhanced colors and pat-
terns almost beyond the imagination. The shape of the
fish should be round in all but the high-body forms. Gills
should be symmetrical and move evenly at about 60 beats
per minute. Avoid fish with clamped gills or fins.
Feeding discus It’s a lot of fun to grow out youngsters (six or eight
Discus will grow exceedingly well on a diet of high-qual- virtually guarantees at least one of each sex), but invest-
ity flake, pelleted foods, and frozen foods, supplemented ing in older pre-adult or even young adult fish gets the
with “clean” live foods. Favorite foods of discus are future discus mates to the goal soonest. If you really want
frozen Mysis shrimp, adult brine shrimp, and very small a pair, go for that, and don’t waste your resources on
earthworms (Red Wigglers, Eisenia foetida, or compost “grow-outs.” Former playmates become “the enemy” to a
worms) and whiteworms. (It is a myth that whiteworms year-old pair as instincts kick into high gear and the two
are high in fat; au contraire, they are high in protein.) young discus start to clean. Obsessive cleaning, a strong
Freeze-dried blackworms are favored, as are bloodworms. desire for privacy, and becoming real meanies marks the
Try minced frozen langostino tails; sometimes even sick end of youth and the onset of adult behavior: Spawning!
discus will entertain the thought of eating this food. I At this point, the remaining fish in the average
won’t enter the beef-heart debates here, but in many aquarium need to be re-housed. Make plans early. If you
home discus aquaria, frozen beef heart causes overdepen- ask nicely, perhaps your local aquarium shop will take
dence on massive daily water changes. If discus do not them, but move quickly, or they will be starved, injured,
eat any food within a half-hour, siphon the remains. and eventually killed by the discus male as he assumes
dominance of the tank.
Discus disease Quality discus are healthy. Seeing your intended
If you think your fish is sick, change some water, and purchases live and eating is best, and the best aquarium
don’t feed the fish until it behaves as it usually does when retail shops will have healthy discus or can special-order
you approach with food. (You won’t really be able to them. Contact a local aquarium society to see if there are
tempt it to eat, and the uneaten food will make the water local breeders. Finally, mail order is a viable option and
poisonous.) Don’t rely on medicine to make your fish overnight shipping of discus is usually safe. All reputable
well. Once you start, it will be difficult to stop, because a discus sellers will guarantee live delivery.
remedy that cures one problem sometimes allows other Keeping discus does not have to be complicated.
problems to rear their even uglier heads. Formalin is a Honestly, it is often more difficult to keep fancy guppies.
standard aquarium remedy for gill flukes (Dactylogyrus Remember the habits of good fish husbandry, and the
sp.), and it works quite well when used properly, but project will be a success—with the regal discus swaying
there’s a very fine line between kill and cure. It’s em- confidently in your own aquarium.
balming fluid, folks.
While I am very much against the wanton use of REFERENCES
chemicals and medications, some diseases simply will not Bleher, H. 2011. Bleher’s Discus, Volume 2. Aquapress Publishers, Italy.
heal spontaneously. Very often, when a disease or injury
AMAZONAS
Crampton, W.G.R. 2008. Ecology and life history of an Amazon floodplain

is caught at the beginning, a massive water change and a cichlid: the discus fish Symphysodon (Perciformes: Cichlidae). Neotrop
H. BAVIOLIS
handful of salt will stop it in its tracks. Ichthyol 6 (4):599–612.

Use your head, and your fish will be fine. If they’re www.simplydiscus.com
52
MIX IT UP! San Francisco Bay Brand’s® frozen &
freeze dried fish foods are all natural,
contain no fillers, preservatives or
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www.sfbb.com choices for your fish and invertebrates.
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53
5 3
C OV E R STORY
An expert’s basic guide to

raising, keeping, and grooming
show-quality Symphysodon
t by Dick Au
54
F or many years, Discus (Symphysodon spp.) were meant for advanced
tropical fish hobbyists only. Not only was it difficult to find the fish for
sale, but discus keepers were saddled with acclimating wild-caught
fish, sophisticated water chemistry management, nutrition ques-
tions, and disease control and prevention challenges.
Today, farm-produced discus are readily available at local
fish stores and from tropical fish mail-order retailers. They
are generally hardier, have very attractive colors, and are
very affordable. With dozens of books published on all
aspects of discus keeping and abundant information
available online, discus are now no more difficult to
keep than many other tropical fishes. This has led to
many more discus hobbyists, discus associations, and
discus shows worldwide.
In the beginning, most discus shows were orga-
nized by commercial breeders to display and market their
special discus varieties. These professionals provided
most of the show entries and won most of the tro-
phies. In some European and Asian shows, cash
prizes for winners often ran to tens of thou-
sands of dollars. These competitive shows
also provide opportunities for hobbyists
to appreciate how show-quality discus
should look and challenge them to
upgrade the quality of discus they
have at home. In recent years,
more and more hobby-
ists have participated
in these competi-
tions, and they
have begun to
take home
many
of the
prizes.
Figure 1. Starting right in pursuit of

