Many species of Indian barbs belong to the most popular ornatmental fish at all. This is due to their brillant colours, the peacefulness and the easy keeping of these fish. A new species – Barbus manipurensis, which we can offer currently – has the potential to become also such a evergreen. The fish has been described scientifically only in 2000. It originates from the Indian state of Manipur. The fish´s name derives from that state, too. The closest relatives of B. manipurensis are the Red Sunspot Barb (B. stoliczkanus) and the Odessa Barb (B. padamya).*
At least the wild collected B. manipurensis, which we offer now, are the smallest of the three and reach only a total length of 3-4 cm. That makes them an attractive alternative for aquarists that own only smaller tanks.
Males in breeding coloration cannot be taken for mistake due to the wonderful red stripe along the body that also led to the popular name of the fish (jasper is an opaque variety of silicia, which is used as a gemrock, especially the red varieties), but it is also possible to distinguish the sexes on the basis of another, always visible feature: the iris of males is bright red, the iris of the female yellowish.
*All mentioned species can also be applied to the genus Puntius.
For our customers: the species has code 370012 on our stocklist. Please note that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade.
Lexicon: Barbus: Latin, means “the bearded one”, referring to the barbels. Puntius: from the Bengal term “Punti” for such barbs. manipurensis: after the Indian state of Manipur. stoliczkanus: dedicated to the collector of the species, Ferdinand Stoliczka (1838-1874). padamya: padamya is the Burmese word for “ruby”.
Suggestion of a common name: Red Jasper Barb
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
| Angaben zum Tier | |
|---|---|
| Herkunft | Indien / India |
| Verfügbare Größe in cm | 3-4 |
Code number: 221092
The snooks (Centropomus) are distributed in the New World; currently 12 species are recognized. Persons that are reminiscent of giant perches (Lates) by looking at snooks are not wrong: until quite recently the snooks and the giant perches were united in a single family, Centropomidae.
The coastal rainforests of southeastern Brazil are the home of a good number of unusual aquarium fish. One of the most popular and most attractive species from that region is for sure Scleromystax barbatus, the Bearded cory (formerly known as Corydoras b.). Sadly the natural habitats in that region are much affected by the growing human population. Especially the pollution of the water bodies is a growing threat for the aquatic animals and many of the endemic fish are in danger of extinction. Collecting these animals for aquarium purposes has no effect in this context. On the other hand it is not unlikely that some of the more attractive species will survive this century only in captivity.
The killifishes of the genus Rivulus represent the most species-rich genus of New World Killis. We received recently beautiful R. rectocaudatus from Peru, which are unique due to their amazing orange anal and caudal fins, as well as due to their orange scales along the body.
The saddle-nosed Corydoras serratus from the upper Rio Negro in Brazil belongs to the most wanted species of Corydoras. Due to the fact that the saddle-nosed species of Corydoras are in general no schooling fish it is not possible to collect larger numbers of them in an economically senseful way. This and the fact that there were times in which exorbitant prizes were payed in Japan for this species made them real rare in the trade for a long time.
The Bluespotted Sunfish (Enneacanthus gloriosus) is a coldwater fish and a real oldtimer among aquarium fish. Aquarists used to name the up to 7.5 cm long fish “working class discus”, due to its brillant colours and the nice behaviour. However, it was never as expensive as the discus.
Once more we have the smallest anabatoid fish of the world in stock: Parasphaerichthys ocellatus, the mini chocolate gorami. This tiny species hardly reaches 2 cm in length. In contrast to all other chocolate gouramis this is a bubblenester builder (all others are mouthbrooders) and should be kept and bred in harder, slightly alcalic water (all other chocolate gouramis need soft, acidic water).
Most people interested in natural history know two orders within the class Amphibia, namely the Anura (frogs, toads etc.) and the Caudata (news, salamanders etc.). Much less people know that there is a third order, the Gymnophiona (caecilians), although this order has more than 180 species. However, most of them are nocturnal and live burrowed in the ground, so one hardly ever comes in touch with them. If it happens, the caecilians are often taken wrongly as gigantic earthworms.
This wild collected specimen from Peru has a very unique colour aberration. Usually such specimens cannot survive in the wild, but this fish is a healthy, adult animal.
The catfish family Pimelodidae is restricted to South America. It is a quite diverse family. Although only about 90 species are known they could hardly be more contrasting. The smallest species (a still undescribed one from the Amazon river) becomes only 2.5 cm long, the largest (Brachyplatystoma filamentosum) becomes 2 metres long. Most species, however, reach 20 – 80 cm in length.
