The
village named Dekai is located in West Papua (formerly: Irian Jaya) in
the district of Yahukimo. It seems to be a real hotspot for extremely
beautiful species of rainbowfish. Many species and local varieties have
been collected there in the past years and brought to the tanks of
enthusiasts. This applies also for this variety of M. rubrostriata. It
really doesn´t matter from a hobbyists point of view if one prefers to
see M. rubrostriata (Ramsay & Ogilby, 1886) as a full species or
only as a subspecies of M. splendia. In the latter case it has to be
named M. splendida rubrostriata.
Of
real great importance is the water quality for this fish. The water
should be changed as often as possible. At temperatures of 24-28°C,
medium hard water and a pH around 7 the fish will readily spawn. For
spawning fine plant material is needed, like Myriophyllum, Java Moss
etc.. Here the eggs are deposited.
One should never keep
different species of Melanotaenia or other rainbowfishes together,
because in the aquarium this would lead to unwanted hybrids.
For our customers: the fish have code 428652 on our stocklist. Please note that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade.
Text & photos: Thomas Weidner