trophy discus calls for selecting eight
or more fish of the same variety, in
this case young adult red discus of
about 4 inches (10 cm).
AMAZONAS
MATT BEAMAN
55
Whether you are a hobbyist who simply enjoys a tank Private breeders, specialized discus importers and
of show-quality discus at home or if you have aspirations mail-order retailers, and stores with dedicated sections
to compete in a future discus show, understanding the for discus are likely sources for good quality discus. If the
process of selecting, grooming, and showing discus will question of wild versus captive-bred discus comes up, I
definitely enhance your discus-keeping experience. absolutely recommend captive-bred stock to anyone who
is not an expert. Generation after generation of captive
What makes a show discus? breeding has produced discus that are accustomed to an
A healthy discus, without deformities or scars and ap- aquarium environment and are not nearly so demanding
propriately sized for its age, is the starting point. Its of the optimal water conditions and pH levels found in
size, shape, patterning, and colors should all blend in nature. Wild fish can come in with lots of parasites, and
harmony to please the eye. A show discus is confident of unless you really know how to deal with them, they can
its surroundings and swims around gracefully. At times, be the cause of ongoing problems.
like a proud peacock, it will strut and fan in front of its Healthy young discus tend to have light body col-
admirers as if to show off its beauty. Discus show judges ors, clear eyes, and fully erect fins. They should school
evaluate competing specimens according to specific stan- together, swimming back and forth toward the front of
dards for many physical attributes. the tank, looking to be fed. A juvenile discus that has
A discus does not mature to become a show specimen intensely dark colors, acts in a territorial fashion, and is
accidentally. The owner carefully selects a group of young aggressive toward tankmates is often a victim of disease
fish to work with. He or she nurtures them in an optimum or prior heavy chemical treatments.
environment, protects them from injuries, and interacts Once you are satisfied that a discus is healthy, the next
with them regularly to groom them for future shows. step is to make sure that it has no undesirable imperfec-
tions. A simple four-step process can be used to examine
Selecting a show-quality discus discus ranging in size from 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter
Acquiring discus with show potential is the most impor- and up. While imperfections are more pronounced in
tant first step. Fish with genetic faults or those weakened larger fish, a practiced eye can spot them in smaller fish.
by disease will not mature to become show fish even if Step 1. Examine the discus from a head-on view.
they receive the best care. The selection process need not Imagine a vertical line drawn from the tip of the dorsal
be bewildering; it is best to start working with a group fin to the bottom of the anal fin, dividing the fish in two
of eight or more young discus of the same variety. Make halves (Figure 2). The halves should be symmetrical.
your selection from a larger group of healthy, young, and It should be easy to observe irregularities, such as eyes
robust fish (Figure 1, previous page). that have different sizes or are positioned unevenly; the
Figure 2. Figure 3.
View head-on. Look for View the sides.
symmetry and alignment Look for
of the eyes. Check for undesirable
irregularities, such shapes of:
as a twisted mouth, 1. Dorsal fin.
deformities of the gill 2. Forehead.
plates, or deformed 3. Mouth.
vertebrae. 4. Chin.
5. Ventral fin.
6. Vent.
7. Anal fin.
AMAZONAS
56
mouth may be twisted to one side; the gill plates may be and markings. Hobbyists interested in a particular strain
curled or deformed; and fins can be damaged and not should consult with breeders or hobbyists familiar with
even on both sides. On some discus, deformed vertebrae discus competitions to understand these definitions. In
can be observed as a bump on one side immediately in general, look for fish that have clearly defined patterns
front of the caudal peduncle or tail. Avoid all imperfec- that uniformly cover the entire body and are comple-
tions such as these. mented by harmonizing body colors. For patterned
Step 2. Examine the fish broadside on each side. The varieties, it is difficult to achieve and yet highly desir-
desirable body shape for a discus is either perfectly round able to have the body markings also cover the abdomen,
or a vertically oriented oval, often referred to as tall body forehead, and fin areas. Colors and markings on discus
form. Look for the fish with a profile that fits nicely into evolve and intensify with age.
an imaginary circle or vertically placed oval (Figure 3). Some commercial breeders feed large amounts of
The numbers in the figure indicate areas to pay attention color-enhancing foods to brighten the colors of younger
to. Obviously, certain parts of the body will not align per- discus. Be wary of fish that appear artificially red or that
fectly with the circle, but smooth transitions from point have red coloration bleeding into the base of their pecto-
to point are more desirable. The most common imperfec- ral fins. If a fish looks like a Red Delicious apple, it may
tions identified with this step are recessed or missing fin be due to color-enhancing feed rather than breeding.
rays on the dorsal or anal fins; a bumpy-looking forehead; These problems can be avoided by purchasing from
a pointed or “beaky” mouth; and twisted pectoral fins. reputable breeders.
Step 3. Examine specific areas of the body, again on
both sides (Figure 4). Look for scars caused by injuries or Grooming
diseases. The dreaded “hole-in-head” disease will leave Raising quality discus and grooming them to become
crater-like scars above the eyes and around the lateral show fish entails much more than just keeping them
line. The gill plates should be flat and cover all the gill alive. A well-maintained aquarium environment and
filaments. The eyes should be appropriately sized for the good nutrition will assure that the discus grow at an
fish’s age, very round, clear, and brightly colored, prefer- optimum rate and ultimately reach the maximum size for
ably red. The vertical bars on the body, if observable, the particular strain.
should be straight and parallel. Bent or V-shaped bars The appropriate basic parameters for keeping discus,
may be a sign of vertebral deformities. such as temperature, water chemistry, frequency of water
Step 4. Examine body colors and patterns on both changes, and foods are amply discussed in many discus
sides. Every variety of discus has a unique look result- books and will not be repeated here. It should be empha-
ing from a “desirable” combination of base body colors sized, however, that stability in the aquarium environ-
Figure 4.
Look for trouble spots:
1. Check for forehead
scarring. 2. Eyes clear?
3. Gills even? 4. Base of
the pectoral fins colored
properly? 5. Check base
of the caudal fin color.
6. Is midline of the body
scarred? 7. Is barring even? AMAZONAS
DICK AU
57
ment and minimal use of chemicals may be peaceful enough when they
and medications are much more are young, but will become aggres-
important to the health of your sive when mature or ready to mate.
discus than simple reliance on They may inflict wounds on your
instrument measurements. In my discus, leaving behind scars. The
opinion, maintaining stable water better choices of tankmates include
conditions is more critical than small, peaceful South American tetras,
achieving “perfect” parameters. I Corydoras catfish, and dwarf cichlids,
would rather keep discus at a stable such as Apistogramma spp.
pH of 7.2 than use chemicals to For those serious about showing
reach an “optimal” pH of 6.5 and discus, however, the best tankmates
then have the pH shift with every are other discus and nothing else. A
water change. Figure 5. Show judging form. bare tank also makes careful daily
Also, maintaining steady growth observation easier. Discus are natu-
through moderate water temperatures and a varied diet is rally timid, and they will tend to hide if there are plants
preferable to trying to achieve the fastest growth rate by and driftwood available. Show discus do not need huge
using high water temperatures and feeding only animal aquariums. A group of eight young fish can be grown out
proteins, such as beef heart. I keep discus at a stable in a tank with a volume of 20-40 gallons (75-150 L).
82–84°F (28–29°C) most of the time. Breeders push- It is natural for fish to flee from unexpected intrud-
ing growth may keep water temperatures at 86–90°F ers. Therefore, a discus must be “trained” or accustomed
(30–32°C). Using a heavy diet of beef heart, which is rich to displaying in front of a show judge. To encourage
in animal protein and fat, can produce fast growth, but it interactions with people, it is best to raise discus in a bare
can also result in fish that are obese and less mobile and tank placed in a location exposed to moderate human
active than they should be. traffic. Spend more time in front of the discus tank dur-
I feed a varied diet of high-quality protein (brine ing feedings and do not hesitate to feed them by hand.
shrimp, Mysis shrimp, bits of prawn and fish fillets), with Finally, not every young discus will mature into a
some vegetable matter. Commercial pellets from the best show specimen. As discus grow, their body forms and
brands can be a part of the mix. If you use beef heart, be color patterns evolve, and minor deformities may become
sure it is part of a diet with a good variety of different more pronounced, thereby disqualifying them for compe-
foods. Color-enhancing rations can be part of the mix, tition. The grooming process includes periodic culling of
but don’t overdo this. less desirable fish to focus attention on those retained for
Disease and injury prevention is essential. Even competition.
though most discus diseases are treatable, many will
stunt growth and leave behind permanent, unsightly Discus shows and competition
scars. Spend time observing your discus frequently and With the increased popularity of discus, discus hobby
treat any disease or wound promptly. Avoid adding new societies have been organized all over the world. These
inhabitants to the discus tank to reduce the chances of organizations foster exchanges of information between
introducing infectious diseases. Remove any aggressive hobbyists and host discus shows. They have also estab-
tankmates. Many varieties of cichlids and loricariids lished standards and rules by which show discus are
Figure 7. These fish represent all the major colors of discus.

AMAZONAS
DICK AU
58
Figure 6. The Best of Show,
North American Discus Association
2012. It is a Red Turquoise from
Alex Piwowarski stock shown by
Kraig Koontz of Kingdom Come
Discus.
judged. In the United States, the North American Discus score is the sum of both. The first part applies similarly to
Association (www.NADA.com) hosts bi-annual shows. all discus varieties and is for the overall appearance of the
The most recent was in late June this year in Atlanta. The fish. Points are given for body size and shape, as well as
annual convention of the American Cichlid Association condition of fins, gills, and eyes. Each physical attribute
also has a competition category for discus. can earn up to a maximum number of points; deformi-
While a small number of hobbyists will participate ties or scars will result in points taken away. Under this
in a discus competition, many may wonder how their evaluation system, the largest number of points is given
discus would compare with the trophy winners. For that for general health, overall attractiveness, and the “pres-
reason, it would be worthwhile to understand how discus ence” of the fish (Figure 6). An exceptionally large fish
entries are judged in a show. Every discus show utilizes a will not guarantee the winning of a trophy.
similar judging form (Figure 5), modified to incorporate The second part of grading is for body markings and
local preferences. For example, discus shows in European colors. Since there are discus varieties with every color of
AMAZONAS
MATT BEAMAN
countries often have provisions in their judging forms to the rainbow and very unique markings, they are grouped
accommodate the participation of wild discus entries. into categories for competition purposes. For shows with
Discus entries are graded in two parts and the final fewer entries, the basic categories are: Solid, Thick-line,
59
Thin-line, Spotted, Wild/Other, and Albino (Figure 7).
Larger shows allow for more categories. Each of these
categories is graded differently, based on certain preferred
characteristics. For example, solid-colored discus will not
be graded for pattern symmetry, but for color intensity
DiscusDeliveryUSA.com and even distribution. Overall, the emphasis is on sym-
has been created to be a direct line from metry and even distribution of markings, color intensity,
the world’s best discus fish breeders to and harmony between the markings and base body colors.
the US tropical fish hobbyist. We offer Finally, the combined scores for the two parts are
new varieties each month. used to rank all show entries in each category, and to
select category bests and the Best of Show.
Discus shows provide commercial breeders with
opportunities to showcase and market their discus.
Thus, they will continue to provide a large number of
the entries. However, for the same marketing reasons,
Keep up with our future imports on
their emphasis is mainly on the newer varieties, thereby
Facebook.com/DiscusDeliveryUSA or creating opportunities for discus hobbyists to compete in
email [email protected] other categories. With patience and understanding of the
techniques for proper selection and grooming, hobbyists’
discus will not only live up to the reputation of being the
“King of Aquarium Fishes,” they will win their fair share
of the trophies as well.
Dick Au has been keeping and breeding discus for more than
50 years and is the author of Trophy Discus and the Back to
Nature Guide to Discus. He lives in San Francisco.
Does size matter to you ?