The import season for this charming algae killer has started. Parotocinclus jumbo is both one of the largest species of the genus (maximum size is reported to be around 6-7 cm!) and one of the prettiest. Astonishingly there is so far no report in the aquarium literature on the very obvious sexual dichromatism found in this species. Males get wonderful shining, blueish-green saddles on the back which are missing in females. Besides this the females are much more plump than the males.
Once more we were able to be the first who imported this pretty driftwood cat. The identification of Tatia species is not that easy. Although there is a very recent revision of the genus available, the species concept used there reflects only few aspects of coloration. So currently fish of very different coloration are lumped under the same species name. Our first try to identify the fish went wrong though and we listed them erraneously under the name of Tatia cf. gyrina initially.
There is almost no chance that commercial importations of wild collected Geophagus megasema will ever appear. So it is very welcome that travelling aquarium enthusiast collect such species in areas that are ignored by professional fish collectors and bring them home alive, which makes it possible to develope a captive bred stock. Geophagus megasema was described scientifically by Heckels as early as 1840. However, only very few specimens reached Europe from Bolivia since then. Moreover, the fish were quite often mis-identified as other Geophagus species. It was only in 2006 that a group of travelling aquarists from Austria, Germany and Switzerland were able to import a good number of specimens of this cichlid from the Rio San Martin in Bolivia. Soon after they were able to breed them and the species was spread in the hobby. Now Aquarium Glaser is able to offer bred specimens of this beautiful eartheater in perfect quality.
This tiny jewel among the fishes, which we were able to import from Peru recently, causes some confusion among taxonomists. It is possible that this fish represents a still undescribed species and will be named seperatly in the future. May this be as it wants, we are glad to have this pretty animal in stock once more.
For the first time ever we were able now to import this beautiful tetra from Peru. Scientifically H. agulha is known for quite a long time, but it has never become an aquarium fish so far. In Jaques Géry´s classical work on Characoids of the World even a complete group of Hyphessobrycon is named after H. agulha. It is defined as “lower half of the body dark, especially above anal fin; usually a horizontally elongate humeral spot, more or less united with the asymmetrical, broad band”. The H. agulha-group comprises, besides the name-bearing species, H. peruvianus, H. loretoensis, H. metae, and H. herbertaxelrodi, which are well known aquarium inhabitants.
Recently we received beautiful Rosy tetras under the name of “Hyphessobrycon robertsi” from Peru. However, the fish is not identical with the well known “robertsi” (the species has not been described formally by a scientist yet, but it is unknown whether is has been made available “by chance” in the past 60 years of its career as an aquarium fish). To be honest, we didn´t recognize this at first. But when Peter and Martin Hoffmann, two aquarists specialized in tetras, visited us and led our attention on the fish, we realized what we have.
This Corydoras is available irregularly in Germany and has been recently described by Axenrot and Kullander (2003). C.dyphyes originates from the tributary of the Rio Monday, a river flowing into the Rio Parana in Paraguay. This species was described, for a long time, as Corydoras flaveolus which comes however from the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo. This catfish has a variable coloration, is relatively easy to breed and is very suitable for the planted communion fish tank together with peaceful companions. In their natural habitat these armoured catfish live in large shoals together with Otocinclus mimulus. The coloration and pattern of A. mimulus coincides very well with those of C.diphyes. In this way the Otocinclus catfish tries to protect itself for predators, in this case Crenicichla lepidota. This phenomenon is called mimicry.(Photo: Erwin Schraml, Text: Izaak den Daas)
The odd subfamily of African tetra called Ichthyborinae is restricted to Africa. Many species are specialized fin eaters that feed almost exclusively on fins of other fish. Their teeth work like a scissor and are able to cut out pieces of fin from other fish without any problems.
The genus Pseudobunocephalus has been erected quite recently (2008). It is distinguished from the other banjo cat genera by externally invisible characters of the teeth and bone structures. As aquarists are more interested in fish than in technical definitions of genera it may be mentioned that nevertheless there are some external features that allow to distinguish Pseudobunocephalus from Bunocephalus, the most similar genus: in Pseudobunocephalus upper and lower jaw are about equally long; the lateral line is truncated at approximately the level of the dorsal fin origin; the uppermost and lowermost rays of the caudal fin are the shortest in that fin.
