Do you know the game “Silent Mail”? You play it with at least 10 participants, the more, the better. One of the players thinks up a term and whispers it – inaudible to the others – into the ear of the player next to him. This whispers what he has understood to the next one, and so on. It is often very exhilarating what comes out at the end.
It sometimes goes similarly with ornamental fish names. Aulonocara “Rubescens” is a fantasy name, which is based on transmission errors. However, the fish is not a breeding form in the true sense, but only a selection breeding from wild animals, in this case from Aulonocara sp. “stuartgranti Maleri” from the population that lives near the island of Chidunga Rocks near Chipoka. Through continuous breeding with the most colorful animals, some of the fishes were very colorful. However, these are not really red, but rather orange. Nevertheless they became known as “Red Ruby”, which has nothing to do with the gemstone, but so – Rubin – was the first importer’s surname. At some point they were called “Rubescens”, which is Latin and means “blushing”. But this is not a scientific name.
We currently have very pretty offspring of the original “Rubescens” from Thailand in stock.
For our customers: the animals have code 502932 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply the wholesale trade.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