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through a china shop. That’s why we make NanoMag® the patent-pending, unbelievably strong, thin, and flexible magnet for cleaning
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60
AMAZONAS
11
61
62
AMAZONAS
NANO!
AQ UATI C PLANTS
Think small (but lush):

little footprints…big impressions
article and images by Karen Randall t What’s the big new thing
in the aquarium world? Tiny tanks. Actually, tiny tanks artfully
aquascaped. For years, a truism for aquarists has been that the
bigger the tank, the more stable the system. That is still true for
fish-only systems, although our better biological filters are a huge
improvement over the bubble-up corner filters that were standard
in the community aquariums of my youth. But in the mid-’80s,
the planted aquarium began to come of age. Due to the early work
of Kaspar Horst and Horst Kipper in the ’80s and Takashi Amano
in the early ’90s, people around the world started to have access to
good information, allowing them to keep fully planted aquariums
with greater ease.
As time has gone on, we have come to under- Above: Microsorum

stand that healthy plants actually use many of pteropus “Windelov” is a
great low-light option for
the waste materials generated by the animals
the nano tank.
in an aquarium. In most reasonably stocked,
fully planted tanks, the “nitrogen cycle” that we Left: Staurogyne repens
discuss with regard to a fish tank doesn’t exist, threads through this
AMAZONAS
aquascape, behind
because the plants immediately use any am-
Fissidens fontanus.
monium from the animals or uneaten food as
soon it is produced. They also consume excess
63
Clockwise from
top left:
Yellow shrimp
(Neocaridina
heteropoda var.
yellow)
Rotala sp. “green”
in front, Rotala
rotundifolia
behind.
This aquascape
consists almost
entirely of mosses
and liverworts.
Hemianthus
callitrichoides in
front with Rotala
sp. “green”
behind. The
grassy plant is
Blyxa japonica,
and will eventually
outgrow this
placement,
though it looks
lovely now.
Pogostemon
helferi makes a
diagonal swath
between Flame
Moss in the front
and Mayaca
fluviatilis and
Ludwigia palustris
behind.
phosphate introduced from food or other sources. Aquatic to get equipment to fit it, and it is very low in cost. Un-
gardeners have found that while big tanks are fun, small, fortunately, these tanks are, well, kind of ugly. The good
planted tanks that are thoughtfully stocked can be very news is that there are a plethora of small tanks available
stable too. I have kept tanks as small as .5 gallons (2 L) these days, and more entering the market all the time.
running for several years without any problems. Several companies offer packages including everything
So what is a nano tank? Definitions vary widely, from lighting and filtration, and one even includes sub-
and the tanks most freshwater aquarists consider “nano strate and a CO2 system!
tanks” would be considered “pico tanks” in the marine
hobby. For the sake of this article, I will use my defini- Setting up your nano tank
tion of a nano tank, and the one we use for the AGA A nano tank can be placed almost anywhere you have
aquascaping contest: any tank of 10 gallons (38 L) or less a spot for it in your home or office. Avoid placing it in
(sometimes they are a lot smaller). direct sunlight, as this may overheat the small tank.
AMAZONAS
Interestingly, the ubiquitous 10-gallon (38-L) “starter But you don’t have to worry about supporting a lot of
tank” is also a great shape for a starter nano tank. The weight—these smaller tanks weigh no more than a bottle
nice thing about a 10-gallon tank is that it is really easy of milk! Nano tanks are great desktop tanks, but—be
64
forewarned—they are great (wonderful?) time-wasters! or paintball-type CO2 system, but is not necessary if you
The smallest nano tanks do not require filtration. A choose your plants appropriately. It is best to stick to
good light and regular water changes will keep your tank slow-growing plants in these tiny tanks, or you will need
in good shape. For larger nanos, especially if you plan to to do a lot more trimming than you’ll probably want to.
include livestock in your display, a filter is a good idea. For larger tanks, many people choose to use bottled CO2
Some of the nano “kits” available these days include an with a good regulator and needle valve, just as you would
internal power filter. While they are perfectly capable of with a full-sized tank.
doing the job, they are not my favorite, simply because There are a number of lighting options for nano
it is hard to aquascape around them. There are several tanks, from compact fluorescents to HQI lighting to
hang-on-the-back–style filters that are small enough for LEDs. Anything goes, as long as you can place it where
nano tanks, and even some little canister filters. Keep in it won’t overheat the small volume of water. LEDs are
mind that if your tank will house shrimp, it is imperative particularly good from this perspective, and while the
AMAZONAS
that you cover the filter intake with something fine, like a prices are generally still high for aquarium LEDs, they
sponge filter, to prevent the babies being sucked up. are quite affordable for a tank of this size. If you have an
Supplemental CO2 can be provided via a yeast reactor oddly shaped tank or want a really inexpensive solution,
65
a compact fluorescent desk lamp will do an admirable job to worry about fertilization for a while, but the nutrients
of lighting a nano tank. stay out of the water column, minimizing algae problems.
If your tap water is good for growing plants, it is fine In a very tiny tank, if you use epiphytic plants,
to use it. But if you live in one of those areas with rock- you can get by with no real “substrate” at all. In a tiny
hard water or there is too much nitrate or phosphate in half-gallon (2-L) tank I kept for several years, I cut up
it, it is not expensive to buy bottled water at the grocery Cladophora balls and sewed them onto a piece of plastic
store for a tank of this size. needlepoint mesh to make a beautiful “lawn.”
For substrate you can use anything you’d use in a Heating can be an issue for nano tanks. There are
larger tank, but be careful about using anything with good thermostatically controlled, submersible heaters
too many nutrients in it. Some commercial substrates available for tanks as small as two gallons (7.5 L). Below
are great for growing plants, but require a lot of water- this size, the options are not so good. I would not advise
changing to prevent algae in the first few weeks. This isn’t the use of the “stick-on” pad–type “mini heaters.” They
ideal for a nano tank. One very effective way to solve the only heat the water a few degrees above ambient room
problems created by these high-nutrient substrates and temperature, and the temperature rises and falls with the
AMAZONAS
still receive the benefits is to simply cap them with plain temperature of the room much faster than it would in
quartz or silica gravel. With a substrate set up this way, a larger tank; in a nano tank without a thermostatically
the plants have access to that nutrition, so you won’t have controlled heater, avoid keeping animals that would not
66
Clockwise from top left:
A lovely group of low-light plants including
mosses, Microsorum, and Anubias barteri
var. nana “Petite”.
A pretty little tank designed by Bailin
Shaw for the AGA table at the Northeast
Conference of Aquarium Societies (NEC).
One of the author’s nano tanks. This one is
4 gallons (15 L).
Another of the author’s tanks, this one a
mere half-gallon (2 L), with Cladophora used
as a velvety ground cover.
Pogostemon helferi.
Rotala wallichii gives a great pop of color in
an otherwise green palette.
This mound of Fissidens is softened by the
lacy look of the Hemianthus callitrichoides
growing through it.
do well in your normal household temperature. Some examples of these are Anubias barteri var. nana and
As far as hardscape materials are concerned, use A. nana “Petite”, the smaller Cryptocoryne species, such
anything you would use in a big tank, but smaller. Here as C. parva, the small Microsorum pteropus variants, such
is your chance to splurge a bit on really nice rock or as “Windelov” and “Trident”, and the myriad interest-
wood—the amount you need won’t break the bank. But ing mosses and liverworts that are available these days.
you can also use “found” materials. Wood that has been For bigger nano tanks, it really depends on how often you
submerged in a river for an extended period of time and want to trim the plants. There are many small-leafed stem
is free of bark is suitable; just give it a quick scrub with a plants that are the right scale for a nano tank. Some of
bristle brush to remove anything on the surface. Any rock my personal favorites are Rotala sp. “Green”, Hemianthus
is fine, as long as there are no metals to be seen and it is micranthemoides and H. callitrichoides, Rotala wallichii, and
not a calcium carbonate–based stone. You can test this Ludwigia arcuata. But this barely scratches the surface of
with a couple of drops of muriatic acid from the hardware all the possibilities. And because the tanks are small, you
store. If the rock fizzes, don’t use it in such a small tank. don’t need to spend a fortune on plants to make a big
Pick plant species that are in keeping with the size statement.
AMAZONAS
of your tank. Many plants that would get lost in a large When it comes time to plant your nano tank, those
tank are exquisite in a little tank. For the very smallest “fancy” aquascaping tools, especially a set of long forceps,
tanks, it’s best to choose plants that grow quite slowly. are a must. Almost all serious aquatic gardeners, no matter
67
what size the tank, use them, but when you are working in
such a limited space it is just about impossible to do a good
job with your hands.
Animals used in nano tanks must be chosen with
care. Tanks between 7 and 10 gallons (26–38 L) can
house a carefully selected community of small fishes,
while tanks from 5 to 7 gallons (19–26 L) are better as
single-species tanks for small colonies of tiny fish. There
are many new “nano” fish available these days, like
Celestial Pearl Danios (Celestes margaritatus) and Jelly
Bean Tetras (Ladigesia roloffi). And don’t overlook the old
favorites. White Cloud Mountain Minnows (Tanichthys
albonubes), Endler’s Livebearers (Poecilia sp.), and Clown
A cascade of Killies (Epiplatys annulatus) can shine in a nano tank all
Hemianthus their own.
callitrichoides
Below 4 or 5 gallons (15–19 L), it’s probably better
tumbles
down as the
to stick to invertebrates only, or in a tank between 2.5
centerpiece and 5 gallons (9.5–19 L), a single Betta (Betta splendens).
between plants Remember that a Betta is a warm water fish, and requires
with different a thermostatically controlled heater to remain healthy.
textures.
So don’t be taken in by the smaller so-called “Betta
bowls.” They cannot be adequately heated, so this is not a
humane or healthy way to keep these fish for any length
of time. The smaller tanks are the perfect place to breed
and enjoy the beauty of the many wonderful miniature
shrimp that are now available in the hobby, as many of
these do just fine at room temperature.
Maintaining your tiny tank

Water changes are necessary, even in small tanks. You
can use airline tubing for this, or even a coffee mug to dip
water out. The nice thing is that with a tank of this size,
a 50 percent or even 90 percent water change is only a
few minutes’ work, so there is no reason not to do them
frequently. On tanks that are a bit larger, there are small-
diameter siphon hoses
available commercially,
or you can purchase a
length of appropriate
diameter tubing from
the hardware store.
With a rich sub-
strate, a nano tank can
go a long time without
fertilization. But if yours
starts to need a boost,
there are a couple of
options. One is to very
carefully measure tiny
In Taiwan, it is
commonplace to find
AMAZONAS
beautiful little nano tanks

like this for sale, already
completely aquascaped for
you!
68
amounts of commercial or homemade aquarium fertil-
Invertebrates
izers suitable for the size of the tank. The other option
is much easier if you also have a large tank: do a water
change on your large tank, dose your nutrients appro-
priately, and then do a large water change into the nano
tank, using the fertilized water from the big tank.
Obviously, you will also need to trim plants and clean
the glass as needed. A pair of sharp, long-handled scissors
are helpful for the former task. I have found the most
effective tool for cleaning glass in a nano tank to be a
single-edge razor blade. This is the best tool for getting
into tight spaces in a small tank. The one place that the Providing quality freshwater
razor doesn’t work is in the rounded corners of many PU]LY[LIYH[LZHUKUHUVÄZO
beautiful seamless glass tanks. A Q-tip is great for remov- from around the globe.
ing algae in these areas.
One of the best things about nano tanks is that if you
don’t like the way things are going, it is neither difficult
nor expensive to start from scratch and try something
new. Even though these tanks can be stable and beauti-
ful for an indefinite period, don’t be afraid to experiment
with different designs.
Nano tanks are a wonderful way to gain experience
in the art of aquascaping. So go out and get a little
Msjinkzd.com
tank. Enjoy working with the wonderful tiny plants and
animals that can get lost in larger tanks. Learn as you go
along. But be warned, nano tanks are like potato chips…
it’s hard to stop at just one!
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HUSBANDRY & B R E E D IN G
Dario dario:
The Scarlet Badis

Virtually an instant classic, Dario dario was first imported in 1999 and since then
has been high on the list of the most popular fishes for small planted aquariums.
The species is now part of the standard offering of many aquarium stores. But most
of the specimens available are still wild-caught, and the vast majority of them are
males. Anyone who can obtain one or more females would thus do well to breed
these badids, as the percentage of females among tank-breds is significantly higher
than among imported wild fishes. The Scarlet Badis can be bred both intensively
and extensively. t by Frank Strozyk and Andreas Sander
Dario dario (Hamilton, 1822) comes from Assam and western Bengal in India, possibly also Bhu-
tan, and occurs mainly in tributaries of the Brahmaputra River. These are small, shallow clear-
water rivers and streams characterized by sand to shingle bottoms and, usually, dense aquatic or
marginal vegetation.
Males, which measure .75–1 inch (2–2.5 cm) in length, have bold red and blue stripes and
bright red fins with white-blue margins and fin membranes. However, the color intensity, num-
ber, and width of the blue stripes can vary considerably.
A striking feature of the Scarlet Badis is the typical black stripe running through the eye from
Below: Adult Dario the upper edge of the operculum to the mouth. Females are somewhat smaller at .5–.75 inch
dario, like this (1.5–1.8 cm) and have a gray-brown coloration with usually colorless fins, though the first ray
male, can manage
of the ventral fin and the margin of the anal fin may be white-blue as in males, but is not as
relatively large food
animals, such as
bright and elongate. Individual females sometimes exhibit irregular red spots and small, bluish,
bloodworms. iridescent spots on the flanks.
Aggressive or stressed females exhibit a dark stripe pattern and their fins may take on a slight
reddish hue. A further character that distinguishes females from males is the general shape of
the body and above all the head: females have a blunter head profile (especially the relationship
of head depth and length to eye size), and, when ready to spawn, a noticeably rounded belly
FAM. NORMANN; OPPOSITE PAGE; I. SEIDEL

AMAZONAS
SANDER
LEFT:
A.
70
(sometimes with the yellowish eggs visible through the distended skin of the belly).
Males are somewhat slimmer and more elongate. Above: In ripe females
the pale yellow eggs
Dense planting can be seen through the
distended belly.
Because of its small size and territorial behavior, Dario dario is suitable for main-
tenance in a small aquarium with a volume of 5 gallons (20 L) or so. One or two
males and two to four females can be kept permanently without problems in small
aquariums of this type. Larger tanks with a volume of 10–15 gallons (40–60 L) can
accommodate larger groups of eight to twelve individuals. Our tanks were densely
planted, at least in places, with Java Fern (Microsorum pteropus), Java Moss (Ve-
sicularia dubyana), Cryptocoryne species, and Anubias; wood and rocks provided the
fishes with additional cover and boundary markers. In addition, we made sure that
the tanks weren’t too brightly lit.
Because too strong a current causes these fishes to disappear
into the cover, we equipped the tanks with at most a small,
air-driven Poret Foam filter or an internal power
filter running at minimal output. But if the
Right: A fully colored

dominant male.
During courtship the
male becomes an
intense red.
TOP: A. SANDER; BOTTOM: F. STROZYK
AMAZONAS
71
Right: If Dario dario
is maintained in
groups, the males will
constantly contest
territorial boundaries,
and this can rapidly
degenerate into
absolute chaos.
Scarlet Badis juvenile.
tank is large enough and more abundantly planted, it is sieved Daphnia, Artemia and Artemia nauplii, Cyclops and
also possible to dispense with filtration entirely. The same their nauplii, Tubifex, and small mosquito larvae, blood-
applies to heating, as Dario dario prefers fairly cool tem- worms, and glassworms. If you don’t want to rear these
peratures of 65–75°F (18–24°C), which can generally be fishes deliberately and in large numbers, you can keep
guaranteed by room temperature. It is thus possible to do them with a number of dwarf shrimps, whose offspring
without a heater/thermostat. will supplement the menu extremely well. It is occasion-
Because we were able to breed Dario dario successfully ally possible to trigger the feeding reflex with frozen food
in medium-hard, slightly alkaline water, as well as very and a bit of water movement, but once the food is lying
soft, slightly acid conditions, it appears that the species is on the bottom the fishes usually won’t touch it any more.
very tolerant with regard to water parameters. But if your In the majority of cases, dry food is completely ignored.
tap water is very hard, it would be a good idea to mix it
with soft water so as to arrive at a conductivity of around Spawning
300–400 μS/cm. If you have managed to obtain both sexes, and the fish
Generally speaking, when setting up an aquarium are well fed and have been provided with a suitable
for Dario dario, it is important to bear in mind that the aquarium, the males will very quickly begin to carve out
males will carve out small territories and defend them their territories, court females, and drive away competi-
aggressively against one another. Even if no actual injury tors. Fighting males intensify their colors, spread their
results, over time only the strongest and most colorful fins, and swim slightly head-down toward one another.
males survive. Dense planting and other décor, arranged Usually only lateral threat display is required make one
so as to provide potential boundaries for the males’ mini- fish yield and be briefly but vigorously chased away.
territories, can noticeably defuse the situation. During courtship the male again becomes more
Correct food is the most important criterion in the brightly colored, presents himself to any female that
maintenance of Dario dario. It can generally be said that comes near, and swims after her, repeatedly butting her
these fishes require live foods. We fed them mainly with in the flanks and steering her in the direction of the
Equipment for the intensive

rearing of Dario dario: plastic
container with reverse-osmosis
water and Sea Almond
(Terminalia catappa) leaf,
paintbrush for cleaning, food
syringe, and forceps.
AMAZONAS
A. SANDER
72
mostly stay on the bottom and among the
plants, where they initially cling passively
to the substrate and feed from their little
yolk sacs.
After a short time the larvae become
more active, and can sometimes be seen
hanging from the glass near the water’s
surface (best to use a flashlight). In many
cases, however, or to the unpracticed eye,
they are impossible to see. They apparently
feed initially on infusoria and the tiniest
zooplankton, which they find among the
vegetation and in the mulm.
At the age of around 8–14 days the
free-swimming fry progress to larger
foods, such as Paramecium and Artemia
and Cyclops nauplii. Once the fry are
taking foods the size of Artemia nauplii
without problems, they are “out of the
woods” and losses occur only rarely. After
another four to six weeks they measure
around .39–.47 inch (1–1.2 cm) and can
spawning substrate (usually a dense tangle of vegeta- manage to eat Cyclops and small Tubifex, though they
tion—Java Moss, fern roots, and the like). can be reared very well and without losses by continuing
If the females have been well fed and are ready to to use Artemia nauplii.
spawn, then Dario dario will quickly become a continu- Identifying the sexes is a major hurdle in the rearing
ous spawner. The loose clutch of glassy to slightly milky of Dario dario. The sexual differences that are obvious in
eggs, less than 1 mm across, is concealed as deep in a adult specimens are virtually indiscernible in juveniles of
thicket of plants as possible. Depending on the water less than .59 inch (1.5 cm) long, and can only be deter-
temperature, the incubation period lasts around two mined with any degree of certainty after the age of three
days. The newly hatched larvae are barely 3 mm long and to four months. Initially the males begin spontaneously
completely transparent except for their dark eyes. They and rapidly to exhibit slightly darker coloration (espe-
There is considerable
variability in the patterning
of tank-breds. Specimens
without any stripe pattern,
like this one, crop up
occasionally.
AMAZONAS
F. STROZYK
73
cially in the fins), and develop the typical blue and red perfectly adequate to continue breeding for a further
stripe pattern within a few days. They don’t all color up generation, we undertook only a few experiments with
at once, however, so males may keep turning up among intensive breeding.
the putative females in the following weeks. When rearing Dario dario it is very beneficial to
If in doubt regarding the sex of an individual, it is leave the adults in the breeding tank, and some of the
helpful to separate it out. Possible males color up sig- offspring can be reared without problems under these
nificantly faster in the absence of competitors. However, circumstances. Thus, given the correct conditions, the
individuals that still show no color of any kind in the fins species can be bred even by aquarists who are less focused
and on the flanks at an age of more than four months on breeding. An important prerequisite is providing a
are almost always females. In our experience the female- dense thicket of vegetation. It has proved very effective
to-male ratio is usually between 1:1 and 3:1, though we to have the bottom of the breeding tank covered with a
also had a number of broods that were almost 100 per- dense cushion of moss, ideally 4 inches (10 cm) deep
cent female. (This can’t be seen as statistically significant and without gaps. It serves as shelter and a source of first
in view of the small numbers—fewer than 20 specimens). foods for the brood.
If the adults are placed in a tank of this kind and
Extensive and intensive rearing fed generously with fine live food, after a few weeks the
Efficient and intensive breeding of Dario dario, with the first fry, already a reasonable size, should appear. You
painstaking separation of the larvae and loss-free rear- will rarely see fry smaller than 5 mm in length, as they
ing, can produce several dozen young fishes per week. remain hidden deep in the moss cushion, so you may not
We bred the species many times under a wide variety of know that breeding has occurred until larger fry appear.
conditions and over several generations, but always on Anyone who has a supply of the tiniest live foods (for ex-
a relatively small scale, usually producing fewer than 30 ample, rotifers, Paramecium, vinegar eels) can, of course,
specimens. In many cases this “extensive” breeding was supplement the diet with these. Using this method you
so productive that we didn’t need to bother with “in- won’t get an overwhelming number of youngsters, but
tensive” rearing. Because the extensive method always there will be enough for personal requirements and for
worked well and the number of young produced was supplying your immediate circle with young.
AMAZONAS
74
Higher yields very well against the white of the bucket.
Moss that is “well stocked” with spawn can contain We transferred the larvae, newly hatched and a few
dozens or, depending on the number of ripe females, even days old, to plastic bowls containing reverse-osmosis wa-
hundreds of larvae. But the number of larvae decreases ter and a small piece of Sea Almond leaf to keep the germ
dramatically when using extensive breeding because of count low. We cleaned the containers thoroughly with
the presence of the adults (and other predators such as a paintbrush two to three times daily after feeding and
snails, shrimps, and other fishes). One possible way of changed a large part of the water at the same time. Ini-
increasing the “crop” of fry is to remove the adult fishes tially we fed infusorians from hay infusions and cultures,
from the breeding tank and rear the offspring alone. then later freshly hatched Artemia nauplii.
In this way the average number of fry can be roughly Initially, it is usually necessary to start Artemia cul-
doubled, as they can be fed more efficiently and any tures daily so as to have sufficient newly hatched, very
danger of the adults preying on the larvae and very small small nauplii available. While the fishes are still very
fry is excluded. The spawn should be separated right away; young it is advisable to strain out the smallest nauplii to
the longer you wait to separate them, the smaller the crop avoid introducing any large nauplii into the container,
will be. where they will pollute the water if they remain uneaten.
But finding the eggs and collecting them is no easy Once our fry were also taking larger Artemia, we
task. It helps to regularly remove all potential spawning placed them in small, densely planted rearing tanks. This
substrates carefully and transfer them to suitable rearing method was really successful—we experienced almost no
containers (suspended nurseries, small tanks, or large losses. But there was a lot of work involved, and ultimately
plastic boxes). If you limit yourself to siphoning off the we reverted to the admittedly less productive, but much
larvae, this can be done during water changes by siphon- easier extensive method.
ing water from among the vegetation into a white bucket.
The next step requires patience and good eyesight. The REFERENCES
larvae are around 3 mm long, very thin, and transparent. Kullander, S.O. and R. Britz. 2002. Revision of the family Badidae
All you can actually see are the eyes—from above they (Teleostei: Perciformes), with description of a new genus and ten new
look like two short, parallel black streaks and stand out species. Ichthyol Expl Freshw 13 (4): 295–372.
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AMAZONAS
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75
F I SH R O O M TOUR
Interview by Hans-Georg Evers, accompanied by our Thailand correspondent,

Kamphol Udomrhitthiruj tPatrick Yap lives the sort of life that many of us can only dream
about. The owner of Aquaculture Technologies Pte. in Singapore searches for—and finds—new
and unusual fish species all over Asia to satisfy the demands of freshwater enthusiasts world-
wide. An engaging fellow, Yap is always on the move, so I was lucky to catch up with him at his
business premises.
Patrick Yap:
Hunting for the new & rare
AMAZONAS: Patrick Yap:
Good morning, Patrick, and many thanks for let- Exactly. I have been an aquarist since I was eight
ting us turn up here on a Sunday morning! years old, when I persuaded my mother to buy
me an Angelfish and a few Kuhli Loaches, which
Patrick Yap: we initially kept in a bowl. Later on, as a young
No problem, in my line of business there are few man, I had lots of tanks of South American fishes
free weekends. But that was my choice. at home, mainly large catfishes and cichlids. At
some time or other snakeheads also found their
AMAZONAS: way into my tanks, and my interest in native and
Turning your hobby into a profession? other Asian fishes just kept increasing. Around
Patrick Yap
in one of his
quarantine
areas.
AMAZONAS
H.-G. EVERS
76
that time I got to know Peter Ng, the curator of continue that way forever, and soon I was hir-
ichthyology at the Raffles Museum in Singa- ing staff. The real breakthrough began in 2001, Clean, modern
pore, who took me along with him on collecting when the Japanese company, Kamihata, placed aquariums with
built-in pipework
trips near Singapore and the adjacent Malayan a very large order with me. Thereafter I had
provide rapid,
state of Johore. I learned a lot from Peter, and I sufficient capital to build up my business, which almost daily
am proud to have him as my mentor. constantly grew in size and scope. water changes
from a variety
AMAZONAS: AMAZONAS: of reservoirs,
depending on
But then your career took you in quite a differ- So what’s the situation now? You constantly
the requirements
ent direction, right? travel across Asia, visit known and new collect- of the fishes.
ing sites, and brief future partners on the spot? The fishes
Patrick Yap: need optimal
Yes, I studied economics and then got a well- Patrick Yap: conditions
during
paying job—which I gave up after a week. It was Exactly! I have suppliers in all the important
quarantine,
incredibly boring and had absolutely nothing Asian countries, such as Thailand and In- before they
to do with what I had always wanted to do. I donesia, and more recently in Vietnam and set off on their
wanted to work with fishes! Myanmar as well. They regularly send me their travels all over
I started my first business exporting un- stock lists and I buy their fishes. Over time I the world.
usual Asian fishes in 1998. I borrowed 5,000 have been able to build up an effective network,
Singapore dollars (around $3,900 U.S.) and and I also have my own collecting stations in
used some of it to buy tanks and a few sturdy Indonesia. I make collecting tours lasting a few
shelving units from IKEA. I rented space at a days once or twice per month, and have taught
Singapore business building and was able to the people on the spot how to deal with delicate
use their packing station and other facilities. fishes, keep them in quarantine, and dispatch
AMAZONAS
In those days I was a one-man operation—I them. This works very well, and we have hardly
H.-G. EVERS
looked after the fishes, sent out stock lists, and any losses.
did all the shipping myself. Naturally, I couldn’t It isn’t always easy to get the local people
77
The station where Yap’s
fishes are packed for
transportation.
to understand, but they realize very For example, the Burma Stickleback, tactics that we have developed over
quickly that good quality fishes or Paradox Fish (Indostomus para- the years.
are obtainable only if the natural doxus), shouldn’t be packed with too
habitat and its denizens are treated much oxygen. Many labyrinthfishes AMAZONAS:
carefully. Overfishing and over- are packed individually or with Sea You mentioned the Raffles Museum
exploitation are not an issue for Almond (Terminalia catappa) leaves in Singapore—do you collaborate
me; we try to establish long-term as cover and a natural medication with their scientists?
relationships that benefit both sides. against stress in the transport bags.
In addition, some fish species are so Many fish species, particularly those Patrick Yap:
difficult to transport that we would from the blackwaters of Borneo, Yes, indeed. I work primarily with
rather leave them where they are or have their individual peculiarities, Peter Ng, and also with Dr. Heok
develop special methods for them. and there are numerous tricks and Hui Tan and Dr. Heok Hee Ng. I
Rasbora lacrimula (Red Cherry Rasbora) is just

one of the many cyprinid species that Patrick
Yap introduced to the aquarium hobby.
TOP: H.-G. EVERS; BOTTOM: K. UDOMRHITTHIRUJ
AMAZONAS
78
Completely new fish species, such as this
“Yellow Glass Rasbora” from Malinau
(Borneo), are regularly seen in aquaculture.
send them preserved specimens of ing for fishes and let me know if, such trips, and so have many others.
anything I collect that I believe could for example, they find a new species We’ve visited many countries, thou-
be a new species. This has already led for their region. Labyrinthfishes are sands of islands and river basins. We
to a number of original descriptions, particularly interesting, of course, haven’t found everything, not by a
for example that of Gymnochanda especially the numerous forms in long shot. I don’t expect to live long
verae, a new glassfish, in 2011. But the genera Betta and Parosphro- enough to achieve that!
I also read all the scientific work menus, which contain a truly incred-
published on Asian fishes and travel ible number of species and variants. AMAZONAS:
to the locations mentioned, in the I have recently made lots of expedi- The list of fish species introduced to
hope that a species of interest to the tions with other aquarists. The well- the hobby via aquaculture is long.
aquarium hobby is involved. known labyrinthfish expert Horst There have certainly been importa-
My local suppliers also go look- Linke has accompanied me on many tions by traveling aquarists for a
Rasbora patrickyapi (Yap’s

Rasbora) was named in honor of
its discoverer.
TOP: H.-G. EVERS; BOTTOM: H. H. TAN
AMAZONAS
79
80
H.-G. EVERS
Above: Healthy gouramis, bred in-house,
are the latest top seller at Aquaculture
Technologies.
Left: Discovered in the fightingfish area:

the very rare Betta compuncta.
long time, but I think it is fair to TM
describe you as the initiator and

driving force of a worldwide fan club
for Asian aquarium fishes.
Patrick Yap:
Thank you, you flatter me! We have,
indeed, made lots of species avail-
able to the aquarium hobby in large
numbers. I am thinking of the un-
common chocolate gouramis Spha-
AMAZONAS
erichthys vaillanti and S. selatanensis,

the numerous Betta and Parosphro-
menus species, the beautiful dwarf
81
puffer Carinotetraodon salivator, and the
tiny Paedocypris species. We have also
made large numbers of familiar species—
the tiny Boraras brigittae (Chili Rasbora),
Puntius rhomboocellatus (Snakeskin
Barb), and Puntius foerschi (Boomerang
Barb)—available for the market again.
Our competitors now look very closely at
my stock list and try to offer these fishes
themselves.
AMAZONAS:
It’s good to hear such things at a time
when there is purportedly no longer
much interest in the advanced aquarium
hobby, at least in the western world!
Patrick Yap:
Oh, it’s generally true that in 2010 and
2011 the market collapsed in the U.S.
and Europe, and we, too, experienced
setbacks in our sales figures. I sell almost
exclusively rarities, except for the home-
bred gouramis, a recent project. But with
the exception of Japan, the Asian market
is booming like never before.
AMAZONAS:
Tell me about the gourami project. Above: Sphaerichthys vaillanti
(Samurai Gourami) has been
made available to a wider circle of
Patrick Yap:
enthusiasts through the efforts of
I have established a breeding facility for Patrick Yap.
Trichogaster species (Sarawak, Malaysia)
so that I can offer guaranteed virus-
free fishes for the European market. Import regulations in the EU, as well as
here in Singapore, are becoming increasingly strict, so I am trying to produce
fishes that are guaranteed to be healthy, in accordance with the biosecurity
The owner
photographs
new and
rare fishes
himself. The
photographic
tank in
his little
laboratory is
always ready
for use.
AMAZONAS
H.-G. EVERS
82
Below: Rarities such as the dwarf puffer
Carinotetraodon salivator (Striped
Redeye Puffer) are Patrick Yap’s main
stock-in-trade.
TM
measures. This has been very well received by our customers. But we are also
breeding wild forms in Kuching that are difficult to obtain in the wild, for
example Betta miniopinna (SmallFin Betta), Betta taeniata (Banded Betta), and
others.
AMAZONAS:
AMAZONAS
Many thanks for this very interesting discussion, and we wish you continued
success with your business. The readers of AMAZONAS will be pleased to hear
that you will continue to export new species from Asia.
83
AQ UA R I U M
CALENDAR
compiled by Mary E. Sweeney
NOVEMBER 11 Christmas Party, Michiana Aquarium

Society, Roseland, IN
4 Annual Auction http://michiana-aquarium-society.org
Tropical Fish Club of Burlington
Burlington, VT 12 Christmas Party, North Jersey Aquarium
www.tfcb.org/ Society, Lyndhurst, NJ
www.njas.net/
1–4 Convention, Aquatic Gardeners
Association, hosted by Missouri 14 Holiday Party, Brooklyn Aquarium Society
Aquarium Society Brooklyn, NY
St. Louis, MO www.basny.org/
www.aquatic-gardeners.org
3 Annual Meeting, Potomac Valley JANUARY

Aquarium Society, Fairfax, VA
www.pvas.com 12 Meeting, Pacific Coast Cichlid Association
San Jose, CA
16–18 Extravaganza!, Ohio Cichlid
www.cichlidworld.com/meetinginfo.html
Association
Strongsville, OH 19 Annual Winter Swap Meet
[email protected] Grand Valley Aquarium Club
Grand Rapids, MI
20 Bowl Show, Raffle, Auction
www.grandvalleyaquariumclub.org
Michiana Aquarium Society
Roseland, IN 22 Auction, Greater Houston Aquarium Club
michianaaquariumsociety.org Houston, TX
www.houstonfishbox.com
DECEMBER
MARCH
1 Holiday Party, Potomac Valley
Aquarium Society, Fairfax, VA 23-24 The British Discus Show 2013
www.pvas.com The British and International Discus
Keepers Association, Doncaster, UK
8 Holiday Party and Awards
www.british-discus-show.com
Colorado Aquarium Society
Wheat Ridge, CO 30-31 Spring Fish Show, Eastern Iowa Aquarium
www.coloradoaquarium.org Association, Cedar Rapids, IA
www.finflap.com
8 Auction, Motor City Aquarium
Society, Madison Heights, MI
www.motorcityaquariumsociety.com
Contact: [email protected]
AMAZONAS
84
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87
SP EC IE S SNAPSHOTS
➊ HEPSETUS ODOE ➋ GALAXIAS ZEBRATUS ➌ PARAKNERIA CAMERONENSIS
➍ HEMIELEOTRIS LATIFASCIATA ➎ TAIA NATICOIDES ➏ OREICHTHYS CF. PARVUS
20-inch (50-cm) Kafue, Hepsetus odoe
African or Kafue Pike, Hepsetus odoe Cape Galaxias, Galaxias zebratus: a chance find in
South Africa
1 odoe, originates from West and Central Africa,

|The African or Kafue Pike Characin, Hepsetus
where it is very widely distributed. The Kafue, as the 2| Galaxiids are a group of fishes almost unknown
in the aquarium hobby. They are found mainly
local people call it, can attain a good 16–20 inches in Australia and New Zealand, but also have a few
(40–50 cm) in length—and specimens as long as 28 representatives in South America and South Africa. In
inches (70 cm) have been reported. The males are January this year I was lucky enough to catch the only
quite colorful. With the onset of sexual maturity they South African species, the Cape Galaxias, Galaxias
develop a marked extension to the dorsal fin, which zebratus, near Capetown.
can be a very attractive red. These fish owe their scientific name to their beauti-
Supposedly, different local variants of this pike ful zebra pattern on a yellow-brown base color. In ad-
characin grow to different sizes and vary in coloration. dition, adult specimens exhibit a reddish coloration in
Small Hepsetus odoe are not particularly difficult to the caudal fin area. However, the species vary consid-
keep. They will greedily devour most kinds of frozen erably in both color and size. Most grow up to around
foods, such as mosquito larvae and small fishes. A 3 inches (8 cm) in length. Some populations have no
large, sexually mature Hepsetus can be rather boister- patterning and are somewhat smaller at 2.5 inches (6
ous. My “Rusty,” as the kids called him, was forever cm). Galaxias zebratus is supposedly sexually mature
chasing large Brachyplatystoma species around and at 1.5 inches (4 cm), and it is only after they reach
wouldn’t even leave significantly larger peacock bass this size that these previously transparent fish begin
of the genus Cichla in peace. Both small and large H. to color up.
odoe often avoid strong currents. Food should be given I found numerous Cape Galaxias in a small, fast-
only once or twice a week; otherwise they become seri- flowing stream 1.5–8 feet (0.5–2.5 m) wide and a
AMAZONAS
ously obese, and this is difficult to remedy. That apart, maximum of around 2.5 feet (80 cm) deep. The stream
piscivore fans who have tanks at least 6–10 feet (2–3 bed was covered with a layer of leaf litter and there
E. RICHTER
m) long will get a lot of pleasure from the Kafue. were pebbles in some places. There were at least 15
—Enrico Richter Galaxias per square meter, and the fish I caught were
88
Cape Galaxias, Galaxias zebratus
between .2 and 3.25 inches (0.5–8 cm) long. I was The specimens currently in captivity originate from
also able to observe the fish feeding on insects that the southern drainage of the Ivindo River in northern
had fallen onto the water’s surface. The stream was Gabon, near the town of Makokou. These fishes grow
also inhabited by a considerable number of frogs of the up to 4 inches (10 cm) long. They are small, bottom-
family Ranidae and a crab species I couldn’t identify. I dwelling fishes, but are very lively and active most of
very much hope to be able to bring the very interesting the time. They are reminiscent of small lizards inhabit-
Cape Galaxias back to Germany with me the next time ing the aquarium bottom. They aren’t timid, but rather
I visit Capetown. inquisitive when something is going on in front of the
—Stefan Baldus aquarium. They are likely to chase other fishes, but
never really attack and probably aren’t capable of it.
REFERENCES Their mouths are very small and subterminal and are
Cambray, J. (1998): Kleiner Fisch mit ungewisser Zukunft. DATZ Die probably of no use for aggressive interaction.
Aquarienseitschrift 51 (9): 571–5. Feeding Parakneria is exceptionally easy, as they
will happily take any sort of food
that will fit into their mouths,
be it flake or small live foods.
They can also regularly be
seen scraping algae from plant
leaves. When it comes to water
parameters these fishes are
apparently very adaptable, at
least where maintenance is con-
cerned. In the wild they inhabit
Cameroon Shellear, Parakneria cameronensis. waters with a slightly acid to
neutral pH, but in the aquarium
they don’t seem bothered at all
by hard water with a hardness
Parakneria cameronensis somewhat above 15°dGH and a pH of almost 8.
So far nothing at all is known about reproductive
3| Most aquarists are probably unfamiliar with the

genus name Parakneria. The genus is one of
four belonging to the family Kneriidae, which is found
behavior, so anyone can earn his spurs in this regard.
All in all, the species seems to be very suitable as
an aquarium fish, especially for fans of catfishes
in tropical Africa. It probably isn’t deliberately imported, or loaches.
except as an unintentional bycatch or as the result of —Anton Lamboj
collection by aquarists or scientists. From a systematic
viewpoint, the Kneriidae belong to the Ostariophysi, Pygmy Sleeper Goby, Hemieleotris latifasciata
TOP: S. BALDUS; MIDDLE: A. LAMBOJ
but they possess no Weberian apparatus—no special

combination of “auditory bones,” such as those found
in cypriniforms, for example.
By chance, a few specimens of Parakneria camero-
4| The rarely imported Pygmy Sleeper, Hemieleotris
latifasciata, inhabits fresh waters on the Pacific
AMAZONAS
side of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, down to

nensis recently reached Europe. As the name suggests, southern Colombia. It lives in ditches, still waters, and
the species occurs in Cameroon, but it is also found rivers. Derived from the Latin latus (broad) and fascia
in Gabon and parts of the Republic of the Congo. (band), the name means Broadstripe Goby. The broad
89
SP EC IE S SNAPSHOTS
The iridescent colors of the male Pygmy

Sleeper Goby are pronounced.
stripe runs from the mouth through the eye to the The shell of my largest Taia is 1.25 inches (32
base of the caudal fin, and is bordered by an iridescent mm) high and .9 inch (23 mm) wide. The little nodules,
green-yellow band, more prominent in males. Males arranged in spiral rows on the shell, are characteristic.
also look somewhat slimmer than females and exhibit Sometimes the nodules are attached to spiral ribs;
a number of metallic spots on the dorsal and anal fins. sometimes they are completely absent. The navel is
These fishes aren’t very colorful, but are nevertheless closed and covered with a thick, smooth callus. The
very pretty as they swim quietly and elegantly around name piano snail derives from the coloration, which
the tank. consists of light and dark spiral stripes.
Like most of the gobies, the Pygmy Sleeper Goby The males can be distinguished from the females
prefers to eat live food. I feed them mainly on live by having a thickened right-hand feeler. Usually this is
mosquito larvae, water fleas, and worms. They also rolled somewhat underneath, while the left-hand feeler
enjoy frozen food. They tend to spit out flake food im- is extended for touching. The shells of juveniles are al-
mediately. ready some .27 inch (7 mm) high and .24 (6 mm) wide
The firm OF-Aquaristik has recently imported these at birth. If the mother snail is transferred to different
sleeper gobies from South America, so I immediately water she will sometimes expel smaller juveniles only
ordered a number of specimens. On arrival the sleeper .08–.15 inch (2–4 mm) in size. The young don’t exhibit
gobies were introduced into an 32-inch (80-cm) tank the shell sculptures at birth—their shells are smooth.
with dense background planting and plenty of swim- The first nodules are seen in larger specimens from a
ming space. They spend a lot of time in the open shell height of .6 inch (1.5 cm) and up. They are also
water and rapidly lose their initial shyness. Hemieleo- sexually mature from around this size.
tris latifasciata is very peaceful, so these gobies can Taia naticoides comes from Asia. It lives in Lake
be housed with other fishes. There is usually very little Inlé in Myanmar, for example. Unlike our native vivipa-
aggression among them. rous species, it tolerates temperatures in the tropical
Breeding has rarely been observed to date, so there aquarium well. It can be kept at 73–82°F (23–28°C)
is little about it in the literature. Spawning takes place and a pH of 6–7.5. These snails will eat soft food of all
in caves, and the eggs are small and ripen rapidly. The types—food tablets, flake food, or rabbit pellets. The
larvae are only slightly developed on hatching. snails collect food particles in their airways and move
—Andreas Wagnitz
REFERENCES
Horsthemke & Eberhardt (1985): Das Aquarium 19: 566–7. Juvenile piano snails have
smooth shells. The typical
Baensch, H.A. and R. Riehl. 1993. Aquarien Atlas, vol. 2, 6th nodules develop only in
LEFT AND RIGHT: H.-G. EVERS; TOP RIGHT: M. TAXACHER
edition. Melle. larger specimens.
Nubby Piano Snail, Taia naticoides
5| The Nubby Piano Snail, Taia naticoides, is

an attractive livebearing snail that breeds
AMAZONAS
readily in the aquarium. It was first imported

around 2007 and has appeared repeatedly in
the trade since then. Still, it is a rather poorly
known species.
90
them to the mouth in a thread Hi-Fin Barb females exhibit a
of mucus via a channel on the bright orange-red coloration in
the dorsal fin.
right side. But it isn’t neces-
sary to feed them additional
special foods for filter-feeders.
They do well on food collected
from the bottom and will breed
without planktonic feeding.
Like other species of the
Vivipariidae, piano snails are
slow-moving and react badly
to disturbance. Hence they
may starve if kept with ag-
gressive fishes, apple snails,
or shrimps. They can, however, hold their own
against the smaller bubble and mud snails.
These snails bury themselves now and then.
Sand is a suitable substrate, but gravel up
to .15 inch (4 mm) in size has never proved
disadvantageous in my case. Groups of five to
six adult specimens can be kept without prob- Displaying male Oreichthys cf. parvus.
lems in aquaria of 10 gallons (38 L) or more.
The Nubby Piano Snail is a readily maintained,
easy-to-breed species for tropical freshwater
aquariums.
—Maike Wilstermann-Hildebrand
Red Hi-Fin Barb, Oreichthys cf. parvus
6| I am presenting this fish as Oreichthys

cf. parvus here because at the moment,
only O. crenuchoides, the Neon Hi-Fin Barb, can other fish species. The latter must be chosen carefully,
be identified with certainty. As Oreichthys parvus or as tankmates may compete for food with the slow-feed-
O. cosuatis (the other described species of the genus ing O. cf. parvus. In my aquarium the barbs live with
Oreichthys) are often imported with possibly unde- a Pangio species that comes from the same biotope.
scribed species, identification is difficult. A small group of six individuals can be housed in a
Oreichthys cf. parvus is found in southern Thailand. 10-gallon (35-L) aquarium. Neither a smaller aquarium
OPPOSITE PAGE, TOP: A. WAGNITZ; BOTTOM: M. WILSTERMANN-HILDEBRAND: THIS PAGE: J. KÜHNE
These fishes are not uncommon in lowland rivers and nor a smaller group is wise. The planting can be abun-
streams between the province of Surat Thani in the dant, but open swimming space near the bottom will
northeast of the peninsula and the province of Satun also encourage the well-being of the Red Hi-Fin Barb.
in the southwest. They apparently prefer medium-hard Oreichthys cf. parvus can be regarded as a sporad-
to hard karst waters exposed to limestone. In contrast ic continuous spawner. I have not been able to detect
to my observations, however, O. parvus has also been any so-called “sneaker males” (males that intrude as
found in softwater biotopes in the province of Narathi- unobtrusively as possible on an existing pairing) such
wat (Vilasri 2002). Perhaps other species are “lurking” as those that have been observed in O. crenuchoides.
here awaiting identification. —Jens Kühne
My aquarium observations of this peaceful barb,
which lives in loose groups, broadly coincide with those REFERENCES
of the Neon Hi-Fin Barb (Ott 2009). And the biology and
Ott, G. 2009. Oreichthys crenuchoides Schäfer, 2009—Pflege, Zucht,
behavior of O. parvus agree surprisingly well with those Ichthyologie und Biologie. Aquaristik Fachmagazin 42 (2): 54–9.
characteristic of O. crenuchoides, in particular the large,
Smith, H.M. 1933. Contributions to the Ichthyology of Siam III. A new
blood-red pectoral fins of dominant males and the genus and new species of cyprinoid fishes. J Siam Soc Nat Hist Suppl
AMAZONAS
prolonged, red-colored dorsal fins in females. 10: 63–5.

The relatively quiet behavior of these barbs may Vilasri, V. 2002. Oreichthys parvus Smith, 1933 (Teleostei: Cyprinidae),
come as a surprise to some barb-keepers. They require an Addition to the Fish Record from the Peat Swamp, Southern
a species aquarium, or at least a tank with only one Thailand. Nat Hist J Chulalongkorn Univ 2 (1): 64–5.
91
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92
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Hamburg Potomac Valley Aquarium Society, Fairfax Oshawa, ON
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Regina Aquarium Society
NORTH CAROLINA WASHINGTON www.reginaaquariumsociety.ca
Raleigh Aquarium Society, Raleigh Greater Seattle Aquarium Society Association Regionale des Aquariophiles
www.RaleighAquariumSociety.org Seattle de Quebec, Ste-Foy, QC
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Columbus Area Fish Enthusiasts Milwaukee Aquarium Society, Milwaukee Ciklidistit r.y. (Finnish Cichlid
Plain City www.MilwaukeeAquariumSociety.com Association), Vantaa
www.ColumbusFishClub.org Central Wisconsin Aquarium Society www.aquahoito.info/cichlids/index.html
Greater Akron Aquarium Society, Akron Wausau
www.GAAS-FISH.net www.cwas.org FRANCE
Great Lakes Cichlid Society, Euclid Association France Cichlid, Hoenheim
INTERNATIONAL
www.GreatLakesCichlidSociety.net www.FranceCichlid.com
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Frankfurt am Main
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Society, Canton New South Wales Cichlid Society MALAYSIA
www.ClubScales.com Moorebank, NSW Malaysia Guppy Club
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www.YATFS.com Mitcham, VIC SINGAPORE
home.vicnet.net.au/~cichlid Discus Club Singapore
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CANADA The Federation of British Aquatic
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of Aquarium Clubs www.FBAS.co.uk
www.GPASI.org
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TEXAS www.caoac.ca www.nekrosoft.co.uk/GMCS
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www.HoustonAquariumSociety.org London, ON British Koi Keepers Society
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www.tfcb.org/ Montreal Aquarium Society, Montreal, QC Thanks to Ray “Kingfish” Lucas of Kingfish Services
www.theMontrealAquariumSociety.com in Boston, NY, for his invaluable help in establishing this
directory and the AMAZONAS Aquarium Calendar of
Events. www.kingfishservices.net
G ET LISTED! Contact: Mary Sweeney, Senior Editor: [email protected] 93

A DV E RTI S E R S
All-Aquarium Catfish Convention . . . . . . . . . 94 Lifegard Aquatics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
INDEX
www.catfishcon.com www.lifegardaquatics.com
Amazonas Back Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Malawi Cichlid Conservation Fund . . . . . . . . 74
www.amazonasmagazine.com www.cichlidpress.com/smgfund
Aqua Craft Products® . . . . . . inside back cover Milwaukee Instruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
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www.aqua-medic.com www.prodibio.com
Boyd Enterprises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Ocean Nutrition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
www.chemipure.com www.oceannutrition.com
Brightwell Aquatics . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81, 82, 83 Piscine Energetics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
www.brightwellaquatics.com www.mysis.com
Cichlid Press – Trophy Discus . . . . . . . . . . . 53 San Francisco Bay Brand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
www.cichlidpress.com www.sfbb.com
Discus Delivery USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Segrest Farms . . . . . . . . . . . . inside front cover
www.DiscusDeliveryUSA.com www.segrestfarms.com
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www.ecotechmarine.com www.swisstropicals.com
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Hikari . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Two Little Fishies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7, 60
www.hikariusa.com/am www.twolittlefishies.com
Invertebrates by Msjinkzd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 The Wet Spot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
www.msjinkzd.com www.wetspottropicalfish.com
LFS Locator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 ZooMed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15, back cover
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95
U N D E RWAT E R EYE
Jaguar Cichlid, Parachromis

managuense, wild-caught female
from Honduras with cloud of
AMAZONAS
MORRELL DEVLIN
tank-bred fry.
96

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FRESHWATER AQUARIUMS & TROPICAL DISCOVERY

The earth is composed of water—71.1% to be exact. But when it comes to

0 / " OX    ' I B S O N TO N & ,      s 0             s &            s W W W S E G RE S T F A R M S CO M

ART DIRECTOR | Linda Provost

All rights reserved. Reproduction of any material from

in AMAZONAS to date.” I believe that more informa-

Belo Monte: Protests mount against

Below: Indigenous warriors protest

forest, and displace as many

XJUIJOEBZTCZUIF4VQSFNF'FEFSBM$PVSU Monte protest in the summer of

Prudente said, “The court’s decision

Female Micropoecilia sarrafae presenting

In spring 2010, I (EW) obtained some ﬁshes purported Risk of degeneration

Undesirable sex ratio

settled in very well. But despite gentle

adjustment from the transportation

Infections and parasites

TQFDJFT 'PMMPXJOH.FZFS *JOJUJBMMZUFSNFEUIFmTIFTM. have a yellow, and those of M. sarrafae an orange-yellow,

All good things come in threes

Right, top: Displaying M. sarrafae males.

MODULAR FILTRATION SYSTEMS Editorial note: According to Eschmeyer et

Bork, D. and H.J. Mayland. 1998. Seltene

Stallknecht, H. 2000. Lebendgebärende

ZOO MED LABORATORIES, INC.

Bottom left: Microscopic dorsal (top) view of

of which circulates through the tanks

Become a charter subscriber to AMAZONAS

New Oryzias species described

Optimized Reﬂector Design

Male O. eversi in blackish breeding coloration.

Male O. eversi in normal, non-breeding coloration.

Sleek. Sophisticated. High-tech. Beautiful.

via line-breeding.” —Dr. Eduard Schmidt-Focke, discus breeder, in a 1993 letter to

Above: The author’s The most colorful discus possible

at ﬁrst caused great annoyance to

customers with breeding ambitions.

Thai breeder Kitti Phanaitthi who,

Left, top to bottom:

Breeding pair of Red Melons owned by breeder Adam Tan of Kuala

Merah will look exactly the same as their parents.

Millennium Gold from the breeder Chai Koon Seng in

Blue Diamond from Hong Kong Snakeskin and Leopard

Snakeskin Spotted cultivated

A decade of new forms

Above: Leopard Discus.

Left: This Spotted Snakeskin from Tong

judged, the same ﬁsh was victorious in

Champion, the best of all the ﬁsh

The intrinsically not very attractive Snow

Press, El Paso, TX.

Weiss, M. 1993. Pigeon Blood-Diskus—eine neue

terest relatively quickly, and that continued

is a lot, but we are in the fortunate position

Stendker: Our spawning tanks contain

Those are extremely impressive ﬁgures. What

Stendker: Naturally, we try to achieve optimal

What are your preferred methods for hatch-

Stendker: We prefer natural brood care by the

Is there currently any new trend in the breed-

cultivated form? Stendker: I’m particularly fond of the Red

0 / " OX ' I B S O N TO N & , s 0 s & s W W W S E G RE S T F A R M S CO M